Name: Holding
ISBN: 9781444833232

Graham Norton

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 two Brid 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 those 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 resentment, secrets and regret.

Holding

My rating is completely subjective. I was thoroughly impressed with Norton's writing ability. He paints a vivid picture of his characters, including the town of Duneen itself. It lends a massive amount of believability to the story.

That being said, my rating took a bump because the SA felt unnecessary. We all knew it was coming, and while it wasn't "as bad" as we thought, whatever that means, it just felt cheap in the end. It felt easy. The end was always going to be a deus ex machina, but I feel like there were other, more consensual, ways of getting there.

In reality, the SA worked fine as a plot device. I'm sure if I had read this book when it was first published I would feel differently. On a personal note, however, I'm just so, so tired of reading, seeing, and hearing about the atrocities of the real world, that it just hurts to read about those that are fictional.

My apologies to the rating average, not that this will have any real effect. I do plan on reading more Graham Norton work in the future.

Half Yeti, All Man

My rating is completely subjective. I was thoroughly impressed with Norton's writing ability. He paints a vivid picture of his characters, including the town of Duneen itself. It lends a massive amount of believability to the story.

That being said, my rating took a bump because the SA felt unnecessary. We all knew it was coming, and while it wasn't "as bad" as we thought, whatever that means, it just felt cheap in the end. It felt easy. The end was always going to be a deus ex machina, but I feel like there were other, more consensual, ways of getting there.

In reality, the SA worked fine as a plot device. I'm sure if I had read this book when it was first published I would feel differently. On a personal note, however, I'm just so, so tired of reading, seeing, and hearing about the atrocities of the real world, that it just hurts to read about those that are fictional.

My apologies to the rating average, not that this will have any real effect. I do plan on reading more Graham Norton work in the future.