The Kept & the Keeper: House & Hemlock - a fantasy novel by Adam Boland

http://www.amazon.com/Kept-Keeper-House-Hemlock-ebook/dp/B0169ESQII

In his mid-20s, Henry Strauss is content to spend his days coasting through life and avoiding responsibility at all costs, until the universe reveals that it has other plans for him. After receiving a phone call informing him of the death of a grandfather he hasn't seen in years, memories of a childhood spent at an old family estate, known as The Kept, come flooding back to him.

For more than 300 years, The Kept has been owned by a member of the Keeper family but Henry isn't a Keeper, he’s a Strauss. Upon his arrival, a dispute between two rival gnome kingdoms threatens to destroy his new home. With his feet held to the fire he must quickly solve the mysteries of the house in order to stop the second great gnome war, which has already spread into the nearby town of Presage Heights.