Holding

Holding by Graham Norton

     Who knew?  Who knew Graham Norton could lock himself in a room and emerge with this really good novel?  We all love his television show so I was really excited to receive an advance copy of his first novel, and truth be told, I expected a lot of laughs.  It turns out this isn’t a Graham Norton comedy, this turns out to be a real story.  A  good story. 

     Set in the tiny Irish village of Duneen (I do hope when this is a selling point for a book that I really will be transported into one of the homes and become a part of the village) we find everyone in everyone’s lives.  I suppose you can’t help it when you all live together.  And I suppose you think, when you all live together in a small place that you already know everything there is to know about each other.  Well, surprise!

     The most excitement Duneen has seen in decades is the discovery of a skeleton at a construction site.  The speculation is intense about whose bones these belong to until the final decision is made that they belong to Tommy Burke.  Tommy, it turns out, was the love interest or crush of two young women in the village 25 years before and suddenly, Tommy just disappears.  It was said he was seen getting on a bus and leaving with no explanations.

     This is the first case of any consequence for sergeant PJ Collins in his role as resident sergeant he already knows the stories of the lives of the villagers, or so he thinks, so he feels he is the best equipped to handling the investigation.

     But we don’t all know what we think we know, do we?