Graham Norton’s next Hodder novel is 'brilliantly foreboding'

Comedian and presenter Graham Norton is publishing a new novel with Hodder entitled A Keeper.

A "twisted tale of family secrets", Norton's second novel follows his debut Holding (Hodder) and will be released this October. Hannah Black bought world rights from Melanie Rockliffe and Dylan Hearn at Troika. 

Black, Norton's publisher at Hodder & Stoughton, called the new novel "brilliantly foreboding". Set on the Irish coastline, according to Hodder it is "a tense and claustrophobic mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end", threading multiple narratives.

Black said: "With his first novel, Holding, Graham demonstrated just what a fine and assured fiction writer he is. His bestselling debut earned him widespread critical acclaim and the Irish Book Awards’ Book of the Year. We’re delighted to be publishing his second novel later this year. Set in the shadow of castle ruins on desolate Irish coastline, nothing is as it first appears. Brilliantly foreboding, A Keeper tells of a dark family secret crossing generations."

The book's plot begins with the mystery of Elizabeth Keane’s father, one that has never been solved by the people of Buncarragh - but not for lack of speculation. 

Her mother Patricia had been assumed a spinster, until she began dating a mysterious man from out of town. Within months she left Buncarragh and had married. Less than two years later, Patricia was back, with a new baby in her arms, but with no husband by her side and unbendingly silent about her recent past. A secret she would take with her to her grave.

Now, as Elizabeth returns to the village to clear out the house of her recently deceased mother, bringing with her regrets and wounds of her own, she discovers a thin pile of ribbon-bound letters at the back of a wardrobe that may at last hold the key to her past. 

Norton promised A Keeper would be both "darker and funnier" than his debut.

"It has been a huge pleasure to return to the world of fiction and spend time in my native Ireland, both past and present," he said. "This twisted tale of family secrets and ill-fated romances is both darker and funnier than my first book, but I hope that all the people who enjoyed Holding will be just as happy spending time in the world of A Keeper."