Kyle is an eighteen year old fugitive running away from Savannah where he is implicated in an armed robbery and attempted murder charge for which he was truly an innocent bystander. He finds refuge with his boyhood companion and moves in with him and his intolerable girlfriend in some not-such-fancy accommodations in South Florida.
Kyle gets part time work as a gardener for Jack and Lila, a well-off retired couple who become devoted to him; however, he lies about his true identity fearful of trusting anyone to learn of his secret.
Both Jack and Lila have a secret they have kept hidden from each other for their entire married life. Secrets and lies becomes a way of life for the three of them, but for Kyle it leads into a homeless path of descent, misery and unimaginable distress.
Keeping Tigers is absorbing fiction that not only proves a couple’s overwhelming concern for the stranger they learned to love; it also shows how hopelessness forces a person to do things that were initially against his principles. Wentworth shows his literary acumen as he skillfully weaves together the exciting events around which Kyle’s life evolves and portrays the ongoing psychological battle within him.