Book: Holding
Author: Graham Norton
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Duneen is a remote Irish village with its fair share of drama. Sergeant PJ Collins, feels himself perennially underestimated and ignored because of his weight, Brid Riordan is walking the fine line between enthusiastic drinker and alcoholic, and Evelyn Ross has spent her entire life stuck because of something that happened years ago.
When human remains are discovered and linked to a man connected to both Brid and Evelyn’s past, PJ finds himself doing serious police work for the very first time.
And a lot of secrets will come to the surface.
The tone of this is largely cosy mystery – there are touches of humour, and no signs of gruesome violence, save one sequence of sexual assault (trigger warning here).
But underneath the surface, Holding examines life, the choices we make, and how the judgements we are subjected to, colour those choices. It examines loneliness in various forms, and our ability to dehumanise someone based on something externally observed, be it weight, substance abuse or spinsterhood.
Amidst the levity is a brutally honest look at life.
I’m not sure how I feel about the final twist – but I’ll say no more about that.
This story will not blow your mind, but it will entertain you, and perhaps make you think.
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