Ivan Pope – The Takers and the Keepers: Where do the disappeared go?

‘The Takers and the Keepers: Where do the disappeared go?’ by Ivan Pope is exactly as the title suggests, a dark and disturbing story. Ivan Pope has written a tale that shows us the horrific underworld trading of human trafficking. He doesn’t hold back and the realism in this book makes me wonder if this is based on true accounts, or if he is just a flipping good researcher and writer!

A story in which the main character Allen Kimbo a freelance reporter is lured to Eastern Europe following a lead about the Takers and the Keepers, the Takers being human traffickers and ‘the disappeared’. These being the victims of the trafficking. As the story develops and Allen starts to dig deeper into this horrific trading that is so prevalent in our times, he realises that he will not come out of this unscathed.

What a book! This is one of the hardest-hitting stories I have read. It may not be an overly big book but Ivan Pope has done more than scratch the belly of the underworld in this brutal tale. As I said the story seems so real and the situation so terrible. People being treated like animals from a farm and to be honest, I think the animals are treated with more compassion than the poor trafficked people. I feel these type of topics are ones that need highlighting and being kept in people’s minds, as these things are easily swept under the carpet and forgotten about.

Very well done to Ivan Pope for bringing this compelling and immersive story to the fore, as heart-rending as it is…it needs talking about. A thought-provoking and heartbreaking book that I will easily be recommending to others.

Thank you to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours and Hookline Books for the digital copy of the book.