The Lock-Up by John Banville

There are writers of mystery novels – many very good ones – and then there is John Banville who is another cup of tea entirely!

John Banville is a well-known Irish writer of many award-winning literary novels. As a sort of break, a rest, he sat down to write a mystery novel – just for the fun of it.

His first, Christine Falls, introduced Quirke – a pathologist, a prodigious drinker, a man who loves women but not often commitment. Christine Falls was published under the pseudonym Benjamin Black in 2007. Everyone knew the books were by John Banville – it was simply a way of differentiating them from his more serious work.

After several books featuring Quirke under the pen name of Benjamin Black, Banville said in a New York Times interview, “But when I found that I liked the Blacks, I said to myself, ‘Why do I need this rascal anyway?’ So, I shut him in a room with a pistol, a phial of sleeping pills and a bottle of Scotch, and that was the end of him.”

When the novel Snow was published in the fall of 2020 John Banville put his own name on the cover. Snow introduced a new detective – a young St. John Strafford – a Protestant. It is still Ireland in the 1950s but with a different perspective and a new personality. I liked Snow – and in fact it was then that I read all the earlier “Benjamin Black” novels.

A new Quirke novel followed, April in Spain, and now The Lock-Up which features both Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford.

The Lock-Up begins with a few pages set in Europe at the end of the Second World War and continues 12 years later in Ireland. The body of a young woman is found in a car, in a garage, an apparent suicide – until Dr Quirke determines otherwise. It is Quirke’s insistence that this is murder that brings DI Strafford to the case.

What follows is one of the best of the series, in my opinion. I liked the relationship between the two men and their interactions with the other characters, Quirke’s daughter especially. The character most likely to be the murderer – or not – has an interesting story. Is he a “bad guy” – or not?

The woman who has been murdered – or not – brings with her a story of war and survival. As always there is the power – and corruption – of the church.

John Banville – great writer – great mystery novel writer!