A Pleasure And A Calling by Phil Hogan

Mr Heming is an estate agent with a secret, he has kept the keys to all the properties he has sold over the years. He likes to keep up with what's happening in the occupant's lives without their knowledge, letting himself in when they're not at home, even sometimes taking a small memento away with him. Soon things escalate almost out of his control.

It's difficult to review this without giving away too much but I will say that Mr Heming is a very interesting and creepy character and his story is told from his perspective. It starts with his childhood and then catches up to the present day when he is the owner of the successful estate agents where he has always worked.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, I wasn't sure what the outcome would be but thought it ended perfectly. This is a book that is impossible not to be gripped by and I read the last half of it in almost one sitting.

 

I received a copy of this from Netgalley in return for an honest review

 

Rating: 4 out of 5 

 

Publication date: 13th February 2014

 

Book Blurb:

You won't remember Mr Heming. He showed you round your comfortable home, suggested a sustainable financial package, negotiated a price with the owner and called you with the good news. The less good news is that, all these years later, he still has the key.

That's absurd, you laugh. Of all the many hundreds of houses he has sold, why would he still have the key to mine?

The answer to that is, he has the keys to them all.

William Heming's every pleasure is in his leafy community. He loves and knows every inch of it, feels nurtured by it, and would defend it - perhaps not with his life but if it came to it, with yours...