I didn't enjoy this book as much as I did Banville's previous mysteries involving detective Strafford and pathologist Quirke. I really liked Snow and April in Spain, and also The Lock-Up but a little less so. But here it felt like a bit of rehashing very familiar themes and aspects of the characters at times without very much of a plot.

The plot is that a man discovers an abandoned fancy car in a field one evening, and gets sucked into a bizarre situation with a university professor, Armitage, claiming his wife may have drowned. He goes to a nearby house to discover Charlotte and Charles Ruddock, who are staying for a holiday, and proceeds to drink a lot of whiskey.

Later in the book it transpires that Armitage is linked to the story in the previous book, and various revelations come to light.

But for much of the book, it didn't feel like much of interest was really going on. Did I care about what happened to Armitage's wife and whether or not he had in fact killed her? Not really having never been introduced to the character.

Meanwhile the lives of Strafford and Quirke meander on with other not very interesting developments.

I may be influenced by another review I read of a previous Strafford and Quirke book, which questioned why on earth so many women would choose to throw themselves as these two older and not very attractive men. This point has stayed with me, and a scene in here where Strafford ends up having sex with one of the characters did indeed feel quite inexplicable and far fetched. What on earth was the attraction for her??

Generally, I think Banville's characters in this series are good, which is why I'd still probably recommend them, but this book felt like it was going through the motions, and I didn't find it very engaging.

John Banville returns with the next book in his Strafford and Quirke series. The novel can be read as a standalone but like most crime series they are best read in sequence. The story begins with a missing person, with a husband claiming his wife may have thrown herself into the sea. With no body, Strafford does not know if he’s dealing with a suicide, missing person case or murder. The solving of the case is almost incidental as the novel concentrates on the expertly drawn characters, their complex lives and connections.
An engrossing novel that’s beautifully written, 1950’s rural Ireland comes alive on the page.

It is 1950’s rural Ireland and a local man comes across an empty car in a field, doors open. Usually the type to keep to himself and mind his own business, curiosity gets the better of him and he heads down the field to have a look. A man comes running up to him, claiming that his wife has thrown herself into the sea, and presses upon him to come to a local house to call for help. Reluctantly he does, and so kicks off the beginning of a suspicious thread of events.

Detective Inspector Strafford is sent down to investigate and he recognises the supposedly distraught husband as a suspect in a previous case. The couple in the house are acting odd. The helpful local has a shady past. The missing wife’s body can’t be found. Strafford has his work cut out on this case. On top of this his personal life is getting complicated. His wife appears wanting a divorce, which is not a done thing in 1950’s Ireland. His lover is pregnant. She is much younger, and also the daughter of his old friend and partner in cases, the pathologist Quirke. Strafford’s investigation is being impaired by an alcoholic local Garda. Can he get it all together and figure out this case?

This is the first book in this series I have read. I feel it worked well as a stand alone, but there was reference to previous cases, along with a lot of history between Quirke and Stafford which I was missing out on. Overall the story was very well written, with the atmosphere of rural 1950’s Ireland well captured, with the attitudes, the limitations for women, the approach to divorce, childbirth outside marriage etc. The pace of the story was a bit slow, and the attitude of the characters a bit grating, which left me finding it hard to build a connection and want to come back and keep reading and finish the story. But I persevered and enjoyed the ending, and was glad I continued. A slower than usual police procedural, perhaps further adding to the feeling of old rural Ireland!

*I received this book from NetGalley for review, but all opinions are my own.

I have mixed feelings about this. Banville isn't an author I've read before…I therefore haven't read any of the preceding books in either of the Quirke or Strafford series (they come together in this one).

The good points are, firstly, I found Banville to be a very skilled writer. I liked his style, and he has an excellent command of the English language. Secondly, I didn't feel disadvantaged by not having read any of the forerunning books. There are references to past cases (which I assume form the plots of the previous mysteries) and to the recurring characters' past life events, but they were woven in succinctly.

My only misgivings are that I had questions at the end…I needed answers to a couple of issues. I'm afraid I found the characters very miserable and not especially likeable…all of them…not least the two main ones, Quirke and Strafford, who are particularly joyless.

Will I read another book by this author? Yes. I did like his writing and was very impressed by the standard of editing…it's not often I can say that.

A car is abandoned in the middle of a field in a remote part of Ireland. A man claims that his wife has thrown herself into the sea and presses a passing stranger to take him to a local house. However his behaviour elicits suspicion. St John Strafford is called in to investigate and he recognises the husband as a suspect in a previous murder. His own personal life is getting more complex, his lover is pregnant and his wife appears wanting a divorce.
The Strafford and Quirke novels by Banville are a masterclass in subdued but powerful writing. Although sold as detective fiction, they would stand up against the best literature, such is the power of the writing. Again this novel is very atmospheric and with a great sense of time and place, here contrasting the limited liberalism of 1950s Dublin with the country approach. There's still a focus on the sectarian nature of society at the time but with added big themes including divorce, abortion and child molestation.

The Drowned by John Banville offers a glimpse into 1950s Ireland through the lens of a crime that almost feels secondary to the bleak and introspective lives of its characters. While the writing is undeniably atmospheric, the Strafford and Quirke novels lean heavily on mood and personal struggles, making the mystery feel like a backdrop rather than the main event. For me, the focus on the grim realities of the era was a bit too much, overshadowing the intrigue I look for in crime fiction. Not entirely my cup of tea, but fans of slow, character-driven narratives might find it compelling.

It’s taken me sometime to read this book. I find it to heavy on the descriptive narrative and a slow storyline. IMO the author is concentrating on describing rather than telling the story.. Throughout I was unsure of the decade which the story related too, to me it read as if it’s set 1930’’s but the further I read the more it became apparent it was a later timeline..

I finally finished this book, the husband, of the missing woman was drowned by her husband in a bath and then found washed up on a beach, is also found drowned on the same beach after running his car off the road. The death of a boy was left completely unanswered. A very muddled. and disappointing ending to a very uninteresting read. Sorry I had to downgrade my rating.

From the description I was really looking forward to reading this book, some of the Characters sounded interesting & there were some beautifully lyrical passages too, but over all it left me disappointed particularly with the ending ! Hence why I have only rated it with Three Stars, #NetGalley, #GoodReads, #FB, #Instagram,#Amazon.co.uk,# <img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/8a5b541512e66ae64954bdaab137035a5b2a89d2" width="80" height="80" alt="200 Book Reviews" title="200 Book Reviews"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/>.

I keep getting bogged down! I scrambled through the opening without caring or actually following until I finally got to Strattford who I'd read of in earlier Banville/Black title in the series. and mention of Phoebe's relationship and her dad, Quirke, Strafford's former detective partner .. but I keep getting tangled up and slowed down .. Where's the crime and investigating going ?.. I'll gallop through remainder just to find out why people like it so much .. I'm baffled! Maybe I'm reading with the wrong expectations? Banville's writing and the internal ruminations and comic 'love' relations are enjoyable and engaging in midst of (for me) muddled crime goings on ..

Thanks to NetGalley, publishers and author for an ARC of The Drowned.
Real rating 3.5 stars.
This is my first read of the Stafford/Quirke series by John Banville. There a several references to the previous book/case but I'm not sure it would be essential to read the previous books, I followed it fine I think.
The writing felt a bit draining, no one in 1950s ireland seemed happy at all, everyone in this was anxious, grieving or depressed. The crime took up only a small portion of the book with character stories and lives being the main story here.
Overall I would recommend this book, the author has a wonderful way with words and I was glued to it.

Thanks to Faber & Faber and NetGalley for ARC..

Nineteen-fifties rural Ireland is the setting for the opener of this complex, muted but powerful police procedural and meditation on loss and grief. Detective Inspector Strafford is called in from Dublin, and the investigation has repercussions for his personal life and state of mind, as well as those involved. Although I have. little patience with the view that Banville elevates crime fiction to an art form (he's certainly not alone in that), his prose is astounding and the description of place and mood and the murky internal workings of humans is second to none. There are difficult themes here including sexual violence and gynaecological conditions, and not everyone will stick with the slow pace. This is now the fourth in this series, so those new to Banville as crime writer may want to start elsewhere - but here is as good a place as any.

I found The Drowned to be a very slow burner. It was very wordy and I lost patience with the lack of action at times.
I hadn't realised that this book was part of a series and I don't think it works too well as a standalone as I felt that I should have known the main characters better and understood references to their pasts.
Although I won't go looking for the earlier novels in this series I do acknowledge the writer's skills which produced an atmospheric novel with very well drawn characters even if it wasn't to my taste.

Enjoyed parts of this book but mostly found it quite boring and difficult to read. Some of the descriptions went on way too long for my liking, however the 'active' parts were pretty good.

A really enjoyable read from an author I’m a big fan of. I love the author’s style of writing & the rural 1950’s Ireland setting. A very atmospheric read with a great premise full of lies, secrets and hidden tales.

John Banville is a well-established writer but I'd somehow overlooked his books, so I couldn't resist the chance to dip my toe in the water when The Drowned was offered on NetGalley.

It's not always easy to drop into a later title in a series, but I don't think this is the case with The Drowned; Banville slides enough history in to explain the current situations and relationships without it sounding like a lecture - plus it tempts you to go back and catch up with earlier works. The writing is strong - fluid and descriptive without being flowery - and I loved the story. The big "but" for me is not loving the characters; almost all have a nasty streak that leaves an unpleasant taste behind and makes you wonder if you really care what happens to them. That said, it's a solid tale and kept me engaged throughout.

I also have my reservations about there not being a strong sense of place in terms of descriptions of the landscape and towns. I didn't form a strong picture in my mind about the locations and yet I'm very familiar with Ireland, so I found that a little strange. I could also have done without the townies all being smart and the locals boozed-up thick "culchies". While that might have been how city folk viewed country people in the 50s, the author could have brought that into his characters' prejudices rather than writing it universally through The Drowned.

But still, despite my reservations, I will read more of Banville and might even attempt the full Strafford and Quirke series.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC

This is the first book I've read by this author and whilst I did like it, I think I would have enjoyed it more if I'd read other books in the series first to get a feel for the characters.

3.5 stars

John Banville’s writing is always excellent. His storytelling is equally good, drawing the reader deeper and deeper into his characters’ world as each novel and series progresses. Such a vivid, believable, atmospheric Ireland of the 1950s is displayed in his Quirke novels, you have no doubt where you are or how dramatically different Ireland was just a few generations ago.

'The Drowned' is not a crime novel in the traditional sense – a murder, a puzzle, a resolution – Banville’s genius in this genre is the development of his characters and how they respond to developments in the case; there is very little ‘detecting’ actually done. He is more like Simenon than any other crime writer in this respect, but his books could never be confused with Simenon or any other writer; Banville has a truly singular voice, and combined with the setting and perspective of the characters makes him almost certainly unique in crime fiction.

If you are not new to the Quirke books you will know genius in this series is to involve the ‘new’ character of Strafford – the opposite in almost every respect to the ‘original’ protagonist of Quirke (opposite to the extent that I wouldn’t be totally surprised if we end up with a Fight Club style conclusion to the series), but both gravitating to, and around Quirke’s daughter and their very different relationships to her. Strafford gives the series a fresh and dramatically different perspective.

But it is the trueness of the author’s prose that sets Banville apart from virtually any other author writing in the genre – Banville can’t help but be a ‘literary’ writer even if he claims not to have to put the same work into producing his Quirke novels than his ‘genuine’ literary novels. They are vivid and sometimes beautiful to read.

This is a book where it would be entirely believable to find it had been written 60 years ago, indeed has more in common with crime fiction of the 50s and 60s than contemporary crime, but the fact of its current period of authorship means that we are given glimpses of the reality of the time that may have been missed or probably avoided by an author writing in the 1960s. It is a great story but more than that, it is profound and an important document of a lost country and an entirely changed people.

I received an ARC of thei book via netgalley and am grateful for the opportunity to read it.

Quirke is a pathologist and Stafford a detective and the case they are investigating entails the disappearance (presumed suicide) of a woman in coastal Ireland. There is obvious history between the two MCs both good and bad I seem to think. The investigation is started by a local alcoholic and abusive garda who seems to have been shipped to the most out of the way location in the hopes of limiting his influence. Yet he seems to wield this same influence over obviously superior colleagues and, moreover to get away with it. To me Stafford is inept does not seem to fit his status as detective and merely appears as a shadowy character - maybe his character and status are defined in a previous book.

Running through the hazy investigative narrative are more personal story lines. Stafford is in a relationship with Quirke's daughter and also married but separated from his wife who wants a divorce.

For me there was no drive, no oomph in the narrative. It felt almost banal


When I requested this book it there was no indication that it was number 5 in 1 series and number 10 in another. The fact that this is in a series and that allusions are constantly made to a previous case rather spoils the enjoyment of the book. At the same time I am not tempted to go back and read others in the series.

As this was an author I never read before but the style was very good and atmospheric. However I felt I should have read his previous books as although this felt like a stand alone I wasn’t aware of the characters. Therefore I can’t give a proper review as I feel I should read some of his other books first. Did love the era and the setting if this book and I am sure there will be excitement around this book if you have read previous titles from this author.
So my score reflects only along this book .

The first I have read by this author and I will not rush to read another. Set in an unspecified time, I would guess in the 50s on the Irish East coast, The case is fairly unclear as a man appears ssaying that his wife had run off into the sea. That there is something off about him and others involved is obvious but beyond stating that, the investigating detective doesn't really do more than talk to a few locals and get bogged down by his personal life.
I did like the meandering text which gives a good picture of Ireland and the attitudes of that era. Not sure about the plot which had twists and turns and an extra death thrown in which did not add much to the story for me. Perhaps because I haven't read others, I did not get the style and the details started to get me down. Looking at the bigger picture, things do come together in a way but there are also open ends.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC