Holding Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Graham Norton (Author, Narrator), Hodder & Stoughton (Publisher)

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Graham Norton's masterful debut is an intelligently crafted story of love, secrets and loss.

The remote Irish village of Duneen has known little drama; and yet its inhabitants are troubled. Sergeant PJ Collins hasn't always been this overweight; mother of¬ two Brid Riordan hasn't always been an alcoholic; and elegant Evelyn Ross hasn't always felt that her life was a total waste.

So when human remains are discovered on an old farm, suspected to be that of Tommy Burke - a former¬ love of both Brid and Evelyn - the village's dark past begins to unravel. As the frustrated PJ struggles to solve a genuine case for the first time in his life, he unearths a community's worth of anger and resentments, secrets and regret.

Darkly comic, touching and at times profoundly sad. Graham Norton employs his acerbic wit to breathe life into a host of loveable characters, and explore - with searing honesty - the complexities and contradictions that make us human.

Listening Length

7 hours and 26 minutes
Author

Graham Norton
Narrator

Graham Norton
Audible release date

6 October 2016
Language

English
Publisher

Hodder & Stoughton
ASIN

B01HIXT89U
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	7 hours and 26 minutes
Author	Graham Norton
Narrator	Graham Norton
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	06 October 2016
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B01HIXT89U
Best Sellers Rank	6,564 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 471 in Suspense 532 in Mysteries (Audible Books & Originals) 1,774 in Suspense Thrillers (Books)

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2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from Australia

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Mary West

A really good read!

Reviewed in Australia on 27 December 2021

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The characters were beautifully crafted. It was easy to imagine yourself in the midst of the village where the book was set. I loved that the characters were just ordinary people, not beautiful, not successful, just characters with the mundane mixed in with regrets of lost opportunities for love, life and careers. Secrets sometimes well intentioned sometimes not. Emotions well hidden, and when exposed, for some, relief, grief and for others a new start away from the village or their old lives.
As I read the book over a period of about 5 weeks, I did find it rather difficult at times to follow the plot as it came and went from past to present time and from one sub plot to the next in quick succession. Most likely more seasoned readers or others reading the book over a period of days would not have struggled with this.

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Margaret

Well written, feel good novel

Reviewed in Australia on 19 November 2020

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I really enjoyed this novel. The plot is interesting. Character development well done.
Main character is sympathetic. Supporting characters well drawn. Surprise twist at the end.
Good sense life if Ireland at the time. A book to make you feel good in the end.
Margaret

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Kindle Customer

Small town tales of woe

Reviewed in Australia on 28 November 2017

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Teenage angst, a love triangle, a tragic accident and a new housing development. Norton draws his characters lovingly and we are left with vivid pictures of life in the little Irish town of Dunneen with its bumbling but well meaning garda. When the discovery of human remains rocks the town, stories left untold for years begin to surface.

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kat

Better than the tv series

Reviewed in Australia on 1 July 2022

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This is an enjoyable book. It was an easy read, and way better than the tv series, which I enjoyed but just not as much as the book.
The book characters were more whole and their actions suited them. The book, to me, was far more charming.

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fiona kew

Thrill ride through rural Ireland.

Reviewed in Australia on 8 September 2020

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Who knew that Graham Norton is Such a good author. Gripped from start to finish. Could not read it quick enough. Believable characters in a rural Irish village where things aren't quite what they seem.

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Miss Shezza

What a glorious tale of love, heart ache, sorrow and hope!

Reviewed in Australia on 16 December 2018

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I loved this book from the first page - Graham Norton is a natural and delightful story teller. I felt very satisfied at the end of this book and can't wait to read more! Bravo!

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Silvi

If you love Ireland and the Irish you will love this.

Reviewed in Australia on 18 January 2021

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It was a lovely story with a bit of murder and intrigue thrown in, a very east read which I enjoyed very much!

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SydneyCoco

Set in Ireland

Reviewed in Australia on 3 January 2019

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This was a quaint well written novel. Easy to read with likeable characters. I bought the audio version which had its good and bad points. Good- hearing graham Norton’s voice , being able to listen while lazing in the sun. Bad - listening whilst in bed and invariably falling asleep then waking up and not remembering any of the past 6 chapters.

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Top reviews from other countries

Read and Reviewed

Less crime novel, more character study of a long held secret in the sleepy village of Duneen. Hugely enjoyable and perceptive.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 July 2017

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When I heard that Graham Norton had written a crime novel, I confess to being sceptical purely because his larger than life persona and innuendo laden jokes scream the very opposite of a subtle and dark crime author. I am largely indifferent to much of his television and comedy work but Holding was an unexpected delight. It didn’t need to have caricatures or play for laughs and whilst there is never really much of a rigorous police investigation between its pages, it is full of beautiful observations about the life and times of the sleepy town of Duneen and the various characters who have made it home. Whilst there is a mystery at the heart of this story, it is the characters that prove fascinating as the first sign of a police investigation signals the channels opening and over fifty-years of secrets and unspoken words begin to come tumbling out.

For fifteen-years, Sergeant Patrick James (PJ since his christening) Collins has kept a watchful eye on the residents of Duneen, just outside of Cork. In truth, there has been relatively little for the overweight PJ to keep under control with the overpriced grocery shop and garage of Main Streets the extent of the activity. The locals rub alongside fifty-three-year-old PJ well enough, keep him well-fed and are perfectly amicable, but he can’t shake the feeling that his weight and undemanding post has left him silently ridiculed. All that changes just as he is midway through eating a jam scone when a long dormant building development rolls into action and unearths what looks like human bones. Formerly a farm and now wildly overgrown, PJ has to inform Cork of the discovery, but with the gossip grapevine in overdrive the first rumours of just who the bones belong to soon make it to PJ’s ears. The word on Main Street is that the bones are those of Tommy Burke, and his disappearance years ago following his dalliances with two women was thought to be behind his sudden departure. Both of the women involved still reside in the village and a furious fist fight marked the height of a bitter tug of war over Tommy. Unhappily married and barely concealing her drink problem, mother of two Brid Riordan was once engaged to Tommy only to be deserted. For lonely Evelyn Ross, youngest of a trio of sisters who still live together in their old family home, life has passed her by after her adored Tommy disappeared and her domineering older sisters shoehorned her into never leaving Duneen. Yet it is not just these two women who are curiously ruffled by the discovery and PJ’s housekeeper, Mrs Meany, remains anxiously tight-lipped and reluctant to speculate. Detective Superintendent Linus Dunne arrives from Cork and sees what he has to work with in PJ (“Sergeant Sumo”) and his heart sinks, but PJ’s own appeal to the towns ladies soon starts to prove very beneficial…

Warm and witty, this is a feel-good read that offers some insightful and sensitive observations about all of the central characters. For all the humour and emotional upheaval, this is not an edge of the seat read but a perfect book for a rainy day that makes you appreciate the people who populate your social sphere. I hate saying that novels are ‘quiet’ because it makes them sound so bland and that isn’t the case as Norton’s wounded characters slowly reveal their scars and repair the wounds of the past.

Review written by Rachel Hall (@hallrachel)

156 people found this helpful

JCH

Hope there's a sequel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 March 2018

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The idea of secrets being uncovered in a sleepy village is hardly new to crime fiction, but Norton has very successfully created a charming and gentle story, interweaving the discovery of human bones with a slice of rural life, a smidgeon of romance, and a few plausible twists. But what I think works best in the book is the depth of characterisation. I get the sense that Norton likes his characters, each one is sympathetically described, with a back story of unrequited love, betrayal, or missed opportunities. The characters feel authentic, and especially our hero PJ, to the extent that I'd love to read a sequel.

51 people found this helpful

Susan Corcoran

Wonderful read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 December 2017

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When reading a novel written by a ‘celebrity’, I find myself wondering if the book will live up to the hype. Well I’m delighted to say that Holding by Graham Norton does.

Having read his autobiographies I knew he could write and that he does so with warmth, and I was thrilled that his first novel is funny, tender and heartbreaking sad in places, yet has a warmth and tenderness that leaves your heart aching for all the characters endure. He has an eye for the sorrow a heart can be broken by, yet at the same time the amazing capacity it can have to move on and find the strength to endure.

All the characters within its pages are loveable in some way and I become invested in the hope that they would survive all the drama their small and seemingly quiet community endure. Below the service of this apparently quiet Irish idyll, are a group of people caught up in a whirlwind secrets and painful regrets. They all have something that draws you to them, wanting to know what their secrets are.
Graham Norton displays in his writing an intrinsic understanding of the complexities of human nature. I found myself wanting to hug those whose hearts had endured so much pain, even those who had done wrong, were not your stereotypical villain, because you could understand where that action had come from, even while understanding the pain this had brought to those they sort to love and protect.

Writing the review weeks on from reading Holding, my heart still aches a little for the PJ, Bird and Evelyn and I find myself wishing Graham Norton would write a second novel featuring them, so I can find closure. But life is not made up of tidy endings, so I am left with the hope that this at least will not be the only novel he writes, because we need more from such a wonderfully perceptive writer.

42 people found this helpful

Midgebear

Beneath The Surface

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 March 2019

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Duneen is a small, sleepy town where nothing ever happens. But it does and it did and the past is going to come back and haunt them. Set in a modern Ireland it still manages to feel like we are back in the 1950s, with a slower, less connected way of life. The Church has less of a stranglehold on the residents of the town but it's power is still felt, especially by the older generation. People are people though so judgment is passed via the eternal medium of gossip and when a body is discovered the old tales of Brid Riordan and Evelyn Ross fighting over Tommy Burke in the village square are resurrected. PJ, the local Garda, is tasked to find out what happened but this is way beyond his experience so "the boys from Cork" are called in. Who is the body in the old farmstead? Are there more? Who put it there? All questions that need (and indeed are) answered but the investigation is really a secondary thread in this book which deals mainly with the foibles of human nature.

It took me almost 60% of the way through the book before I really started to enjoy it. I couldn't really connect with any of the characters and just as I was starting to get a handle on someone's character we would jump to another person's tale and I would lose the thread again. It does all start to pull together very neatly but it does all rely on poor old PJ to hold everything together - never have I seen a sadder character in a book that I felt genuine empathy for; usually they just make me want to slap them. His relationship with the detective from Cork is wonderful and the slow burn of the two men getting to know and like each other (professionally and personally) is wonderfully drawn.

It deals with a lot of divergent themes as well. From the rather odd Ross sisters, all spinsters and living together in the old family home - even the village thinks there is something just a bit askew with them. Through weight issues caused by comfort eating, alcoholism, the trauma of assault on a young woman, the black stain of being pregnant out of wedlock and just the difficulties of living. Each issue is dealt with sympathetically and there is no judgment by the author of any character and why they are where they are in life; indeed many of them are given hope for a brighter future.

There are moments of wonderful insight in to how people tick in the book, unfortunately it is all encased in the back half of the book and I found it a bit of trial getting to the "good bits". You can actually see Mr Norton's writing style evolve on the page and I can't help but wonder if one additional re-write/edit to tighten up the first half wouldn't have made this a much, much better book.

16 people found this helpful

M. Dowden

Village Scandal

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 March 2022

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As the tv series has now hit our screens so I have actually got around to at last reading Graham Norton’s debut novel, and a solid enough read it has proven to be. This has actually turned out better than I thought it would be, mainly due to the fact that the author has not gone for some all out comedy, which could have proven rather twee, what with the setting. There is it does have to be admitted a certain strain of melancholia that runs throughout the story., which helps to earth it.

Meeting Sergeant ‘PJ’ Collins, who works alone in the sleepy village of Duneen in the County of Cork, so he suddenly finds some excitement in his life as bones are dug up on a building site. This thus is the beginning of an investigation, something that it has to be admitted is outside the experience or capabilities of the sergeant, who has to contact his headquarters at Cork for a detective and forensics team. This though is only part of the story, as this takes us into the lives of certain of the villagers, and that of PJ, a lonely overweight, and shy man.

Taking in the past and present so we see how secrets have been well kept, but are now about to be revealed, and how relationships in the past and present have been altered or have come about, what with some animosity and a number of rumours that do the rounds of the village. The mystery side of the tale is okay as such, but not too taxing; it is on the look into personal lives and the problems that so many face that this is really a good read, after all we have love gone sour, affairs, jealousy and other elements all being seen here, including alcoholism. As such then this does give a realistic view of village life, not only in Ireland, but also other places around the world. With the flowering of PJ as such, so we see someone starting to re-engage with the world and become a bit more confident.

This in the whole then is a good solid and quite satisfying read and has been well thought out in a number of ways. It does in places feel slightly workmanlike, but then again this is a debut novel, and so not really that surprising. In all then this does make for a very good read.

2 people found this helpful

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