[Review] Holding by Graham Norton
Holding
Hodder & Stoughton
October 6th 2016
320 pages
NetGallery
The remote Irish village of Duneen has known little drama; and yet its inhabitants are troubled. Sergeant PJ Collins hasn’t always been this overweight; mother-of-twoBrid Riordan hasn’t always been an alcoholic; and elegant Evelyn Ross hasn’t always felt that her life was a total waste.
So when human remains are discovered on an old farm, suspected to be that of Tommy Burke – a former love of both Brid and Evelyn – the village’s dark past begins to unravel. As the frustrated PJ struggles to solve a genuine case for the first time in his life, he unearths a community’s worth of anger and resentments, secrets and regret.
Darkly comic, touching and at times profoundly sad, Holding is a masterful debut. Graham Norton employs his acerbic wit to breathe life into a host of loveable characters, and explore – with searing honesty – the complexities and contradictions that make us human.
@Grahnort #readholding #5stars
Holding
by Graham Norton
I absolutely love Graham Norton and was surprised to learn that he had debut novel out so I was excited to delve into this story.
Holding is set in a little rural Irish village called Duneen, where everyone knows everyone and the little main street is nothing more than a wee shop and a pub (ok there are more but you get the idea!) The whole time I was reading you could see the humour of Norton coming through and I think for a first novel it was well written and the characters that we come across were relatable and real.
Duneen is rural and small that the local policeman spends most of his time being fed by his housekeeper and various others in the village with very little police work needing to be done, that is until not one by two bodies are unearthed in a field by construction workers.
This thrusts the sleepy wee Duneen into a murder enquiry that has the whole who village speculation as to who is in the field and who did it.
I had my suspicions about one character – which proved to be right, and the stories about how the main characters all intermingled were well woven. There was a wee moment at the end when I thought the worst, but you have to read to see what that was all about.
I really enjoyed this, it was a quaint little cozy mystery with some humour – Brid was by far my favourite character, there were a few moments with her that made me laugh out loud. I can’t wait to read more Mr Norton!
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** I was provided with a copy of this book from NetGallery **
