Howard finished writing the book on Valentine's Day 2014, and named it Raiders of the Lost Dork, a reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark and the insult dork. A month before publication, the title was changed to Keeping Up with the Kalashnikovs, as the original title was considered an outdated reference.[6][1]
Plot
Fionn is taken captive while teaching at a school in Uganda. Ross and the guys go out to rescue him. Meanwhile, Sorcha has given birth to triplets and Honor is more difficult than ever, acting as Pied Piper to a troupe of rats.[7]
Keeping Up with the Kalashnikovs was the best-selling fiction book in Ireland for Christmas 2014, and it saw the book series pass the million-copy milestone.[10][11] It sold 25,431 copies in the year 2014.[12]
It was nominated for the Books Are My Bag Popular Fiction Book of the Year Award at the 2014 Irish Book Awards.[13][14]
On Writing.ie, Declan Madden praised it, saying it was "a little darker then [sic] previous titles […] but had plenty of laugh out loud moments and was full of Ross’ usual humour."[16]
In the Irish Independent, Ian O'Doherty wrote that "There's an old rule in TV comedy that once you start sending your characters on exotic holidays, you're close to jumping the shark. After all, Ross is effectively a sitcom […] It's certainly an unusual departure for a character so associated with First World problems, and it stretches the character to its limits."[17] He later added that "transplanting [Ross] to the rather murky world of jungle terrorism and Somalian pirates was certainly a stretch. Keeping Up With The Kalashnikovs was undoubtedly his oddest book yet."[18]
