When Graham Norton surprised the literary world with his adept fiction debut, Holding, adroitly adapted into a Kathy Burke-directed television series earlier this year, the amiable narrative spun around a body uncovered in a sleepy Irish hamlet and the secrets the community held close to their hearts. Six years and three novels later, there’s again a gruesome discovery in a domestic basement and a litany of rumours and family upheavals in a quiet Irish town to unpick. Formulaic? Let’s just say Norton is really good at undemanding, popular fiction with emotional weight and something to say about the vagaries of contemporary life.
