Kevin Barry O’Connor’s THE KEY TO KELLS is an adventure story with a solid grounding in history, from the attacks of the Vikings, through Irish exiles’ experience in Jamaica, to modern hopes of reunifying and revitalizing the nation of Ireland. The characters are well-grounded and have three-dimensional backstories that explain their relationships and their actions – even the most villainous of the characters we actually get to know (that is, aside from, say, rampaging Norsemen or cruel British enslavers) has reasonable motivations and believable goals, and it is quite possible to find him sympathetic. The interrelationships, not only between blood family members but between found family and cherished friends, are solid and well-drawn, giving a sense of a family brought together as much by love as by genetic admixture, but also solidly rooted in tradition and memory – literally, in this case. The story is full of travel, exploring Ireland, Philadelphia, and Jamaica with loving enjoyment, and the adventure draws together stories of a family that has survived multiple exiles and catastrophes, who love both adopted and ancestral homelands, and who reach out to include others, even eventually the whole world, in their quest for unity and peace.
The historical treasures at the core of THE KEY TO KELLS are real or at least substantially plausible, with their own stories and their own devout purpose, and it is believable that they might be used not only to help unify Ireland, both Catholic and Protestant, but also to draw together at least the Christian population of the world in common devotion and reverence. The parallels between the modern romance and Aedan’s long-ago courtship of his wife Siobhan are subtly but beautifully handled, reflecting each other in warm and tender ways. The action is largely cerebral but there’s also enough physical suspense and drama to keep the reader invested and interested until the end. The science of how memories are transmitted from ancestor to descendant is probably the least plausible aspect of the book, but it’s presented with enough authority and scientific language to allow the intelligent layperson to suspend disbelief and accept it as a premise. And the ending, while resolving enough of the plot to be reasonably satisfying, includes more than enough hanging threads to justify and launch a sequel, THRESHOLD, which is teased with a summary attached to the end of this book.
A lively thriller with a mystical prize at the end, Kevin Barry O’Connor’s THE KEY TO KELLS explores ancestral memory, history, family, and religious devotion, with a sweet romance, complex characters, and an energetic, suspense-filled plot.
~Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader