"A Keeper" Is A Cracker.

This week we hand over our blog page to one of our authors, who is reviewing a book.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the blog's author and not necessarily those of Selfishgenie Publishing.

Most Brits and Irish will know Graham Norton as an Irish comedian, actor, TV chat show, Eurovision presenter and radio broadcaster.

I probably missed something there, so I hope he’ll forgive me. But he’s also an author, and a rather good one at that.
 
I started reading his books on the recommendation of a relative (Irish, naturally) and started with his first book, “Holding”. I didn’t review it because it had already been turned into a TV series, so many people will already know about it.
 
In my opinion the book was superior to the TV version, but I’m one of those people who always thinks the book is better than the film (or TV) version so I may be biased.
 
However, I couldn’t wait to review “A Keeper” which is Graham Norton’s second book.
 
It’s a cracker, as the late Frank Carson (another Irish comedian) used to say.
 
While “Holding” was a crime drama, with an out-of-his-depth village Garda (police) officer investigating a murder, “A Keeper” is very different. It hasn’t got any murders in it, but there is a lot of death. An awful lot of death.
 
So, to the plot.
 
Basically it is a detective story, but without any police or detectives. If that sounds odd, don’t worry. Just go with it.
 
Elizabeth Keane came from a small town in Ireland and, like many Irish people before her, went to America, married and raised a family before getting divorced (not everyone who goes to America gets divorced, I know, but she did).
 
She returns to her birthplace (so she thinks) to take care of family business which she has been too busy to attend to in the years since her mother died. She finds a box with letters addressed to her mother, Patricia, from around the time of her birth, which start to reveal secrets about her family. Most importantly, the letters are from her father, who she never knew, as he died not long after she was born.
 
Around the same time, Elizabeth discovers that her son, Zach, who is supposed to be staying with his father in California, isn’t actually with him, having gone off on some adventure of his own. Worried about her son, she realises that there is nothing she can do to track him down from where she is. Her ex-husband persuades her not to cut her visit short and promises to look into the boy’s whereabouts and get back to her.
 
Needing a distraction and intrigued by the letters, Elizabeth decides to look deeper into her past.
 
From there on the secrets start to be exposed, leading the reader down a pathway to the past. But every time this reader thought he knew what was going on, Norton hit me between the eyes with something else which made me completely re-think my theories.
 
I can tell you no more about the plot without spoiling it for you and I wouldn’t want to do that. But, believe me, every time you think “Ah, I know what’s happening here,” Graham Norton smacks you around the head with another surprise, as much to say “Oh no, you don’t know what’s going on”.
 
Graham Norton has a very easy style of writing which makes the book enjoyable to read. He handles the descriptions of both people and places very well. The characters are beautifully drawn and highly believable.
 
Being familiar with the part of Ireland where the book is set means I had no trouble hearing the characters voices in my head, complete with Cork accents (the Irish county, not the thing you take out of a wine bottle).
 
If you are less familiar, just imagine the voice of Father Noel in the episodes of “Father Ted” in which he appeared, and you’ll get the idea.
 
I realise that might not mean much to non-British and Irish readers, so you may need to google it. To save you time I found this on Youtube. Father Noel is the manic one and is played by the author..
 
Overall, this book is a really good read. While it will make you feel sad some of the time, and really worried about Patricia all of the time, the overall message is uplifting.
 
I highly recommend "The Keeper" by Graham Norton. You can find out more about the book by clicking the link below.

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Graham Norton - A Keeper

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