Graham Norton (1) (1963–)

You will note that this is the second time I have read this novel. My earlier review is here ( I first read it about 3 years ago)

This time I am reading it for discussion with my U3A Crime Fiction group. This is the first book we are reading this year, and I think they will enjoy it.

We will be basing some of our discussion on some questions listed at The Reading Agency (listed on Amazon)

Duneen is a quiet place, far enough from the big towns to have kept its own rhythms. Its residents include cast down policeman PJ who lives a lonely, uneventful life punctuated only by the next meal – until now; the beautiful and mysterious family of three spinster sisters each with their own secrets and
sorrows; and of course, the town's gossip who think she knows the answers. When a grim discovery is made on a building site up by the old school, it becomes the catalyst for half lived secrets and seething rivalries to come to light and this silent, once innocent and repressed-seeming town is revealed to have
a much darker, hungrier undertow

The other resources that I've found which we may use in our discussion are some short You Tube videos:

Graham Norton reading an extract
Character introduction : Evelyn Ross

Both of these videos comment on the significance of the novel's title.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

4.6, HOME STRETCH… (altro)

Graham Norton is one of those folks from the UK who seems able to turn his hand to anything. I’ve long been a fan of his talk show- he is a genius at putting even balky Americans at ease and he exudes good nature. So when I heard he’d written several books (his first, Holding, a prize winner) I knew I’d have to read them.
This was unexpected. Extremely well-written, which I did expect, but dark in a truly creepy way.
I don’t want to get too much into the plot for fear of spoiling it, but suffice to say, isolated areas near moors are involved, plus a cast of seriously sad and disturbed people. It all starts out seeming like a nice generational story, but as it goes on and the fibres get tangled about, the fog rolls in and suddenly you find yourself in a gothic horror.
Expertly switching between present and past keeps things pulling you along, until the final, somewhat rushed, ending.
A fun ride and it kept me up well past my bedtime to get to the end.
It’s high residue, too- the location is one that sticks in your head and I can almost feel the damp seeping from the walls, the despair in the wallpaper…
I did get the feeling the ending was squashed in as if the author was racing to finish the tale but I can understand the impulse as the reader races on, too.
Well worth a read and now I shall have to go read his others. Such a clever fellow and my goodness he is full of energy. Like Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, someone I would like at my ideal dinner table.… (altro)