Jon Lymon Reviews The Kellerby Code by Jonny Sweet

Dark humour? Sign me up, buttercup (a link to the design of the original cover, which for me trumps the subsequent version. It was the category that attracted me to this, billed as a black comedy cum thriller.

I enjoyed it, but found following lead character Edward’s subservient role in a world of upper class, big country house, socialites Robert and Stanza who exploit Edward’s good nature to the extent that they call him Jeeves behind his back. No accident, as it inhabits a world not too dissimilar from Wodehouse’s, although in a completely different era – established early on by a key character’s ownership of an iPhone 14.

The lead character has to handle a lot of humiliation and deal with his unrequited love (for Stanza) in this, a source of a lot of the black humour that’s far from laugh out loud funny.

The language is a little over the top for my liking, too descriptive, too clever for its own good. But hey, there’s no doubting the author’s vision and extensive vocabularly.

You do find yourself rooting for Ed the Underdog, cast adrift in a world that’s a class or two above his standing in life. But the pressure he’s under and the hassle he endures from the pretentious people he socialises with gets a little heavy in places, but maybe that’s me being a soft, middle-class soul.

It’s certainly one of those books you’ll want to stick with until the end, thanks to a will he, won’t he get found it type plot, and I’ll certainly be looking out for more of Sweet’s work, and wouldn’t be surprised if somebody wants to film this.