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Blue Heaven
Blue Heaven
Dec 29, 2025 3:42 PM

Author:Joe Keenan

Blue Heaven

Meet Gilbert and Moira - the strangest couple to ever marry for each other's money. Living in New York in 1991 is Gilbert Selwyn, a young man possessed of boundless charm and an allergy to employment, who has devised a plan to wring a nice pile of loot from his mother's newest (and obscenely wealthy) husband.

The scheme, simply put, is to get married for the gifts. But Gilbert, who's gay, needs a fiancée... Enter Moira Finch, a demonically conniving young woman whose own mother, having recently married the Duke of Dorsetshire, will contribute richly to the couple's receipts. Enter, too, Philip Cavanagh, Gilbert's longtime friend, former lover, and highly strung Best Man. And enter, finally, the Cellinis, Gilbert's huge internecine stepfamily, whose fortune has not been amassed as innocently as Gilbert first thought, and who conform rather more closely to Italian-American stereotypes than Gilbert would like to believe. As Gilbert, Moira, and Philip struggle to keep their plot under wraps, the scams get bigger and more perilous, deceit multiplies, and a wonderfully calamitous trail leads us towards what could be the wedding of the season.

Reviews

Blue Heaven... frothy, brilliantly coloured and packing a wicked satiric punch.

—— Los Angeles Magazine

Blue Heaven is a hilarious read. Quote me with pleasure.

—— Sir Ian McKellen

I adored it, laughing out loud on occasions as I read it at one sitting.

—— The Bookseller

Joe Keenan has put the ‘high’ back into high jinks... refreshingly effervescent

—— New York Times

Joe Keenan's first novel plunges headlong into a world of deceit, avarice and violence and it's all a scream - Keenan maintains impressive control over a wonderfully ludicrous plot-packed full of lines that are well worth memorizing - and with a finale that is staggeringly, hilariously contrived.

—— Time Out

Joe Keenan has put the 'high' back into high jinks. His send-ups of criminal noveaux riches are biting and dead on - and his dialogue is refreshingly effervescent.

—— New York Times

One of the funniest writers alive.

—— David Leavitt

A poignant tale of life, love and loss

—— Mirror

Traditional, light-hearted romantic fiction at its best

—— Literary Review

Poignant and humorous

—— Now

A buoyant tale that will have you laughing and crying from start to finish

—— Woman's Journal

The twists and turns in the plot will leave you dizzy

—— New Woman

The story is original and the suspense is skilfully built. An infuriatingly enjoyable feel-good read

—— The List

An engaging and original plot

—— New Statesman
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