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Quirke #9
The Lock-Up
Booker Prize winner and “Irish master” (The New Yorker) John Banville’s most ambitious crime novel yet brings two detectives together to solve a globe-spanning mystery
In 1950s Dublin, Rosa Jacobs, a young history scholar, is found dead in her car. Renowned pathologist Dr. Quirke and DI St. John Strafford begin to investigate the death as a murder, but it’s the victim’s older sister Molly, an established journalist, who discovers a lead that could crack open the case.
One of Rosa’s friends, it turns out, is from a powerful German family that arrived in Ireland under mysterious circumstances shortly after World War II. But as Quirke and Strafford close in, their personal lives may put the case, and the lives of everyone involved, in peril, including Quirke’s own daughter.
Spanning the mountaintops of Italy, the front lines of World War II Bavaria, the gritty streets of Dublin and other unexpected locales, The Lock-Up is an ambitious and arresting mystery by one of the world’s most celebrated authors.
In 1950s Dublin, Rosa Jacobs, a young history scholar, is found dead in her car. Renowned pathologist Dr. Quirke and DI St. John Strafford begin to investigate the death as a murder, but it’s the victim’s older sister Molly, an established journalist, who discovers a lead that could crack open the case.
One of Rosa’s friends, it turns out, is from a powerful German family that arrived in Ireland under mysterious circumstances shortly after World War II. But as Quirke and Strafford close in, their personal lives may put the case, and the lives of everyone involved, in peril, including Quirke’s own daughter.
Spanning the mountaintops of Italy, the front lines of World War II Bavaria, the gritty streets of Dublin and other unexpected locales, The Lock-Up is an ambitious and arresting mystery by one of the world’s most celebrated authors.
327 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2023
990 people are currently reading
5664 people want to read
About the author
John Banville
128 books2,331 followersWilliam John Banville is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Proust, via Nabokov", Banville himself maintains that W.B. Yeats and Henry James are the two real influences on his work.
Banville has won the 1976 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the 2003 International Nonino Prize, the 2005 Booker Prize, the 2011 Franz Kafka Prize, the 2013 Austrian State Prize for European Literature and the 2014 Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2007. Italy made him a Cavaliere of the Ordine della Stella d'Italia (essentially a knighthood) in 2017. He is a former member of Aosdána, having voluntarily relinquished the financial stipend in 2001 to another, more impoverished, writer.
Banville was born and grew up in Wexford town in south-east Ireland. He published his first novel, Nightspawn, in 1971. A second, Birchwood, followed two years later. "The Revolutions Trilogy", published between 1976 and 1982, comprises three works, each named in reference to a renowned scientist: Doctor Copernicus, Kepler and The Newton Letter. His next work, Mefisto, had a mathematical theme. His 1989 novel The Book of Evidence, shortlisted for the Booker Prize and winner of that year's Guinness Peat Aviation award, heralded a second trilogy, three works which deal in common with the work of art. "The Frames Trilogy" is completed by Ghosts and Athena, both published during the 1990s. Banville's thirteenth novel, The Sea, won the Booker Prize in 2005. In addition, he publishes crime novels as Benjamin Black — most of these feature the character of Quirke, an Irish pathologist based in Dublin.
Banville is considered a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He lives in Dublin.
Banville has won the 1976 James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the 2003 International Nonino Prize, the 2005 Booker Prize, the 2011 Franz Kafka Prize, the 2013 Austrian State Prize for European Literature and the 2014 Prince of Asturias Award for Literature. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2007. Italy made him a Cavaliere of the Ordine della Stella d'Italia (essentially a knighthood) in 2017. He is a former member of Aosdána, having voluntarily relinquished the financial stipend in 2001 to another, more impoverished, writer.
Banville was born and grew up in Wexford town in south-east Ireland. He published his first novel, Nightspawn, in 1971. A second, Birchwood, followed two years later. "The Revolutions Trilogy", published between 1976 and 1982, comprises three works, each named in reference to a renowned scientist: Doctor Copernicus, Kepler and The Newton Letter. His next work, Mefisto, had a mathematical theme. His 1989 novel The Book of Evidence, shortlisted for the Booker Prize and winner of that year's Guinness Peat Aviation award, heralded a second trilogy, three works which deal in common with the work of art. "The Frames Trilogy" is completed by Ghosts and Athena, both published during the 1990s. Banville's thirteenth novel, The Sea, won the Booker Prize in 2005. In addition, he publishes crime novels as Benjamin Black — most of these feature the character of Quirke, an Irish pathologist based in Dublin.
Banville is considered a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He lives in Dublin.
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March 11, 2023
DI Strafford, Dublin Garda
Dr Quirke, Pathologist
Dublin, 1958. A young woman is found dead in her car in a lock-up; a German exile on a large estate in Wicklow, and the exiles son. Is there a connection between the three and with events further afield? Strafford is assigned the case and Dr Quirke does the post-mortem, and the relationship is, as ever, strained. The deeper, the two go, it seems the ripples of this investigation spread wide and into the recent past.
If I am to sum up John Banville‘s Strafford/Quirke series, I describe them as classy and timeless. Right from the start, you get large hints about the direction this will go and yet the author is still able to shock and surprise you. There’s a great deal going on in this ambitious novel, the author builds layer upon layer, producing tangled webs with large spiders at the centre. There is a big political element here in particular an important historical one and as ever the plot bears witness to the power of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland at this time and its links to politics but also to a wider world angle. As always John Banville captures the times and it’s not always comfortable reading in 2023 but the historical context is excellent. The quality of the writing is high, there are literary references too that are cleverly used to highlight points and make you think.
The Strafford/ Quirke novels are very much character driven mystery thrillers. They’re both fascinating flawed men though I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re likeable but they feel very authentic. Strafford is solitary but contented and Quirke is deep in grief and is very emotional post events in Spain (April in Spain, the last novel), which produces uneasy, resentful and sometimes angry outbursts, especially directed at Stratford, often unfairly.
However, there are some lulls in the pace where Stratford and Quirke are reflecting and also where their love lives intervene. Overall, though, I enjoy this latest outing of this an easy duo and look forward to reading what happens next. It can easily be read as a standalone but the series is good and well worth reading.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Faber and Faber for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.
Dr Quirke, Pathologist
Dublin, 1958. A young woman is found dead in her car in a lock-up; a German exile on a large estate in Wicklow, and the exiles son. Is there a connection between the three and with events further afield? Strafford is assigned the case and Dr Quirke does the post-mortem, and the relationship is, as ever, strained. The deeper, the two go, it seems the ripples of this investigation spread wide and into the recent past.
If I am to sum up John Banville‘s Strafford/Quirke series, I describe them as classy and timeless. Right from the start, you get large hints about the direction this will go and yet the author is still able to shock and surprise you. There’s a great deal going on in this ambitious novel, the author builds layer upon layer, producing tangled webs with large spiders at the centre. There is a big political element here in particular an important historical one and as ever the plot bears witness to the power of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland at this time and its links to politics but also to a wider world angle. As always John Banville captures the times and it’s not always comfortable reading in 2023 but the historical context is excellent. The quality of the writing is high, there are literary references too that are cleverly used to highlight points and make you think.
The Strafford/ Quirke novels are very much character driven mystery thrillers. They’re both fascinating flawed men though I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re likeable but they feel very authentic. Strafford is solitary but contented and Quirke is deep in grief and is very emotional post events in Spain (April in Spain, the last novel), which produces uneasy, resentful and sometimes angry outbursts, especially directed at Stratford, often unfairly.
However, there are some lulls in the pace where Stratford and Quirke are reflecting and also where their love lives intervene. Overall, though, I enjoy this latest outing of this an easy duo and look forward to reading what happens next. It can easily be read as a standalone but the series is good and well worth reading.
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Faber and Faber for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.
August 18, 2023
A young history student is found dead in her car. Suicide is suspected, but the pathologist Dr. Quirke convinces DI Stafford that her death was actually the result of murder. The two, who have a complicated history, proceed to investigate the case that might be linked to another death in Israel.
This book picks up about 6 months after the ending of “April in Spain”. It works as a standalone, but it completely spoils the plot of “April in Spain”, so you might want to read them in order. This isn’t terrific as a police procedural, but the book really gets tedious with all of the middle aged men who are irresistible to much younger women. This seems like a lot of wishful thinking on the part of the author, and it took up a lot of the book. The epilogue provided an interesting twist, but it sort of made the rest of the book pointless.
This book picks up about 6 months after the ending of “April in Spain”. It works as a standalone, but it completely spoils the plot of “April in Spain”, so you might want to read them in order. This isn’t terrific as a police procedural, but the book really gets tedious with all of the middle aged men who are irresistible to much younger women. This seems like a lot of wishful thinking on the part of the author, and it took up a lot of the book. The epilogue provided an interesting twist, but it sort of made the rest of the book pointless.
May 9, 2023
The third book with Quirke and Strafford connects several themes and is based on the axis Ireland - Germany - Israel in the eraly 1950s and is more on the character development through plot rather than on the investigation itself. I read the previous two books and I knew what to expect: a slow-paced quasi-procedural with the main focus on the two characters who are now more distanced than ever but who are forced to co-operate. The investigation is intriguing but the pursuits of Quirke's and Strafford's even more. I look forward to book four.
*A big thank-you to John Banville, Faber&Faber, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
*A big thank-you to John Banville, Faber&Faber, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
April 19, 2023
A young woman is murdered in her car. That’s it.
The rest of the book is about the personal lives of the investigator, the chief of the Police, the pathologist and even the minor characters such as waitresses and barmen.
A lot of details, of so little or no consequence.
The police don’t solve anything but most of their contemplation and guesswork is done in pubs and restaurants while the rest of their day is spent drinking, smoking and sleeping with women they have just met.
The rest of the book is about the personal lives of the investigator, the chief of the Police, the pathologist and even the minor characters such as waitresses and barmen.
A lot of details, of so little or no consequence.
The police don’t solve anything but most of their contemplation and guesswork is done in pubs and restaurants while the rest of their day is spent drinking, smoking and sleeping with women they have just met.
September 3, 2023
3.5
Ireland- In the early 1950s, just after the end of World War II, Rosa Jacobs, a 27-year-old graduate student at Trinity College, is found asphyxiated in her car at her lock-up (parking garage) outside Dublin in what looks like a suicide. However, Medical Pathologist Dr. Quirke finds marks on Rosa's mouth that indicate that someone gagged, anesthetized, and placed Rosa in the car with the motor running. Quirke and DI Strafford must figure out why.
Booker Award winner John Banville creates an intricate plot that examines Rosa's connection to the family of a wealthy German emigre and the hit-and-run death of an investigative reporter in Tel Aviv. While the storyline is well designed, Banville's greatest strengths lie in the development of character and setting. Both Quirke and Strafford are finely drawn, flawed, and very human, and very much of their time. Not only are the characters contextualized, but Banville captures the ambiance and mood of post-war Dublin.
It is a well-done mystery and a perfect summer (or fall) escape.
Ireland- In the early 1950s, just after the end of World War II, Rosa Jacobs, a 27-year-old graduate student at Trinity College, is found asphyxiated in her car at her lock-up (parking garage) outside Dublin in what looks like a suicide. However, Medical Pathologist Dr. Quirke finds marks on Rosa's mouth that indicate that someone gagged, anesthetized, and placed Rosa in the car with the motor running. Quirke and DI Strafford must figure out why.
Booker Award winner John Banville creates an intricate plot that examines Rosa's connection to the family of a wealthy German emigre and the hit-and-run death of an investigative reporter in Tel Aviv. While the storyline is well designed, Banville's greatest strengths lie in the development of character and setting. Both Quirke and Strafford are finely drawn, flawed, and very human, and very much of their time. Not only are the characters contextualized, but Banville captures the ambiance and mood of post-war Dublin.
It is a well-done mystery and a perfect summer (or fall) escape.
August 24, 2024
I love John Banville's Quirke mysteries. Above all else, the draw for me is their atmosphere. They're set in post-WWII Ireland. These novels are slow-moving, gloomy, full of hard drinking, with a public life controlled by the powerful Catholic church, and are unabashedly reflective of the prejudices of the time. Quirke himself has a complicated background: he's an orphan who has gained admittance to one of Dublin's most powerful families; he's a pathologist; he broods and drinks and fumbles repeatedly in his personal relationships.
To put it simply: if you like historical noir, you'll love these mysteries. The Lock-Up looks back to WWII Germany and the questions of who survived and how they did so. Readers will figure out much of the mystery well before the novel's end, but Banville still manages to surprise.
When you want something dark in which even the "good guys" are problematic figures, in which justice is never quite fully achieved, turn to Banville and Quirke.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
To put it simply: if you like historical noir, you'll love these mysteries. The Lock-Up looks back to WWII Germany and the questions of who survived and how they did so. Readers will figure out much of the mystery well before the novel's end, but Banville still manages to surprise.
When you want something dark in which even the "good guys" are problematic figures, in which justice is never quite fully achieved, turn to Banville and Quirke.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.
September 16, 2023
An atmospheric murder mystery with wonderful characterizations and descriptions of place settings. John Lee is one of my favorite narrators and voices all the characters with aplomb. This is the ninth volume in the Quirke series and I recommend reading them in order.
Standout quotes:
"It was a Saturday morning and the sun was shining. Few people were about which gave a dreamy look to the day. A Moorhen swam on the water delicately unzipping the placid surface as it went, her half grown chicks strung out in a line behind her bobbing along."
"Quirke's anger was like an expanding gas pressing against the walls and the small square window behind Hackett's desk."
Standout quotes:
"It was a Saturday morning and the sun was shining. Few people were about which gave a dreamy look to the day. A Moorhen swam on the water delicately unzipping the placid surface as it went, her half grown chicks strung out in a line behind her bobbing along."
"Quirke's anger was like an expanding gas pressing against the walls and the small square window behind Hackett's desk."
September 26, 2023
I give this book a 5***** rating even though I was left totally confused by the Epilogue. I thought the story, which was brilliantly conceived and told, was over. I guess I have to re-read the Epilogue, unless another reader can enlighten me.
OK. I re-read the Epilogue and figured out who was writing in his diary. The name of that person, and his wife's name, were never mentioned in the entire book until the Epilogue (I did a search). Now I'm going to change my rating. I don't like to be fooled when I read. I don't like to be tricked. I surely avoid writing like that in my own novels. If I didn't have the search function I would never have figured it out ... 3***
OK. I re-read the Epilogue and figured out who was writing in his diary. The name of that person, and his wife's name, were never mentioned in the entire book until the Epilogue (I did a search). Now I'm going to change my rating. I don't like to be fooled when I read. I don't like to be tricked. I surely avoid writing like that in my own novels. If I didn't have the search function I would never have figured it out ... 3***
May 24, 2024
Benjamin Black aka John Banville escribe una novela negra que yo calificaría como de lujo. El lenguaje está trabajadísimo, casi manierista en ocasiones, las descripciones son exhaustivas - no para hasta que te ha metido en la habitación, el paisaje, o te ha hecho visualizar al personaje - y los caracteres son complejos, por decirlo suavemente.
La trama arranca con el hallazgo de una joven estudiante judía, Rosa Jacobs, que aparentemente se ha suicidado. Inmediatamente el patólogo y protagonista de la serie, Dr. Quirke sospecha que se trata de un asesinato y ello pone en marcha la investigación.
Pasear por el Dublín de los años 50 no tiene precio, la melancolía (y el alcohol) lo embargan todo y la trama se convierte en un pretexto para mostrarnos un lugar y un momento, con toda su riqueza. Las distintas religiones: católicos, protestantes, judíos. los ingleses y los irlandeses, las diferencias sociales entre los aristocráticos hacendados y la gente de a pie, el poder omnímodo de la Iglesia, todas las capas de esta sociedad están friamente analizadas como en una de las autopsias de Quirke.
Veo en algunos comentarios que les ha decepcionado la trama y el final, seguramente no es la parte más fuerte de esta novela, como tampoco Quirke es precisamente simpático, pero si te dejas llevar por la prosa del autor, seguramente vas a pasar un buen rato.
La trama arranca con el hallazgo de una joven estudiante judía, Rosa Jacobs, que aparentemente se ha suicidado. Inmediatamente el patólogo y protagonista de la serie, Dr. Quirke sospecha que se trata de un asesinato y ello pone en marcha la investigación.
Pasear por el Dublín de los años 50 no tiene precio, la melancolía (y el alcohol) lo embargan todo y la trama se convierte en un pretexto para mostrarnos un lugar y un momento, con toda su riqueza. Las distintas religiones: católicos, protestantes, judíos. los ingleses y los irlandeses, las diferencias sociales entre los aristocráticos hacendados y la gente de a pie, el poder omnímodo de la Iglesia, todas las capas de esta sociedad están friamente analizadas como en una de las autopsias de Quirke.
Veo en algunos comentarios que les ha decepcionado la trama y el final, seguramente no es la parte más fuerte de esta novela, como tampoco Quirke es precisamente simpático, pero si te dejas llevar por la prosa del autor, seguramente vas a pasar un buen rato.
November 2, 2023
Oh, how I love John Banville novels! ❤️
1950, Dublin:
Rosa Jacobs, a young Jewish history scholar, is found dead in her car, located in a lock-up (a secure place for motorists to keep their vehicles). First deemed a suicide, renowned pathologist Dr. Quirke and DI St. John Strafford finds evidence that Rosa was murdered.
Before her death, Rosa was busy fighting for the rights of Jewish women. She also had links to journalists investigating her powerful German friends.
"Who'd want to murder Rosa Jacob's, he said in a tone of shocked incredulity? Who indeed."
*This is the fourth installment in the John Strafford crime series. I adore Banvile's writing style. He never disappoints. A solid crime novel.** 👍
1950, Dublin:
Rosa Jacobs, a young Jewish history scholar, is found dead in her car, located in a lock-up (a secure place for motorists to keep their vehicles). First deemed a suicide, renowned pathologist Dr. Quirke and DI St. John Strafford finds evidence that Rosa was murdered.
Before her death, Rosa was busy fighting for the rights of Jewish women. She also had links to journalists investigating her powerful German friends.
"Who'd want to murder Rosa Jacob's, he said in a tone of shocked incredulity? Who indeed."
*This is the fourth installment in the John Strafford crime series. I adore Banvile's writing style. He never disappoints. A solid crime novel.** 👍
March 25, 2023
As an avid reader of all the Banville series, I was very let down by this title. Both Strafford and Quirke are in this one, and they were both quite trying. I would like to see Banville write a title that doesn’t have every twenty-something female character wanting to jump into bed with emotionally unavailable, alcoholic, middle-aged men. Very disappointed with this one.
October 16, 2024
[7/10]
... what a place this was to die in, a bare, blackened hole in the wall down a shabby back lane.
Historical murder mystery set in 1950s’ Dublin, and not a novel about the Covid isolation as my insufficient research on the story believed [I ordered it based on the author’s name alone]. It is also apparently the ninth book in a crime series that the author has written under his Benjamin Black pen name, which might explain why I felt for most of the book that I jumped into the middle of a story that I am unfamiliar with.
As a sort of bonus, the story belongs to the buddy-cop subgenre, as in two minds are supposed to be better than one. I’ve met Inspector Strafford already in Snow , which I liked a lot. Helping him, mostly against Strafford’s wish who prefers to work alone, is a renowned pathologist named Quirke.
“But Quirke is not a policeman,” Strafford had objected.
“Yes, but that’s the thing,” the Chief responded, screwing up one eye and doing his gleaming enamel grin. “He’s as sharp as a tack, though you wouldn’t think to look at him. He often sees things a professional might miss.”
Strafford and Quirke carry some heavy personal baggage into the investigation, most of it related to events from the previous book in the series, an incident when Strafford was following a terrorism suspect and Quirke’s wife was killed in the crossfire. I should have read about the tragic business in Spain before the current episode, because this is a character driven police procedural, with a heavy focus on the personalities of both the investigators and the victim / suspects.
The thing about grief was that you could press upon it at its sharpest points and blunt them, only for the bluntness to spread throughout the system and make it ache like one vast bruise.
I should not complain too much though, because it might lead to the wrong impression: I still love the way Banville writes and the subtlety of his psychological observations, his mood setting and his surprising flashes of dark humour.
My interest in the actual murder and its solving kicked in rather late in the economy of the novel, with the author reserving his strongest salvos for the very last chapters. I didn’t mind it so much, fascinated as I was by the abrasive relationship between Strafford and Quirke, complicated by their own sentimental entanglements with women: Quirke’s daughter Phoebe starts dating Strafford, while the pathologist has an affair with the victim’s sister Molly.
It was all very awkward and difficult.
“He’s English. Undemonstrative is the word.”
Dublin, Ireland in general, is the third major player in the unfolding dramatic events, which can be condensed thus:
A young and beautiful women post-graduate researcher named Rosa Jacobs is found dead from an apparent suicide with carbon monoxide from her car’s exhaust in a rented lock-up cubicle from a back alley in town.
Quirke suspects foul play and, in the absence of any real evidence, the investigation must focus on the background information about the girl’s social circle. Already tensed relationships between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland are compounded by links with Israel’s weapons programs and entanglements with a family of German aristocrats who came as refugees in the aftermath of World War II. Rosa’s secret pregnancy might be a red herring ... or not.
The procedural part of the novel is very good in its slow accumulation of clues, leading to a dramatic finale, but for me the focus remained on the private lives of the two detectives, making me once again wish I did my homework properly and started with the series in chronological order.
Both Strafford and Quirke are depressed, not surprising given those traumatic events in Spain and the complicated marital landscape. The general dark mood of the story, the focus on profiling and the quality of the writing all send me back to one of my favorite series, the one featuring Inspector Martin Beck by Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall.
Human beings know so little about each other even in their most intimate relations. Look at him and Marguerite. It wasn’t even certain that she has left him. She had just gone away and so far had not come back.
The fact was, one could never quite be sure, with Marguerite.
Was the marriage at an end? If it was, Strafford felt no guilt, and of course this made him feel guilty. But the present arrangement, or absence of one, was fine with him, better indeed than he had dared to admit, even to himself. He had always been a solitary soul, and was content to be so. Solitude, as he would tell you, is not at all the same thing as loneliness, and was certainly not so in his case.
I might come back to this series, either by reading the Spanish episode to fill in the blanks here, or by going right back to the beginning.
May 30, 2023
The Lock-Up by John Banville brings together two different series mcs; one, St. John (pronounced “sinjun”) Strafford, a detective, and pathologist/coroner Quirke. It’s a little confusing, but the Quirke books were mainly written under Banville’s pseudonym, Benjamin Black, and the Stafford books with no pseudonym. Early on, as with one of his literary inspirations, Graham Greene, who also wrote “literature” and “entertainments.” disrespecting the latter as hack work, Banville made the same distinction until now. This is the 9th Quirke book, and the 4th Strafford book, the 3rd with Quirke, and Banville, not Black, is the author. The books are set in fifties Ireland, when the Catholic Church rules Ireland.
In the last/third Strafford book, April in Spain, both Quirke and Strafford are involved in a case everyone in Ireland had thought was either an unsolved murder or just a disappearance. The sad sack Quirke is in Spain with his wife, Austrian psychologist Evelyn, and Quirke sees the missing woman, April, his daughter Phoebe’s friend. There are signs that worry Quirke about the situation, and so Strafford, accompanied by Phoebe, join them with Spain and (spoiler alert) there’s a dramatic conclusion involving Strafford’s deliberate killing of a man who had been sent to kill April, and an accidental death of Quirke’s wife, Evelyn.
The Lock-Up is--because Banville’s work is primarily about character--a study in part of Quirke’s grief. On some (unreasonable) level Quirke blames Strafford for his wife’s death, and in this book they work together on a case of suicide that Quirke determines is murder. The political background for the case is 1) yes, the role of the Catholic Church in 2) Irish-German-Israeli (and Catholic-Irish) relations before, during and soon after the war. The time is the early fifties. Phoebe had been in a relationship with Jewish David, who left her to live in Israel; David had been an assistant pathologists in Quirke’s office, and he never liked him. In this book Quirke has a relationship with Jewish Molly while Phoebe seems to begin a relationship with, of all people, Strafford. Quirke is a mess almost throughout, taking heavily to drink, angry with Strafford and Strafford’s boss, Chief Hackett, and so on.
The death of the woman, Rosa, is ultimately tied to that Catholic-German (Nazi)-Israeli axis I mentioned above. That's enough on that.
If you came for the action only, you might be disappointed, as Banville writes mysteries with a focus on character and relationships, and the Irish political landscape of the fifties, and things are wrapped up rather too quickly and neatly in this plot, but I still like it so much and can’t wait to see what happens next. I also like the reader of all? most? the Quirke and Strafford books, John Lee. I'll call it four stars, but there's nothing I'd rather read now than Quirke book #10.
* Drily funny/odd detail: Banville, especially in his mysteries, likes to have fun with names, a kind of pulpy crime tradition, for example, Quirke is quirky. The joke with Strafford’s name is that almost everyone--including we readers--gets it wrong; he’s either Stratford or Stafford. Just messin’ with us.
*One moment I found very moving is when Quirke, drunk and out of control, rails at Strafford and the detective leaves. Afterwards, Phoebe gently touches his shoulder and says, “Oh, Daddy,” in the wake of the mess Quirke has made of an evening. Phoebe was born of his wife who died in childbirth and given by Quirke to his brother and his wife to raise, and Phoebe was not told Quirke was her father until she was nineteen, so she had never called him Daddy, only Quirke. That single moment is moving for Quirke, and us, giving hope that good things may again happen.
In the last/third Strafford book, April in Spain, both Quirke and Strafford are involved in a case everyone in Ireland had thought was either an unsolved murder or just a disappearance. The sad sack Quirke is in Spain with his wife, Austrian psychologist Evelyn, and Quirke sees the missing woman, April, his daughter Phoebe’s friend. There are signs that worry Quirke about the situation, and so Strafford, accompanied by Phoebe, join them with Spain and (spoiler alert) there’s a dramatic conclusion involving Strafford’s deliberate killing of a man who had been sent to kill April, and an accidental death of Quirke’s wife, Evelyn.
The Lock-Up is--because Banville’s work is primarily about character--a study in part of Quirke’s grief. On some (unreasonable) level Quirke blames Strafford for his wife’s death, and in this book they work together on a case of suicide that Quirke determines is murder. The political background for the case is 1) yes, the role of the Catholic Church in 2) Irish-German-Israeli (and Catholic-Irish) relations before, during and soon after the war. The time is the early fifties. Phoebe had been in a relationship with Jewish David, who left her to live in Israel; David had been an assistant pathologists in Quirke’s office, and he never liked him. In this book Quirke has a relationship with Jewish Molly while Phoebe seems to begin a relationship with, of all people, Strafford. Quirke is a mess almost throughout, taking heavily to drink, angry with Strafford and Strafford’s boss, Chief Hackett, and so on.
The death of the woman, Rosa, is ultimately tied to that Catholic-German (Nazi)-Israeli axis I mentioned above. That's enough on that.
If you came for the action only, you might be disappointed, as Banville writes mysteries with a focus on character and relationships, and the Irish political landscape of the fifties, and things are wrapped up rather too quickly and neatly in this plot, but I still like it so much and can’t wait to see what happens next. I also like the reader of all? most? the Quirke and Strafford books, John Lee. I'll call it four stars, but there's nothing I'd rather read now than Quirke book #10.
* Drily funny/odd detail: Banville, especially in his mysteries, likes to have fun with names, a kind of pulpy crime tradition, for example, Quirke is quirky. The joke with Strafford’s name is that almost everyone--including we readers--gets it wrong; he’s either Stratford or Stafford. Just messin’ with us.
*One moment I found very moving is when Quirke, drunk and out of control, rails at Strafford and the detective leaves. Afterwards, Phoebe gently touches his shoulder and says, “Oh, Daddy,” in the wake of the mess Quirke has made of an evening. Phoebe was born of his wife who died in childbirth and given by Quirke to his brother and his wife to raise, and Phoebe was not told Quirke was her father until she was nineteen, so she had never called him Daddy, only Quirke. That single moment is moving for Quirke, and us, giving hope that good things may again happen.
February 9, 2023
The Lock-up boasts itself to be a crime fiction novel but more often than not, I thought it was just an ordinary fictional tale. Of course, there’s a crime but the story somehow revolves more around its characters and their several qualities than actually focusing on the crime itself. What baffled me the most was how a book which could have been wrapped up in a hundred pages went on for about 352 pages. I almost gave up multiple times.
The story is set in the 1950s, Dublin when a young woman named Rosa Jacobs is found dead in a lockup garage due to carbon monoxide poisoning. What initially seems like a straight forward suicide case quickly takes a turn when Quirke (pathologist) points out that it is more likely to be a murder. DI Stafford is assigned to the case along with Dr Quirke as they go digging about the poor woman’s history. The two men make an unlikely pair as a doctor detective duo. Due to an unfortunate incident, the two barely get along and also don’t exchange more than 10 lines with each other in the book.
As they investigate the case, ugly heads from the recent war are discovered. Powerful families are suspected and with the help of the dead woman’s sister, the case slowly starts to make more sense. The story is also set in some interesting locations, starting off in Italy, then moving towards Dublin and Bavaria. But this book’s major shortcoming were its characters and an attempt at making them seem darkly charming. DI Stafford did nothing much to crack the case and while Quirke’s minute contribution did set the story into motion, it didn’t amount to much as compared to other detective duos. A lot of time was spent dissecting their lives and romances rather than focusing on the crime plot. The story was truly very stretched.
In short, The Lock-up was a disappointment. I love a good murder mystery but not so much when the surrounding drama takes over the actual plot.
The story is set in the 1950s, Dublin when a young woman named Rosa Jacobs is found dead in a lockup garage due to carbon monoxide poisoning. What initially seems like a straight forward suicide case quickly takes a turn when Quirke (pathologist) points out that it is more likely to be a murder. DI Stafford is assigned to the case along with Dr Quirke as they go digging about the poor woman’s history. The two men make an unlikely pair as a doctor detective duo. Due to an unfortunate incident, the two barely get along and also don’t exchange more than 10 lines with each other in the book.
As they investigate the case, ugly heads from the recent war are discovered. Powerful families are suspected and with the help of the dead woman’s sister, the case slowly starts to make more sense. The story is also set in some interesting locations, starting off in Italy, then moving towards Dublin and Bavaria. But this book’s major shortcoming were its characters and an attempt at making them seem darkly charming. DI Stafford did nothing much to crack the case and while Quirke’s minute contribution did set the story into motion, it didn’t amount to much as compared to other detective duos. A lot of time was spent dissecting their lives and romances rather than focusing on the crime plot. The story was truly very stretched.
In short, The Lock-up was a disappointment. I love a good murder mystery but not so much when the surrounding drama takes over the actual plot.
December 24, 2023
Beautifully written mystery and crime novel set in the 1950’s by the renowned John Banville.
I read this well-narrated audiobook, set primarily in Ireland, and featuring D.I. Strafford and a doctor/pathologist, Dr. Quirke, working together to solve the unusual deaths of a couple of women. It also features some powerful and wealthy Germans working in Dublin. Triggers: antisemitism
I read this well-narrated audiobook, set primarily in Ireland, and featuring D.I. Strafford and a doctor/pathologist, Dr. Quirke, working together to solve the unusual deaths of a couple of women. It also features some powerful and wealthy Germans working in Dublin. Triggers: antisemitism
January 14, 2024
3.5 rounded to 4.
Wait, this is Quirke #9 ? I had to scramble back through the Quirke series and see that somewhere along the way, around the time that John Banville dropped his nom de plume Benjamin Black—which he'd used for Quirke 1-7, the first Strafford and a few other standalone mysteries—he'd slipped in Quirke #8. Which, now that I've read #9 I know the plot of, so there's really no point in going back. Confused? Think how his agent must have felt as Banville abandoned the pen name he'd used for a dozen novels.
This really has nothing to do with the novel itself, but perhaps reveals something mercurial in the author that he shares with his protagonist, the Irish pathologist, Quirke.
Because Quirke is mired in grief, the The Lock-Up is even more lugubrious than previous Quirke novels. He plods around Dublin and Cork, drinking too much Jameson and Pouilly-Fuissé, and snarling at Detective Inspector St. John Strafford (who we first met without Quirke in 2020's Snow and who paired up with Quirke in #8, which of course, I missed). He's not only upset at Strafford for what happened in the previous installment, but because Strafford is a Prod: a Protestant Irishman of English extraction.
The mystery that brings pathologist and Detective Inspector together is the death of Rosa Jacobs, a Jewish activist, a remarkable entity in 1950s Ireland. At first glance, her death appears to be a suicide, but Quirke quickly determines she was murdered. Even more curious is Rosa's connection to a wealthy German family who immigrated to Ireland soon after the end of the war. This family, under the pretense of atoning for the atrocities committed by their fellow citizens, invests heavily in the new nation of Israel. When a journalist in Tel Aviv, who is investigating the secret Israeli nuclear weapons program, is murdered, a conspiracy theory involving the Kesslers quickly develops. But the investigation is threatened by powerful forces in the Catholic church.
These intense and intriguing plotlines are never fully developed. Instead we spend a lot of time in several bars and pubs with Quirke, as well as trace the outlines of a tepid and strained romance between Strafford and Quirke's daughter, Phoebe. Because Banville's prose is so fantastic, his atmospheres so intoxicating, his characters deep and intriguing, I wasn't bothered. He crafts the most exquisite scenes; I just settled in and enjoyed the unfolding. I wasn't bothered, that is, until the Epilogue. Then it seemed to me that Banville had created a set of plot possibilities that were too big to manage, so he just had to end the damn thing. Whatever. Half-baked Banville is still better than most. Bring on Quirke #10. And pour me a Jameson with a splash.
Wait, this is Quirke #9 ? I had to scramble back through the Quirke series and see that somewhere along the way, around the time that John Banville dropped his nom de plume Benjamin Black—which he'd used for Quirke 1-7, the first Strafford and a few other standalone mysteries—he'd slipped in Quirke #8. Which, now that I've read #9 I know the plot of, so there's really no point in going back. Confused? Think how his agent must have felt as Banville abandoned the pen name he'd used for a dozen novels.
This really has nothing to do with the novel itself, but perhaps reveals something mercurial in the author that he shares with his protagonist, the Irish pathologist, Quirke.
Because Quirke is mired in grief, the The Lock-Up is even more lugubrious than previous Quirke novels. He plods around Dublin and Cork, drinking too much Jameson and Pouilly-Fuissé, and snarling at Detective Inspector St. John Strafford (who we first met without Quirke in 2020's Snow and who paired up with Quirke in #8, which of course, I missed). He's not only upset at Strafford for what happened in the previous installment, but because Strafford is a Prod: a Protestant Irishman of English extraction.
The mystery that brings pathologist and Detective Inspector together is the death of Rosa Jacobs, a Jewish activist, a remarkable entity in 1950s Ireland. At first glance, her death appears to be a suicide, but Quirke quickly determines she was murdered. Even more curious is Rosa's connection to a wealthy German family who immigrated to Ireland soon after the end of the war. This family, under the pretense of atoning for the atrocities committed by their fellow citizens, invests heavily in the new nation of Israel. When a journalist in Tel Aviv, who is investigating the secret Israeli nuclear weapons program, is murdered, a conspiracy theory involving the Kesslers quickly develops. But the investigation is threatened by powerful forces in the Catholic church.
These intense and intriguing plotlines are never fully developed. Instead we spend a lot of time in several bars and pubs with Quirke, as well as trace the outlines of a tepid and strained romance between Strafford and Quirke's daughter, Phoebe. Because Banville's prose is so fantastic, his atmospheres so intoxicating, his characters deep and intriguing, I wasn't bothered. He crafts the most exquisite scenes; I just settled in and enjoyed the unfolding. I wasn't bothered, that is, until the Epilogue. Then it seemed to me that Banville had created a set of plot possibilities that were too big to manage, so he just had to end the damn thing. Whatever. Half-baked Banville is still better than most. Bring on Quirke #10. And pour me a Jameson with a splash.
July 3, 2023
Strafford and Quirke after the debacle in Spain. Their animosity is still palpable, however they happily go off on a tangent and solve the international tangent.
Banville also gives us his observations on Ireland, the separation, being an Irish Catholic or an Irish Prod (Protestant) and Church Power and it's tentacles.
An ARC gentle provided by author/publishers via Netgalley.
Banville also gives us his observations on Ireland, the separation, being an Irish Catholic or an Irish Prod (Protestant) and Church Power and it's tentacles.
An ARC gentle provided by author/publishers via Netgalley.
October 23, 2023
Aunque la trama es buena y el desenlace está bien logrado, no he terminado de divertirme. Algo lenta y los dos investigadores protagonistas tampoco me han convencido del todo.
May 11, 2023
THE LOCK-UP by John Banville
Published : 5/23/2023
Publisher: Harlequin Publishers / Hanover Square Press
Notable Irish master writer and Booker Prize Winner turns his hand to literary crime police procedural mysteries. This is a reprise of two main characters featured his two earlier novels. An unlikely duo of renown pathologist Dr. Quirke and Detective Inspector John Strafford ( A Protestant in Ireland’s predominantly Catholic police force ) Instilled into the mystery is not only divergent characters with an unusual antagonist attitude, but also the setting and place of 1950 Dublin …. which alone is worth the price of admission. The gritty streets populated by a multitude of characters of dubious motivation. Banville provides the necessary backstory to allow the reader to immediately immerse themselves into the complex dynamics of the main characters , as well as the political and religious events of the time. Quirke unrealistically holds a grudge against Strafford. On their previous case Strafford could not shoot their hunted quarry, until after his wife was fatally wounded.
They are reluctantly forced together when called to the scene of garage lock-up. A young woman named Rosa Jacobs was found dead in car … presumably a suicide by carbon monoxide. Dr Quirke quickly finds evidence implicating a probable murder, with only a staged suicide. The victim’s sister, Molly Jacobs quickly arrives from London, where she is a noted journalist. She provides information which aides the two men in their investigation. Rosa was apparently linked to a well known and wealthy German family - both father and son. The father arrived in Ireland shortly after the end of World War II, in a somewhat obscure and suspicious manner. Molly also is aware that a journalist friend of her’s was murdered in Israel. She apparently was investigating the burgeoning Israeli nuclear program. Is there a connection in these complex variables? Will the puzzle pieces come together to resolve this mystery? Even at odds with each other, the duo arduously struggle to find their answers and the truth.
John Banville provides a well written literary slow-burn mystery. As red herrings and clues mount up, intrigue and suspense slowly ratchet up to a satisfying denouement. This is not a barn burner, but an enjoyable and intriguing mystery, set in an interesting time in history, with exploration of political and religious differences of this time period.
Thanks to NetGalley and Hanover Square Press for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.
Published : 5/23/2023
Publisher: Harlequin Publishers / Hanover Square Press
Notable Irish master writer and Booker Prize Winner turns his hand to literary crime police procedural mysteries. This is a reprise of two main characters featured his two earlier novels. An unlikely duo of renown pathologist Dr. Quirke and Detective Inspector John Strafford ( A Protestant in Ireland’s predominantly Catholic police force ) Instilled into the mystery is not only divergent characters with an unusual antagonist attitude, but also the setting and place of 1950 Dublin …. which alone is worth the price of admission. The gritty streets populated by a multitude of characters of dubious motivation. Banville provides the necessary backstory to allow the reader to immediately immerse themselves into the complex dynamics of the main characters , as well as the political and religious events of the time. Quirke unrealistically holds a grudge against Strafford. On their previous case Strafford could not shoot their hunted quarry, until after his wife was fatally wounded.
They are reluctantly forced together when called to the scene of garage lock-up. A young woman named Rosa Jacobs was found dead in car … presumably a suicide by carbon monoxide. Dr Quirke quickly finds evidence implicating a probable murder, with only a staged suicide. The victim’s sister, Molly Jacobs quickly arrives from London, where she is a noted journalist. She provides information which aides the two men in their investigation. Rosa was apparently linked to a well known and wealthy German family - both father and son. The father arrived in Ireland shortly after the end of World War II, in a somewhat obscure and suspicious manner. Molly also is aware that a journalist friend of her’s was murdered in Israel. She apparently was investigating the burgeoning Israeli nuclear program. Is there a connection in these complex variables? Will the puzzle pieces come together to resolve this mystery? Even at odds with each other, the duo arduously struggle to find their answers and the truth.
John Banville provides a well written literary slow-burn mystery. As red herrings and clues mount up, intrigue and suspense slowly ratchet up to a satisfying denouement. This is not a barn burner, but an enjoyable and intriguing mystery, set in an interesting time in history, with exploration of political and religious differences of this time period.
Thanks to NetGalley and Hanover Square Press for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.
June 20, 2023
I've never read this series! (OMG, how did I miss it?) Set in Dublin, 1957, a mystery involving the death of a young Jewish woman in a garage 'lock-up.' Was it suicide - or something more insidious? Rosa Jacobs is found in a car with all the windows up, except for the one with a hose at the top running from the exhaust to inside. (The open top of the window has also been sealed with tape.) So, yep, the authorities are quick to determine must be suicide.
Or was it!?
Though the story is about the death of this woman, I found it to be more concerned with the individuals involved, affected by, or investigating what happened to her. Mr. Banville never saw a conversation which he couldn't dissect in rather excruciating detail. Every gesture, every nuance, every time a person looks away, or down, or moves a cup on a table - it has to have significance. So the dialogue - which I found the most interesting part of this book - must be read very, very carefully. Don't breeze through it! As Dr. Quirke, pathologist, and Detective Inspector St. John Strafford examine the case from every possible angle, their interactions are as interesting and as meticulously presented as the forensics are in many a similar book. These two banter, argue and even antagonize each other as they try to determine what really happened to Rosa Jacobs.
As this is book #9 in a long-running series, I would imagine the two men have a lot of back story/history which I've missed. I do intend to make up for this and will prob. start with book #1. But all in all, I found it a fascinating and complex read even though I came late to the parade...
Five stars.
Or was it!?
Though the story is about the death of this woman, I found it to be more concerned with the individuals involved, affected by, or investigating what happened to her. Mr. Banville never saw a conversation which he couldn't dissect in rather excruciating detail. Every gesture, every nuance, every time a person looks away, or down, or moves a cup on a table - it has to have significance. So the dialogue - which I found the most interesting part of this book - must be read very, very carefully. Don't breeze through it! As Dr. Quirke, pathologist, and Detective Inspector St. John Strafford examine the case from every possible angle, their interactions are as interesting and as meticulously presented as the forensics are in many a similar book. These two banter, argue and even antagonize each other as they try to determine what really happened to Rosa Jacobs.
As this is book #9 in a long-running series, I would imagine the two men have a lot of back story/history which I've missed. I do intend to make up for this and will prob. start with book #1. But all in all, I found it a fascinating and complex read even though I came late to the parade...
Five stars.
December 27, 2023
This is the second John Banville novel that I have read and I think I can safely say there won’t be a third. It is a long time since I have disliked a book as much as this one, I have given it one star, I would have given it less if I could.
It is as if Banville has set out to write the most unpleasant piece of fiction he could come up with. It appears to be a murder story set in 1950s Ireland, but the initial crime becomes almost irrelevant and when the murderer was finally revealed I was struggling to remember who the character was. Both the setting and the historical placing of the story become increasingly important but I found it almost impossible to follow the significance of these as the author doesn’t bother to explain any of the complex historical and political background.
But this all pales into insignificance in comparison to the sheer vileness of virtually all the characters, Stratford and Quirke or two of the most unpleasant men I have ever had the misfortune to meet in fiction and even allowing for the historical setting of this novel the levels of casual misogyny that are displayed are unbearable.
It is as if Banville has set out to write the most unpleasant piece of fiction he could come up with. It appears to be a murder story set in 1950s Ireland, but the initial crime becomes almost irrelevant and when the murderer was finally revealed I was struggling to remember who the character was. Both the setting and the historical placing of the story become increasingly important but I found it almost impossible to follow the significance of these as the author doesn’t bother to explain any of the complex historical and political background.
But this all pales into insignificance in comparison to the sheer vileness of virtually all the characters, Stratford and Quirke or two of the most unpleasant men I have ever had the misfortune to meet in fiction and even allowing for the historical setting of this novel the levels of casual misogyny that are displayed are unbearable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 9, 2024
This one made me uncomfortable. It is full of misogynistic middle aged and old male characters who say nasty things about Jews as well. I guess that's the point of the period piece and to skewer the ugliness of these characters but the women are all side characters who make brief appearances either as victims or, inexplicably seem to be attracted to older, uninteresting, alcoholic, men despite them being younger, accomplished and educated. This just keeps happening and isn't justified at all. I didn't buy any of these relationships (the final one in the epilogue was really the proverbial needle).
As a whodunit I don't particularly buy it either. No idea how this one gets solved. The time is all spent on societal niceties where nothing direct can ever be asked. That said, that makes an interesting look at 50s Ireland (not a pretty picture is drawn) and the war and post war connections are interesting.
As a whodunit I don't particularly buy it either. No idea how this one gets solved. The time is all spent on societal niceties where nothing direct can ever be asked. That said, that makes an interesting look at 50s Ireland (not a pretty picture is drawn) and the war and post war connections are interesting.
November 25, 2023
I very much enjoyed the first Strafford/Quirke crime novel, but I found this one hard going. The 1950s Dublin setting is interesting and Banville is a skilful writer, but he seems less interested in the plot and more in the awkward relationship between his two main characters who are somewhat arbitrarily drawn together. I didn’t quite believe that Dr Quirke, as a pathologist, could become so closely involved in a police investigation (as if he was also a detective). And, as others have pointed out, there’s the uncomfortable relationships both men have with much younger women.
Basically, I lost interest in the denouement and the various twists towards the end.
Basically, I lost interest in the denouement and the various twists towards the end.
March 22, 2024
Generally i have enjoyed Banville paticularly The Sea . this was a bit disappointing long chapters of not much happening and side scenes that did not mean much really. April in Spain much enjoyed .
September 30, 2025
Es el primer libro que leo del autor, y me ha decepcionado, esperaba una novela negra y no tiene nada de intriga, he perdido la cuenta de las veces que hace referencia a un caso anterior, en España.
la prosa es buena pero me ha aburrido, lo he acabado porque era corto
la prosa es buena pero me ha aburrido, lo he acabado porque era corto
July 27, 2023
Excellent. Another beautifully written Banville murder mystery. Very descriptive writing with fully developed characters;like them or not. Not your typical fast paced crime novel but a very interesting plot.
January 11, 2024
Ian McEwen, Julian Barnes, Allan Hollinghurst, Colm Tóibín, and Howard Jacobson are a group of Anglo/Irish post World War 2 authors whose work I like to engage with occasionally, especially when they’ve won one of those illustrative literary awards!
I read Banville’s 2008 Booker win ‘The Sea’. Unfortunately, I cannot remember any detail other than the sadness of the protagonist.
I am a fan of crime fiction so when I came across The Lock-up I thought I’d mix-up crime fiction and quality literary fiction.
Only after starting ‘The Lock-Up’ did I become aware that this was the third in a series. I guess you can enter the series at this late stage but as with most characters, and some events you do not have an understanding of the background that led up to the present.
The two main, somewhat misanthropic protagonists are Strafford and Quirke. They have at times, a tumultuous relationship which grew out of events in a previous book. Both aren’t characters who I warmed to.
In many respects this book is a multiple character study rather than a hang on to your seats crime thriller. At times I think Banville forgets this is crime fiction and there is a murder(s) to be solved. As the novel progresses a form of menage-a-quatre is created, with two men from the beginning of the silent generation and two women at the end of the silent generation. These were romances that were probably unnecessary and seemed to be possible only as a figment of the author’s own imagination.
There is another murder and an attempted murder. The mighty Irish Catholic church pokes it's nose into the investigation. What, corruption among the papists? Never! Banville captures the atmosphere of the Roman Catholicism’s captured country of Ireland.
Irish, history, politics and drinking habits are touched on. Banville’s incredibly powerful literary style engrossed and pleased me. He is a fine writer.
As I write this review the conflict between Hamas and Israel continuous unabated. I think authors will hesitate to use Israel as a setting in novels. ‘The Lock-Up’ touches on Israel in its early years.
It is only in the dying pages (pun intended) do the crimes start to unfold. But then it all becomes pointlessly predictable. What else could happen post-WW2 with Germans and Jews? It all seemed an easy uncomplicated way to conclude the story.
Banville is the master of personal desciptions.
“ . . . on the threshold a man stood framed against the darkness of the hallway behind him. He was a slight figure, slim, not tall, compactly made. He had a high forehead and a narrow skull, balding, steeply sloped. The skin, polished like leather. He wore a green Loden jacket, brown jodhpurs high brown boots . . . checked shirt, black velvet waistcoat a scarlet cravat stuck with a pearl pin . . . . he was in his late fifties; his face continued the lines of his skull and was long and narrow and burnished brown by long hours spent in the sun. The cheeks were concave, and his mouth was hardly more than a line marking the upper limit of a sharply sculptured chin.”
As a crime thriller I found it mediocre as a piece of literature it is Banville at his best. The plot was mostly stodgy and dull. The setting? An Ireland that I think most Irish would readily like to forget. Male characters who were narcistic self-indugent and full of pathos. The females: young vibrant and the future of Ireland except that they were mostly wasted by evil men.
I read Banville’s 2008 Booker win ‘The Sea’. Unfortunately, I cannot remember any detail other than the sadness of the protagonist.
I am a fan of crime fiction so when I came across The Lock-up I thought I’d mix-up crime fiction and quality literary fiction.
Only after starting ‘The Lock-Up’ did I become aware that this was the third in a series. I guess you can enter the series at this late stage but as with most characters, and some events you do not have an understanding of the background that led up to the present.
The two main, somewhat misanthropic protagonists are Strafford and Quirke. They have at times, a tumultuous relationship which grew out of events in a previous book. Both aren’t characters who I warmed to.
In many respects this book is a multiple character study rather than a hang on to your seats crime thriller. At times I think Banville forgets this is crime fiction and there is a murder(s) to be solved. As the novel progresses a form of menage-a-quatre is created, with two men from the beginning of the silent generation and two women at the end of the silent generation. These were romances that were probably unnecessary and seemed to be possible only as a figment of the author’s own imagination.
There is another murder and an attempted murder. The mighty Irish Catholic church pokes it's nose into the investigation. What, corruption among the papists? Never! Banville captures the atmosphere of the Roman Catholicism’s captured country of Ireland.
Irish, history, politics and drinking habits are touched on. Banville’s incredibly powerful literary style engrossed and pleased me. He is a fine writer.
As I write this review the conflict between Hamas and Israel continuous unabated. I think authors will hesitate to use Israel as a setting in novels. ‘The Lock-Up’ touches on Israel in its early years.
It is only in the dying pages (pun intended) do the crimes start to unfold. But then it all becomes pointlessly predictable. What else could happen post-WW2 with Germans and Jews? It all seemed an easy uncomplicated way to conclude the story.
Banville is the master of personal desciptions.
“ . . . on the threshold a man stood framed against the darkness of the hallway behind him. He was a slight figure, slim, not tall, compactly made. He had a high forehead and a narrow skull, balding, steeply sloped. The skin, polished like leather. He wore a green Loden jacket, brown jodhpurs high brown boots . . . checked shirt, black velvet waistcoat a scarlet cravat stuck with a pearl pin . . . . he was in his late fifties; his face continued the lines of his skull and was long and narrow and burnished brown by long hours spent in the sun. The cheeks were concave, and his mouth was hardly more than a line marking the upper limit of a sharply sculptured chin.”
As a crime thriller I found it mediocre as a piece of literature it is Banville at his best. The plot was mostly stodgy and dull. The setting? An Ireland that I think most Irish would readily like to forget. Male characters who were narcistic self-indugent and full of pathos. The females: young vibrant and the future of Ireland except that they were mostly wasted by evil men.
May 28, 2024
I was disappointed. I love Banville’s work, but this was the first of his crime fiction that I’ve read. The premise is great - Anglo-Irish detective in the Garda Siochana, working with a spiky pathologist - but for me it did not deliver and that feels like a really badly missed opportunity.
The plot is rather simplistic and full of very tired tropes - Nazis hiding out in post-war plain sight, tired grieving middle-aged men seeking redemption in younger women and an apparent limitless supply of attractive young women seeking to redeem them, evil RC clerics, etc.
The love interests are very clunky and unconvincing, and in particular not at all of their time.
Banville also falls prey to the affliction that affects lots of modern Irish writers in that he seems to believe that simply naming a Dublin street or restaurant will conjure up an ambiance or set a scene. It just doesn’t work. I’m a Dubliner and grew up there in the 60s and 70s and I’m longing for someone to capture the atmosphere well, but this didn’t.
It’s all just a bit unoriginal and Banville can surely do better.
The plot is rather simplistic and full of very tired tropes - Nazis hiding out in post-war plain sight, tired grieving middle-aged men seeking redemption in younger women and an apparent limitless supply of attractive young women seeking to redeem them, evil RC clerics, etc.
The love interests are very clunky and unconvincing, and in particular not at all of their time.
Banville also falls prey to the affliction that affects lots of modern Irish writers in that he seems to believe that simply naming a Dublin street or restaurant will conjure up an ambiance or set a scene. It just doesn’t work. I’m a Dubliner and grew up there in the 60s and 70s and I’m longing for someone to capture the atmosphere well, but this didn’t.
It’s all just a bit unoriginal and Banville can surely do better.
August 10, 2023
3.5 stars. A well written crime fiction novel set in Dublin in the 1950s. Pathologist Dr. Quirke and DI St. John Stafford team together to solve the mystery of the death of Rosa Jacobs. Rosa, a young history scholar, is found dead in her car. Initially deemed a suicide but later it is established that she was murdered.
There are links between Rosa and an Israeli journalist who has been killed in a hit and run. A German family that Rosa has been associated with become suspects.
The best part of this novel involves the details of Dr. Quirke, his thoughts and feelings, given a tragedy that occurred six months ago. Dr. Quirke forms an attachment to Rosa’s sister, Molly.
There is a surprise ending!
Overall a very satisfying reading experience.
This book was first published in 2023.
There are links between Rosa and an Israeli journalist who has been killed in a hit and run. A German family that Rosa has been associated with become suspects.
The best part of this novel involves the details of Dr. Quirke, his thoughts and feelings, given a tragedy that occurred six months ago. Dr. Quirke forms an attachment to Rosa’s sister, Molly.
There is a surprise ending!
Overall a very satisfying reading experience.
This book was first published in 2023.
February 22, 2025
1.5. Middle aged emotionally stunted men managing to attract beautiful young women, often those being mourners in crimes these men investigate. The usual cliched tropes against Jews, but supposedly alright if voiced through the views of the characters.
Can you imagine a plot with a shabby, middle aged divorcee/“spinster” detective/pathologist who has anger management issues and no friends, perhaps alcoholism in the mix, where a young, vital, handsome relative of a murdered victim wants to jump into bed with her? Me neither. Never mind the ethical implications. No more Banville for me. Gave him a second go. Now done.
Can you imagine a plot with a shabby, middle aged divorcee/“spinster” detective/pathologist who has anger management issues and no friends, perhaps alcoholism in the mix, where a young, vital, handsome relative of a murdered victim wants to jump into bed with her? Me neither. Never mind the ethical implications. No more Banville for me. Gave him a second go. Now done.
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