A wife of a university professor goes missing in the depths of rural Ireland.. Her husband claims she ran towards the sea after an argument. The questions are many: What they were doing in this part of the country? Why is the husband seemingly unperturbed? And what is his relationship with the holidaymakers staying in an isolated house nearby?
Although we have a detective (Stratford) and a pathologist (Quirke) as the two main protagonists, this isn't a conventional detective story. It is a mystery but it follows a path of discovery and slow-burning unravelling rather than anything that one would consider a police investigation. At the centre of it stand the characters, their pasts, their secrets and their relationships with each other. There is a rich assembly of distinct, flawed personalities. Apart from Strafford and Quirke, and the woman standing between (Strafford's lover - Quirke's daughter), there are the suspects, witnesses and bystanders, all with their oddities, murky past, dysfunctional relationships and tragic life experiences that shape the direction of this story. Banville's psychological profiling is flawless, his characterisation multi-layered.
The same can be said about his handling of the setting - the 50s Ireland. Without over-loading us with descriptions, he somehow manages to generate a sense of place and time that is immediate and intimate to the reader. This knack for building something tangible and real out of words is owed to the author's indomitable prose. You could read this book for the writing alone.
In the end we know what happened, but there are many loose ends and individual stories left unresolved to make it all that much more real. If Banville was true to the demands of the genre he would have tied all those loose ends up and the story would be over and quickly forgotten. But this book is true to life and human nature rather than to genre specifications, and it will stay with you.

I really enjoyed the characters and the setting but think I maybe should have read the previous book to have got the most from the story.
I have to admit I wasn’t even sure when the story had ended and started to read the descriptions of the earlier books.
Having said that, I do intend to search out this authors other books as I like his writing style.

Say what you will about John Banville’s novels featuring the Irish Detective Inspector Strafford, but it’s impossible to fail to recognise an approach to his writing that sets him apart from the more routine journeyman offerings from typical police procedurals. It is almost as if the police investigation shares star billing with a more carefully - even beautifully - structured novel that explores the complex relationships between key characters. So, in this case, we have suspicious deaths and reasonably easily identifiable wrong’uns, but there is also a second plot that looks at Strafford’s complex personal life and a quite complex set of interactions between the two plot elements.
Lest this sounds altogether too unlikely or complex, it’s enough to say that, somehow, it just fits neatly together and works. A passing bonus is that Banville conjures up an Irish society swept away over the intervening decades of social change. Add to this mix a beautiful writing style and you have a winner.
Highly recommended.

The Quirke and Strafford series just gets better, and Banville's decision to bring them together - and indeed to write under his own name - was inspired. Each book is pitch perfect in terms of atmosphere and setting. A gorgeous autumnal read with real bite. I'd like to see a Phoebe series too...

This is the first time I have read a book by John Banville and although I did struggle to get into the book at first, I ended up really enjoying it!
The book is set in 1950's England and starts with a dog walker finding an abandoned car left in a field, engine still running, the lights on, and the doors open.
A man suddenly appears from nowhere, waving his arms and asking for help. His wife had run off towards the cliffs and he assumed that she has fallen into the sea.
So begins a tale of secrets, lies and old rivalries....

I found it really difficult to read this book- I didn't like the writing style, and couldn't warm to the characters. I tried to read the previous titles in this series and found them hard going too. From other peoples' reviews, they seem to be well loved books and stories- just not for me. Please give them a go though, you might find something I didn't.

When authors try and write about 1950s Ireland, they usually fail. Not so with John Banville whose Strafford and Quirke mysteries are perfectly formed. A man with a tainted history comes across an abandoned car in a field and is then accosted by a man who claims his wife was driving the car and ran off and is now feared drowned. The story unfolds involving a local house where these two strangers head to. Of course, nothing is as it seems…a missing person’s case in 1950s Ireland. A woman, who probably ran off. Banville captures the social status of women perfectly. There is no nostalgia, just fact. The complex relationship between the detective Strafford and the pathologist Quirke continues. Characters are complex and nothing about Banville’s mystery are routine or predictable. As usual, he writes flawlessly. Highly enjoyable.

This was the most unusual book I have read and need to rate. The author is talented, the characters interesting, however I felt there was a plot that was very poor. Disappointed

The ending was happy and romantic but still not my favourite book

Thank you to Netgalley

Brilliant writing. Set in mid century Ireland, Detective Strafford is an awkward man; tall, gangly and not a favourite of Quirke the pathologist. Forced together in a case that appears peculiar from the start, the two are each experiencing changes in their personal lives leaving their professional relationship off kilter. Great details, wonderful character description and some fabu!ous quotes and phrases.

The Drowned is the latest, highly absorbing Strafford and Quirke crime novel, set in 1950s Ireland.

Our story opens with Ronald Armitage turning up at the door of Charles and Charlotte Ruddock, who are holidaying on the Wicklow coast. He’s there to seek help; his wife is missing. According to Armitage, she’s most likely thrown herself into the sea after a row. Yet, he is bizarrely laid-back, happy to accept whiskey after whiskey, laugh and joke. Hardly the picture of the doting husband out his mind with worry. Instead, his affect is off; like a bad actor. He is clearly a nefarious character, a man to make your skin crawl.

Detective Inspector St John Strafford is dispatched from Dublin to investigate and soon discovers that nothing about the case will be straightforward. Yet what evidence of foul play can be found? Little to none, and a hunch is not enough for a criminal investigation.

But then the Ruddock’s son goes missing, and there’s an increasing sense of urgency. Is Denton Whymes a convicted paedophile involved, or is that too easy a convenient jump for the local Wicklow Gardai?

Strafford also has problems in his personal life; his wife wants a divorce, and his lover (Quirke’s daughter) is in the family way - our bumbling, rather uptight but incredibly intuitive detective has a lot on his plate.

The Drowned is an excellent whodunnit with a clever plot and deft use of building suspense and inner turmoils of our rather quirky cast of characters that’ll keep you turning the pages until the end. But Banville’s masterstroke is how he captures the 1950s period so evocatively, the style, the speech, and the social rules spoken and unspoken.

I look forward to reading more from Banville. 4⭐

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy. As always, this is an honest review.

Set in 1950s Ireland , a man Weymes, who is a bit of a loner living in a remotely sited caravan near the coast , taking his dog for a walk finds a Mercedes sports car in a field with the drivers door open and the engine running. When trying to decide whether to just ignore it or report it , a man appears across the field shouting that his wife has drowned .They go to a nearby house to report it to the police and it appears that the man knows the people who are staying there but they do not say anything and act as strangers ,the man is offered a whiskey while the garda arrive but by the time they do he has consumed a large quantity and is taken to a local inn to sleep it off, his behaviour not correct for someone whose wife has drowned. His story seems to change when questioned and things look suspicious as to what exactly happened. The local detective Syrafford and his friend the pathologist Quirke investigate what happens and a few days later the body of a woman is found further round the coast.In the meantime the child of the people staying at the house where the report about the missing woman was made disappears and suspicion falls on Weymes. and this also has to be investigated by Strafford and Quirke , who form an unlikely partnership. Many twists along the way to the truth in a well written story

Fantastic read by John Banville.

Lovely setting with interesting characters, I really felt connected to them.
The storyline unfolded well and was easy to read.
I'm pleased that there are more books coming in the series, as I feel there were some unanswered questions.

I was sent a copy of The Drowned by John Banville to read and review by NetGalley. This is the first Strafford and Quirke Mystery that I have read so I have come to it when the characters are well established. This didn’t help me to warm to either subject as there was so much animosity between them. It also vaguely reminded me of a different pairing of fictitious characters, though I cannot remember where from. The story was quite interesting, if a little disjointed at times, and the ending happened so abruptly and seemingly out of place that I wasn’t entirely sure whether it was supposed to be the end at all. This is one of the reasons that I would have rated the novel as 3.5 stars rather than the 4 that I had to give it, as I did feel it was worth more than 3. I may have felt differently had I read the previous books in the series and got to know the characters better – or maybe not!

A woman is believed to be drowned. Her husband is a suspect. Stratford is trying to find out what happens. His life is complicated as is that of his girlfriend and her father. He does try to do the right thing

This atmospheric and expertly written novel is a considerable notch above the typical murder mystery, pulling the reader into 1950's Ireland and it's attitudes of the time. The pairing of a detective and a pathologist is not unusual in crime literature, but different here is their cold reluctant relationship, a subtle dislike of each other. Much of the novel focuses on their personal lives rather than the mystery itself, but the novel is richer for that.

I will be seeking out more books in this series.

A most interesting read of a car abandoned in the middle of a field, lighted and engine running left by a woman dashing off and disappearing leaving her husband behind. A missing person case investigated by DI Stafford and his college Dr Quirke a pathologist. With no apparent leads until a body is recovered from the sea, the story more relates to their midlife crisis. The DI after a long childless marriage has slowly drifted apart when his wife wanted a divorce to which he agreed. While Dr Quirke’s wife had died leaving he stricken, coming to his senses he finds solace in building a relationship with his grown up daughter that he had neglected ,can they make a new beginning which is on the horizon. Meanwhile investigation of the case proceeds per routine and gets resolved.

The characters behind the story make this read very intriguing. A fast paced read with plenty of red herrings.. I really enjoyed reading this and will read more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I found this to be a bit of a disappointment in that I was under the impression that no previous context was required for this novel. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The plot relied heavily on characters from what I have now found out are from separate series, and I felt like there was an assumed knowledge of them and their relationships that I simply did not have. This, unfortunately, reduced my enjoyment of this book substantially, and I found myself a bit lost in what was, unfortunately, without the previous context, I just didn't connect to the characters.

I also found that there just simply was not an interest for me in the character development as they went along, and the mystery was not a particularly heavy focus (to the point where I sometimes forgot that I was reading a detective novel). Some of the writing was really good in places, and I saw the potential, but sadly, I didn't see things come through.

I have not read a John Banville book before but this is the fourth in the Strafford and Quirke series. As with all series there is inevitably some character history you are unaware of having not read previous books in the series but I feel it did not prove a major issue to me. The book is well written but perhaps lacks a little depth in the plot. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC this book.

'The Drowned' is the fourth book in the Strafford and Quirke Mystery series. Outstanding once again is John Banville's poetic and descriptive writing. I did feel like being transported back to Dublin and rural Ireland in the 1950's. The story itself is more like a study of the relationship between the two main protagonists rather than an actual murder investigation. This mystery novel can be read as a standalone book but is best placed within the series. Some of it's characters have been featured in the previous book 'The Lockup' so it feels more like a sequel to it.
All in all I enjoyed another adventure by Detective Inspector Strafford and Pathologist Quirke. Many thanks to #NetGalley and #FaberBooks for providing me with an ARC.