The stakes between the narratives are ~very~ different, though both important in their roles. A Keeper explores family, mental health, and loneliness in a way that could be (and often is) demonized to terrify (think Hitchcock’s Psycho or for those literature buffs/anyone who took a college lit course out there, Shelley’s Frankenstein) but still holds tightly onto its compassion and sense of resilience. Not because everyone is likeable, trust me that’s certainly not the case, but because Norton is a master of making his readers (at least me) question their own ethics.

The mystery genre is designed to have a villain but with both novels I find myself conflicted about hating anyone. The characters that Norton creates, however, are a tapestry of humanity. You’re very quickly given the feel for the story being presented to you and then it becomes the backseat driver to move the narrative along. Here is what I will tell you about Norton’s writing from what I have experienced: he is not a plot-driven writer. Her story is intertwined with the truth behind those letters, a grim look into the past of her mother and the depth and complexities of parental love. Elizabeth has gone back to Ireland to clean out her mother’s house following her death and is having to maneuver her feelings through interactions with estranged family, phone calls back to the states with her runaway teenage son and ex-husband, and a discovered box of love letters from the father she never knew. I completed the book in just two days.Ī Keeper is a tale of two Keanes: Elizabeth and her mother, Patricia.

Although it too was a bit predictable on its path to the reveal of its mystery, the human nature explored throughout the novel remained just as addictive. Once I’d finished Holding, I pretty much instantly turned around and bought Norton’s follow up novel, A Keeper.

Welcome back Birdlock Holmes, milk tea, and melodrama provided by the mind of one, Graham Norton.

Graham norton author a keeper