The drowned : a novel

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Title:

Author:

Banville, John, author.

Black, Benjamin, 1945- author.

Series:

Quirke ;

Series Number:

10.

Summary:

"1950s, rural Ireland. A 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 case, as a husband claims his wife may have 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--a man he is linked to in increasingly complicated ways. But as the case unfolds, events from the past resurface that may have life-altering ramifications for all involved."-- Dust jacket flap

General Note:

First published in Great Britain in 2024 by Faber & Faber Ltd.

Previous titles in the Quirke series published under Benjamin Black, a pen name of John Banville.

Physical Description:

328 pages ; 24 cm.

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction.

Historical fiction.

Thrillers (Fiction)

Subject Term:

Quirke (Fictitious character : Black) -- Fiction.

Missing persons -- Investigation -- Fiction.

Pathologists -- Fiction.

Police -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Ireland -- Fiction.

Author(s):

Black, Benjamin, 1945-

Publisher:

Hanover Square Press,

Publication Date:

2024

ISBN:

9781335000590

Publication Information:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada : Hanover Square Press, 2024.

Call Number:

BANVILLE

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003756890	New Adult Fiction	BANVILLE John	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

From the renowned Booker Prize winner and nationally bestselling author of Snow comes a richly atmospheric new mystery about a woman's sudden disappearance in a small coastal town in Ireland, where nothing is as it seems.

"John Banville is one of my favorite writers alive, and I pick up his books whenever I need a reminder how to write a good sentence."--R.F. Kuang

Amazon Editors' Pick: Best Literature and Fiction books of October

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

1950s, rural Ireland. A 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 case, as a husband claims his wife may have 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--a man he is linked to in increasingly complicated ways. But as the case unfolds, events from the past resurface that may have life-altering ramifications for all involved.

At once a searing mystery and a profound meditation on the hidden worlds we all inhabit, The Drowned is the next great Strafford and Quirke novel from a beloved writer at the top of his game.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Booker winner Banville's latest crime saga featuring Det. Insp. John Strafford and pathologist Garret Quirke (after April in Spain) is a lyrical but lugubrious affair. On an October evening in the 1950s, hermit Denton Wymes finds an abandoned Mercedes in a field on Ireland's southeastern coast. Soon, a man named Armitage crests a nearby hill and tells Wymes that his wife may have just drowned herself. The pair seeks help at a nearby cottage, where the residents and Armitage act oddly. After Wymes contacts the police, Strafford's boss sends him from Dublin to investigate. Upon his arrival, he discovers that Armitage "seemed to regard the disappearance of his wife as little more than an inconvenience," but without a body, the investigation has little to go on. Instead, Banville zeroes in on Strafford's impending divorce; his bumbling affair with Quirke's daughter, Phoebe; and Quirke's angst about his wife's recent death. Banville is a formidable stylist ("There was none of summer's languorous vibrancy, only a great pale-blue stillness," he writes of autumn's arrival in a small town), but none of the novel's domestic drama is particularly gripping, and the solution to the mystery is both underwhelming and too tangled in series lore. It's a case of atmosphere over action that's unlikely to satisfy most mystery fans. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (Oct.)