I love a Scottish/English/UK based classic countryside mystery, and this one was absolutely pitch perfect in every way. For fans of Agatha Christie and the like, you will eat this up.

A clever and always compelling detective story set in Ireland during a harsh winter in 1957.

St John Strafford is a Protestant detective in the new Republic of Ireland where the Catholic Church still holds sway over the lives of the population at large.

When this unusual cop is assigned a new case it will be anything other than straightforward as a ‘popular’ local priest is murdered in the seat of a landed Protestant family.

Snow lies all around and Christmas is approaching as Strafford arrives at Ballyglass House, the home of the Osbournes. The cold and the weather are real factors here, with hints to classic crime. “The Body in the Library” among them.

What I found very interesting though was the obvious but obscure murder mystery, where the truth is concealed even when known by everyone. The hold and secrecy of the church are also factors here. Above all it is a reflection, a snapshot in time of an emerging country and the development of an unconventional detective who is both engaging and a star whenever he is on the page.

I appreciate a good mystery and this seemed to have an interesting setting. I struggled with the story as there were more explicit and graphic elements than I was anticipating. I understand it was not a cozy, but I guess I was hoping for something cozyish. Nonetheless, it is well written.

Found this book very disappointing. It wasn’t a mystery. It was more of a documentary book than a thriller. Wasn’t what I’d been expecting

Detective Inspector St. John Strafford has been called to Ballyglass House in Ireland. The year is 1957 and the country is still heavily Catholic. The family who lives in Ballyglass House, the Osbornes, are Protestant as is Strafford. Ballyglass House is the house of title and prestige in the village, the place where hunts are done. The man of the house is a former Army man. His wife is his second wife and is one of those vapid, nervous women who seem to find life too, too difficult. There are two children, both almost grown. Dominic is at university to start his journey to a medical degree and Lettie is out of control, doing what she wants, including drinking and having sex with anyone she wants.

A murder is the cause of DI Strafford's call. The town parish priest, Tom, had stayed over the night before due to the snow. It is snowing everywhere in Ireland with blizzard conditions. Sometime during the night, someone jabbed the priest in the neck and watched him stagger down the stairs and make his way to the library. There he was castrated and finally died.

Who would do such a thing? Father Tom Lawless seemed popular with his congregation. His father had been an IRA higher up during the Troubles and Tom seemed to be making up for his father's sins. But Strafford soon finds there were enemies. Lady Osborne has a scandalous brother, who is forbidden the house and desperately wants Father Tom's thoroughbred horse. The local doctor calls on Mrs. Osbourne daily and seems to resent Tom's presence. Tom was assigned to the juvenile delinquent house of correction and one of his former charges may have come to call. Plus the deeper Strafford digs into the past, the more he starts to hear rumors about Father Tom's relationships with young boys. Can the D.I. solve the murder?

John Banville is an Irish writer who was born and grew up in this part of Ireland. One of his earlier novels, The Book Of Evidence, was longlisted for the Booker Prize. This novel was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger Award and was a New York Times Editor's Choice Pick. The character of D. I. Strafford is an interesting one and readers would be glad to read more about his cases. The atmosphere of the claustrophobia causes both by the snowy blizzard and the social mores of the times is done to perfection. This book is recommended for mystery writers.

I found this interesting for the depiction of a certain period and place in Irish history. The snowbound setting feels like it should be a Golden Age crime story, but the characters were all insufferable, and the sex scenes felt gratuitous. Well written, but unpleasant.

I dont have a lot to say about this book other than saying it was ODD and it just got even more odd as it progessed and I dont know what I actaully read

This was my first John Banville book and I was initially drawn into the atmospheric setting and the ensuing “locked-room” style mystery when a priest is found brutally murdered in a stately home. While the writing was superb with great characterisation I found the book to be overly long and drawn out, particularly as the twists are pretty easy to guess. The chapter from the POV of the priest was totally unnecessary and added nothing to the story. However it was a pretty accurate depiction of the power of the catholic church back in those days.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A detective novel set in Ireland in 1957. A detective is summoned to a country manor to investigate a murder.

This started off well for me. I enjoyed the setting, which was well drawn, and I was drawn into the character of St John Strafford, the detective.

I worked out most of the plot twists in advance of them occurring, however to me that’s not a bad thing as it means the author has fire shadowed the reveal well.

However, my enjoyment really waned when the author made a stylistic choice to have a chapter set from the POV of the murder victim. This chapter was vile and repulsive and tried to paint a heinous crime (or crimes) in a sympathetic light. I cannot get on board with this and didn’t think the chapter was necessary or that it added anything other then a repulsion.

I never really became fully invested again in the story after this which is a shame as it ruined a good police procedural with an interesting setting.

I can’t say that I would read more in this series after this experience.

AD - This copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

DI Strafford has been sent to Dublin to investigate the murder of a priest in the house of the local gentry. Strafford is a stranger in a strange land. And while he reports to his superior in the force, the Church authorities are also keen that he does not uncover a scandal.

A story set in the dark days of Ireland in the 1950s in a country still coming to terms with its independence where the Catholic Church still wields huge influence. This is not so much a murder mystery as a meditation on the tensions between the rich and poor, between Catholic and Protestant, the repression of sexual freedom (even condoms are banned) and the concealment of crime.

The plot is slow to unfold and Strafford, as he admits himself early on, is not much of an investigator. Nevertheless, he is stubborn in his search for answers, particularly amongst the eccentric characters of the house.

There is nothing groundbreaking here but still a rewarding read.

In the lead-up to Christmas, DI St. John Strafford is sent to a remote country house to investigate the gruesome murder of a local priest. Strafford has been picked for the job because he is the scion of a wealthy family, almost unique in the Garda.

Strafford arrives at Ballyglass House to find that the whole area is beset by heavy snow-falls and a deep winter pall. Colonel Osborne, owner of Ballyglass, is less than co-operative and seems keen to clear it all up quickly, with no reflection on the family. The local Cardinal also takes an interest, and puts serious pressure on Strafford to gloss over the sordid details, and wind the investigation up.

There are several references in the narrative where Strafford considers that it is all too much like being surrounded by a bunch of Irish countryside stereotypes. That is indeed true, and the downfall of this book. It comes across all too much like a gorier Midsomer Murders, and was therefore not my kind of crime novel.

I found this quite a challenging read. This was mostly because of the subject matter and I wasn't aware of how violent it would be in the descriptions. I am sadly unsure whether I would recommend this to anyone!

I enjoyed this book overall but at times it did feel a little drawn out, it took me a while to get into the story. Good characterisation and well written but I'm not sure I would read any future ones in a series.

John Banville was on my to-read list for a long time. I'm glad I finally read one of his works. And I was not disappointed. Although I wanted to read something from his literary fiction genre, this also gave me a glimpse of his writing.

Snow accompanies this chilling, atmospheric mystery from the beginning right to the end. John Banville's Snow is not a typical mystery. It is not very fast-paced, and it is more of a classic mystery. But interesting because of the beautiful writing and depiction of Ireland in the fifties. So, I would say not all readers will be satisfied. But those who like literary fiction and some atmospheric mood, classic or cozy mystery lovers, definitely could be.

Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this! All opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley. A complex, mystery set in Ireland. It is a gripping read though not suspenseful. I enjoyed it.

Synopsis: It is 1957, a few days prior to Christmas, and a parish priest has been murdered at Ballyglass House, an estate owned by the Osborne family. Detective Inspector St. John Strafford (pronounced Sin-jin) is heading up the case. He quickly determines that the priest did not die from a fall down the stairs and not only was stabbed but mutilated after death. While the residents in the near-by town are helpful to St. John giving him background information and gossip about the Osborne family, the family itself appears to be full of secrets.

My thoughts: Goodreads notes that this is the first book in what I am assuming is a new series from this author (St. John Strafford #1). Snow is a most appropriate title for this book as it is pretty much snowing the entire time St. John is in County Wexford investigating. There is also a definite chill in the air coming from the Osborne family. It took me a few chapters before I warmed to this story and the Detective Inspector but once I did, I was totally engaged with the novel and will most likely continue with this series if another book is published with this character.

This book is available now. Thank you to Netgalley and Faber & Faber for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

John Banville is an incredible novelist and there is plenty here to love in Snow in terms of the evocation of time and place. I hoped the story of a dead priest would’t go down the obvious route but sadly it did.

This may be part of a new series and I’d certainly be interested in a new St. John Strafford mystery purely based on the author’s prose.

Old Ireland, a mystery and truly exquisite writing. What more could a read want. Banville has done it again. He truly is a master, an artist, a perfectionist. This was magnificent.

Overall I did enjoy this book but I felt it could have been 100 pages shorter. It took a while for me to get into it and it was definitely a slow burner. It felt like an Agatha Christie novel but then the end was definitely more recent thriller vibes so overall the tone was hard to place. I think some readers may find the violence and sex off putting but I felt it added to the overall plot line if perhaps a bit overdone and obvious

I might read the other books in the series but I wouldn't seek them out. Overall a fine read.

Thanks to Faber & Faber and to NetGalley for providing me an ARC copy of this novel, which I freely chose to review.
John Banville is a well-known, well-respected, and multiple award winner author (his awards include the Booker Prize, the Franz Kafka Prize and the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature, among others), and although he is perhaps better known for his literary fiction (he also writes short stories, scripts and adapts plays), he has also written several crime fiction novels under the pen name of Benjamin Black. I read one of his novels years back (probably The Sea) and although I can’t remember much about it, what stayed with me was how beautiful his writing was. So, I was intrigued when I saw that he’d published the first book in a crime series, this time using his own name. And let me assure you that his writing is as beautiful as I remembered, even if the subject does not always correspond to the beauty vested upon it.
Funnily enough, this is a strange but unsuitably suitable Christmas read, as the story takes place around the festive season, but there is no Christmas cheer or spirit behind the happenings described in the book at all. I don’t want to talk about the plot in too much detail, to avoid spoilers and because I feel that the actual plot is somewhat incidental to what makes the book so interesting, but, in short, a Catholic priest is found dead in the library of a big aristocratic manor, in County Wexford, Ireland, in the late 1950s. The circumstances of his death are quite gruesome (despite the attempts at keeping the decorum the Church and most authorities involved make), and there are plenty of added complications. The Osborne family —the owners of the house— are Protestants, as is the detective inspector sent to investigate the murder, Strafford (from an aristocratic family as well), and, as you’d expect, they all hide secrets (or most of them): money is a problem; the first wife of Colonel Osborne died from a fall (down the same stairs the priest used before his death); Osborne’s new wife was a friend of the first wife, suffers from insomnia, is heavily medicated and is a less-than-reliable witness (she was the first person to find the body); the daughter of the family has been expelled from school but hasn’t told anybody and her behaviour is daring beyond her years; the son of the family is eager to abandon Medicine and seems to have some questionable friendships; there is a stable boy with a troubled past… As you might suspect from the title, there is plenty of snow that makes the search all the more complicated; nobody has seen or heard anything; the priest was supposed to be very popular but other than his sister nobody seems to be really sorry to see him go; Osborne’s brother-in-law has been banned from the house but was in the area at the time of the murder; there is a doctor who also hangs around the house and whose prescribing sounds suspect; the people in the village seem superficially friendly but are not very helpful, and the local police… Well, you probably catch my drift.
There is much in the novel that will remind classical mystery readers of the genre (yes, even the characters in the novel remark on the fact that the body is found in the library of a grand house), and there are plenty of homages/jokes/winks to other famous mysteries and characters, down to people always mispronouncing Strafford surname, asking him why he decide to become a detective (but he is not Poirot by any stretch of the imagination)… And Strafford is fully aware of the fact that he does not fit into the mould or the expectations, both as a detective and as a man of the upper-class, as he does not drink alcohol, he doesn’t smoke, he’s chosen a less-than-glamorous or reputable profession, and he is not particularly intuitive, brilliant, or self-assured. He does suffer from imposter-syndrome, and often feels as if he was playing a part in a play (and at times as if everybody else was as well). In some ways, the novel challenges the stereotypes of that kind of book, while staying pretty close to the form and some of its conventions. At times it feels as if the central character had walked into the wrong book, but as we read, we come to realise that other things are out-of-kilter as well. It is an eerie reading experience, and an unsettling one, in a good way.
When I said that the plot was rather incidental to the interest I felt for the book, that is because although there is a mystery, most people reading the novel now (and in the future) will probably suspect what is behind the crime from very early on, although that might not have been evident to somebody like Strafford at the time. Although the exact details are not straightforward and there is a later development that adds an interesting dimension to the actual ending, I think this is an occasion when the readers are likely to be ahead of the investigator and end up observing his thought processes and the whole community rather than looking for clues about the case. Other themes abound like: the strained relationships (at times) between Protestants and Catholics and the expectations and prejudices of both sides (Strafford’s conversation with the Archbishop is priceless); family relationships; changes in circumstances for old aristocratic/landed families; the power and control of the Catholic Church over the media and civil authorities; the secrets of the Church; the nature of gossip and rumour in small villages; recent Irish history, and above all, the character of Strafford, who can be in turn naïve and insightful, highly intelligent and blind, sophisticated and socially inadequate, sharp and useless at judging people, and whose self-knowledge is, at times, sorely lacking. The book deals in pretty dark subjects as well (that I won’t mention to avoid spoilers, but you might already suspect from my comments), while at the same time being witty and having some truly humorous moments (pretty dark at times).
I have talked about the main character and have mentioned some of the others. There is also Sergeant Jenkins (his description is priceless as you can see if you read on), a more standard fit into the genre, who investigates with Strafford although nobody can remember his name, and I’ve mentioned some of the other characters before, although there are also villagers, local police, and some that we only hear about but never get to meet. None of the other characters are as well-drawn or as distinctive as Strafford, and many would not stand out in a classical mystery novels, although with some twists and a dark undertone. I’ve read some reviews that complained of the female characters, and although it is true that they appear unrealistic, conventional, and two-dimensional, the rest of the male characters don’t fare much better either. I think it is partly to do with Strafford and his shortcomings (after all, we see things though his eyes), and in the few instances when we get a different perspective, things aren’t as simple as they appear to him. In some of the cases, later events and information casts doubts on what we thought we knew.
The story is told, mostly, in a linear fashion, in the third person, as we follow Strafford while he investigates. Although we get inside of his head and the action is described from his point of view most of the time, there are moments when an omniscient observer offers us a glimpse of Strafford from outside, as it were. There are also two fragments from a different point of view, clearly separated from the rest of the text: one following a female character (I’m keeping my peace here), narrated in the third person, and another one in the first person, from the victim’s perspective, set a few years before his death, and although it is pretty tough to read, it also rings psychologically true.
The style is not the straightforward easy-to-read language we’re used to in mysteries. This is Banville, and it is a joy. It does not follow any of the dictates of avoiding unnecessary words, keeping to the action, keeping it simple, pushing the action forward… And, as an English teacher, I kept thinking it would be a great book for advanced students (proficient students) looking to learn less common vocabulary and precise and unique words (that, of course, would fit a well-educated and refined man such as Strafford). If anybody tried to put the book through Grammarly, I suspect it would break at the percentage of unusual words. Although I’m not sure this is a book for the standard mystery lover, I’m convinced those who love and study language and its intricacies will enjoy it. A few tasters from the book (although remember, mine is an ARC copy and there might be some changes in the final edition):
The last thing he saw, or seemed to see, was a faint flare of light that yellowed the darkness briefly.
The first thing everyone noticed about Sergeant Jenkins was the flatness of his head. It looked as if the top of it had been sliced clean off, like the big end of a boiled egg. How, people wondered, was there room for a brain of any size at all in such a shallow space?
…her skin was pinkly pale, the colour of skimmed milk into which had been mixed a single drop of blood. Her face was like that of a Madonna by one of the lesser Old Masters, with dark eyes and a long sharp nose with a little bump at the tip.
To a microbe, he mused, each tiny burst of fire would seem a vast conflagration, like a storm on the face of the sun. He thought again of the snowy fields outside, smooth and glistening, and over them the sky of stars burning in icy brightness. Other worlds, impossibly distant. How strange a thing it was to be here, animate and conscious, on this ball of mud an brine as it whirled through illimitable depths of space.
As usual, I also recommend checking a sample or the look inside feature if you have doubts about how well the style would suit your reading taste.
The ending will be unlikely to surprise readers of mystery novels, or most readers, but, as I’ve said, I don’t think that’s the point of the story. And there is a coda at the very end, that although not exactly surprising, I found quite satisfying.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, I would, but not to readers looking for a standard murder mystery that conforms to the usual norms, or people looking for a cozy and gentle story. If you enjoy novels that challenge the conventions, enjoy beautiful use of language, don’t mind dark subjects, and are interested in recent historical fiction set in Ireland, check it out. I am curious to see where Banville goes with book 2 in the series.