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. Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? 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. I found this book to be quite slow-paced and more character-driven than I had expected, focusing more on the drama surrounding the characters than the actual plot. While I enjoyed getting to know the characters, which were well developed from previous books in the series, I felt like their drama took away from what should have been an exciting murder mystery plot line. Additionally, I noticed that the two main characters (Quirke and Strafford) rarely talked to each other which made me feel disconnected from them both emotionally and intellectually. They have a strange dynamic, not often seen.

This is the third one in his Pathologist, Quirke and Detective Stratford series, following on directly from “April in Spain” when Quirke’s wife was shot and Stratford failed to save her. This is a major theme of the book as Quirke grieves and harbours resentment for this failure and Strafford feels guilt although he knows there was nothing he could have done.

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For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. The opening of the book describes a German man escaping from Germany at the close of the Second World War and this becomes an integral part of the story. 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 spike pathologist - but for me it did not deliver and that feels like a really badly missed opportunity.

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 I began with the prototype novel that first created the character, Detective St. John Strafford. Although it was a very unique WWII story, a sort of quasi-thriller, it was not an actual police procedural, or a true mystery, but drew an amusing and bumbling portrait of top secret wartime efforts at V.I.P. protection, while cleverly illuminating the centuries-long resentment and mistrust of the Irish for the British contrasted against the British conqueror’s withering distain and a sclerotic aristocracy. All while they attempted to cooperate -- uncomfortably -- against the common Nazi threat. It was an out-of-left-field espionage romp. 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. Of the two main characters Strafford is the solid, dependable and more likeable one. He initially studied law, but left after a few months to join the garda. Like his marriage he drifted into his career and people often remark that he’s not what one expects an Irish detective to be. Yet, he knows how to handle unusual circumstances because of his own outsider status. Being a Protestant loyalist in the Republic of Ireland has its challenges. The plot is rather simplistic and full of very tired tropes - Nazis hiding out in post-was 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.

Despite their mutual animosity, Strafford and Quirke attempt to connect the dots that could lead to Rosa’s murderer. There are several theories, including her ties to an old, wealthy German family, Phoebe’s ex-boyfriend, Quirke’s ex-colleague and a woman who researched an Israeli nuclear weapons plan. Rosa’s reputation is tainted posthumously by people implying that her loose morals, rebellious nature and always getting herself into trouble led to her death. There was, as you would expect from Banville and Quirke, a very complicated plot with many twists and turns. To be honest, with this one I found my credibility stretched to the point where I was pulled out of the book and started to question, something that rarely happens with this series. I felt that he was trying too hard to pull in too many historical elements, and it would have been better (for me at any rate) if he'd left it less complicated. What I was interested in was the people, the relationships, Strafford, and how Quirke was dealing with life after Spain. Yes, I was happy to see some familiar vile faces from past books, but I didn't think it needed to pull in so many strands. 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 everyone involved—in peril, including Quirke’s own daughter. An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored. Quirke tends to see things others miss and looks at a crime scene and its victims through the eyes of a pathologist rather than a detective. Their collaboration is a challenging one – Quirke despises Strafford, even more so after what happened in Spain, and Strafford can’t bear to be in the same room as the abrasive doctor. Despite the apparent similarities, they are hardly Holmes and Watson.

You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. The Kesslers, father and son businessmen, who live in a huge house in the area, become suspects- Quirke and Strafford have a feeling that they are not who they seem and have hidden secrets driving them. If you are looking for a fast paced thriller this is not for you. This is a literary crime mystery which is full of interesting observations about post war Ireland including casual antisemitism and the complicity of the church in aiding the perpetrators of the Holocaust. There is a murder at the heart of it but that is not the sole purpose of the book. If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month. Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland. His father worked in a garage and died when Banville was in his early thirties; his mother was a housewife. He is the youngest of three siblings; his older brother Vincent is also a novelist and has written under the name Vincent Lawrence as well as his own. His sister Vonnie Banville-Evans has written both a children's novel and a reminiscence of growing up in Wexford.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. The death of the woman, Rosa, is ultimately tied to that Catholic-German (Nazi)-Israeli axis I mentioned above. That's enough on that. 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. Rosa Jacobs, a young history student, is discovered dead in her automobile in 1950s Dublin. The victim’s elder sister Molly, a seasoned journalist, finds a clue that might help solve the case. Famous pathologists Dr. Quirke and DI St. John Strafford start looking into death as a murder. It turns out that one of Rosa’s acquaintances comes from a wealthy German family who mysteriously came to Ireland immediately after World War Two. The case, as well as the lives of everyone involved, including Quirke’s daughter, maybe in danger as Quirke and Strafford close in, however, due to their personal lives.

Rather than focus primarily on the plot, Banville is more interested in fleshing out his characters, exploring the complexities of their lives and highlighting how the often unseen forces of religion and politics shape decisions and outcomes.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