Chris's Review

Booker Prize winning author, John Banville, continues his crime writing with a further case set in Ireland involving detective Strafford and pathologist Quirke. The body of a young Jewish woman is found in a lock-up in Dublin assumed to be a suicide until Quirke thinks it is murder. The deceased’s sister returns from London and the three set about establishing the truth. Links to a wealthy German family with connections to Israel and establishment interference complicates the investigation. The relationship between the two men becomes strained while the mystery deepens with connections to WWII. It is a pleasure to read such a well written crime novel.

Publishers Reviews

1950s Dublin, in a lock-up garage in the city the body of a young woman is discovered, an apparent suicide. But pathologist Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford soon suspect foul play.

The victim's sister, a newspaper reporter from London, returns to Dublin to join the two men in their quest to uncover the truth. But, as they explore her links to a wealthy German family in County Wicklow, and to investigative work she may have been doing in Israel, they are confronted with an ever-deepening mystery. With relations between the two men increasingly strained, and their investigation taking them back to the final days of the Second World War, can they join the pieces of a hidden puzzle?