The Drowned

A Strafford and Quirke Mystery

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Book 4 of The Strafford & Quirke Mysteries
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Pub Date Oct 10 2024 | Archive Date Oct 17 2024

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Description

He had seen drowned people. A sight not to be forgotten.

1950s, rural Ireland. A local loner comes across a mysteriously empty car in a field. Knowing he shouldn’t approach, but unable to hold back, he soon finds himself embroiled in a troubling missing person’s case, as a husband claims his wife has thrown herself into the sea . . .

Called in from Dublin to investigate is Detective Inspector Strafford, who soon turns to his old ally – the flawed but brilliant pathologist Quirke – to help solve him the case.

He had seen drowned people. A sight not to be forgotten.

1950s, rural Ireland. A local loner comes across a mysteriously empty car in a field. Knowing he shouldn’t approach, but unable to hold back...


Advance Praise

PRAISE FOR THE STRAFFORD & QUIRKE MYSTERIES:

'The repressed and sinister world of 1950s Ireland is exposed in beautiful, sometimes chilling prose.' FINANCIAL TIMES

'This is crime fiction for the connoisseur.' THE TIMES

'Peopled by superbly well-drawn characters, and put together in the finest prose.' IRISH INDEPENDENT

PRAISE FOR THE STRAFFORD & QUIRKE MYSTERIES:

'The repressed and sinister world of 1950s Ireland is exposed in beautiful, sometimes chilling prose.' FINANCIAL TIMES

'This is crime fiction for the...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9780571370818
PRICE £18.99 (GBP)
PAGES 352

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Average rating from 108 members


Featured Reviews

A shopping list written by John Banville would still be well worth reading. He is such a wonderful mellifluous writer with a gift for story telling and characterisation. This is a return of the ill-suited double act of Strafford and Quirke and the book rejoices in their idiosyncrasies which are a total delight to read.

There is naturally a murder to solve too and it would certainly help if you have read his previous book "The Lock-Up" but I just immersed myself in the richness of his language and was exhilarated by the experience.

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Stafford and Quirke return for a fourth outing in The Drowned, which continues on from the previous novel The Lock-up.. Strafford finds himself investigating the case of a missing woman who could have drowned, he finds himself coming into contact again with Professor Armitage, a strange man whose research assistant was murdered in The Lock-up. Nothing seems right to Strafford and so he decides to speak with Quirke to get his take on the strange situation he finds himself in.

This outstanding series isn't just a crime series, it is a multi layered novel dealing with characters who are multifaceted in their natures. John Banville is a masterful novelist who luckily turned his eye to crime writing and has created a quite exceptional series.

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John Banville is a fine writer who elevates the crime thriller to an art form. There are so many things that took my breath away in this latest Strafford and Quirke novel I don’t know where to start.
Firstly there’s the authenticity of the 1950s setting in rural Ireland. Banville is a master of taking us back in time. The strained smiles and awkwardness; the behaviours, the words unsaid. Even the sound of dust motes hissing on the gas fire.
There’s his understanding of the perennial pursuit of women by men, and the sometimes jaded attitude of women, at that time, in accepting unwanted advances or even marriage proposals, because they had to.
Three of the men in this story would be described in the 50s as “Lotharios” – brooding detective Strafford, who has an uneasy relationship with dour pathologist Quirke, whose daughter he is seeing. Widower Quirke was briefly seeing a woman connected to the crime of the last book. And then there’s the protagonist of The Drowned, a man who claims his wife has gone missing.
The most amazing sleight of hand though is how Banville makes us pity the paedophile, hiding from society and constantly in fear of being falsely accused of a new crime.
A truly remarkable book.

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