“Snow” by John Banville

It’s near Christmas of 1957 and heavily snowing. Detective Inspector St. John Strafford is called to County Wexford in Ireland to the ancestral home of the Osbornes, a family that has seen better times but still maintain their position, at least in their own eyes. Like Strafford, they are Protestant, the remnant of the great landed families who dominated Ireland before independence from Britain. Strafford himself is the son of a similar family in similar circumstances – and no one knows why he became a police officer, including Strafford himself. 

What it’s been called to investigate is the body of a Catholic priest, Father Tom Lawless. The man, a frequent guest, had been found in the library, stabbed to death and the body mutilated. The body and the crime scene has also been tampered with – Colonel Osborne couldn’t stand the sight of the mess and so had the housekeeper clean up the blood. It soon becomes clear that this is where the priest may have died, but he was initially stabbed upstairs.

 

Strafford not only has to investigate the gruesome death, he also must deal with his political superior in the Dublin police force, the powerful archbishop of Ireland who prefers to cover up messy crimes, even of priest, and his own inner demons. And then his subordinate police officer, helping the investigation, disappears. 

 

John Banville

Snow is the first mystery novel in the Strafford and Quirke series by Irish writer John Banville. Originally published in 2020, it received rave reviews from The Guardian in Britain and The New York Times. It was something of a departure for Banville, a Booker Prize winner who’s known more for his literary novels. 

 

That said, Snow seems more a cross between a mystery novel and a literary one. It’s less about police procedure and solving a mystery and more about the interior life of the detective investigating the crime. But it’s well done, with Banville peeling away the layers of past and present that the crime is really all about.

 

In addition to his work in literary journalism (The Irish Press and The Irish Times), Banville is the author of numerous works of fiction, including novels, short stories, and novellas. Under the pseudonym Benjamin Black and his own name, he’s also written several crime novels. His fiction has received numerous awards, including the Franz Kafka Award and the Irish Pen Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature.

 

Related: The Sea by John Banville.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Tanya Berry’s Work and Wisdom – Gracy Olmstead at Granola.

 

In Praise of Common Sense – Chris Mackowski at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

The Ancient Roman Guide to Building Your Personal Library – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.