Legal Research

John Banville ? Snow

By Scott

‘The body is in the library,? Colonel Osborne said. ?Come this way.?

I love this as a set-up in this book. It immediately puts you in a Ngaio Marsh, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers frame of mind. A country house murder, with a small cast of potential murderers, and a steady detective to piece it all together. The detective in question is St John Strafford. He has been sent from Dublin to Co. Wexford following the discovery of the corpse of a highly respected parish priest at Ballyglass House ? the home of the aristocratic Osborne family. He is sent , in part because it is a world he understands, and in part to facilitate the keeping of a lid on events. He has been chosen to play his part. He is not the only one, as he observes the Osborne family also seem to be playing parts “She too, like everybody else Strafford has so far encountered at Ballyglass House, had the look of a character actor hired that morning”

What follows, in some ways, could seem a cliched Irish novel: a book about the tensions between protestant and catholic, the state and the church, and the behaviour of those within the church. It is not a book that would likely have been published in Ireland during the period it is set. In fact , in some ways you could argue, the resolution to the crime is almost beside the point in this book. And again, with a writer such as Banville and his use of language : “The sky was loaded with a swag of mauve-tinted clouds, and the air was the colour of tarnished pewter”, you almost don’t care either. However, I did want to know and I was swept along by Detective Inspector Strafford’s progress.

But then.

Towards the end we get an interlude from another character in the book, which serves to tell us who the killer likely may be. But, it also felt strangely out of place ? to me, at least. It took me out of the book, even whilst its exposition heavy snow covered boots were stomping away with their background information. It didn’t feel like it had earned the right to be there. Had the book been more readily interspersed with this other voice from the off it might have worked, but as executed here, I think if fails. This is a shame because I was totally onboard with the book up until that point. Spoilt this being a very good novel.

I was also quite surprised to see Snow released under Banville’s own name considering that he has issued a collection of thrillers – ? most featuring the character of his Irish pathologist Quirke – under his pseudonym Benjamin Black. Indeed it was only earlier this years that he published  “The Secret Guests” where we first encountered St John Strafford. With my cynic hat on you’d almost think that the presence of Lee Child on this year’s Booker judging panel made the publishers go ‘ a thriller could get a nod’ this year. After all, Banville is a previous winner – Banville’s 14th novel, The Sea, won the prize back in 2005. But, I’m sure that is a coincidence.

“It’s a library” he muttered incredulously to Hendricks, “it’s an actual fucking library, and there’s a body in it!”

Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC to read and review.

The post John Banville – Snow appeared first on Information Overlord.

Full post as published by Information Overload on July 15, 2020 (boomark / email).