Snow: the masterful country house murder mystery and top 10 Sunday Times bestseller (Strafford and Quirke Book 1)

Fans of Agatha Christie will quickly recognise the basic set up of John Banville's 'Snow'. Set in the 1950s, a detective - Inspector Strafford - arrives at an Irish country house to investigate the brutal murder of a priest. As the title suggests, it is snowing heavily. He meets an eccentric cast of characters who all may have something to hide, and all had the opportunity to commit the crime. The usual country house murder tropes are further complicated by the opposition between Catholics and Protestants and the interference of the church seniors in the case.'Snow' is a detective story that doesn't feel like one - Banville's writing is delicate and and restrained, more suited to a meditative literary novel than a crime story. Oddly, this is a bonus rather than a drawback. Because it is written differently to the typical whodunnit, it feels different even though the storyline is not particularly original. In fact, I guessed who did it and why early on. So early on that you almost wonder why it took Strafford so long to catch on.Readers should be warned that the novel does contain a pretty graphic account of paedophilia, which some may find distressing and prefer not to read. But if you are able to, it becomes a powerful account of the impact of sexual abuse by the clergy on communities - and sadly we know that many communities in real life have been affected over the years.It's not a cheering book, but it's also not gratuitously miserable. There's something muffled and polite about it, which reminds me of Kazuo Ishiguro's writing. The mystery is perhaps not the most important thing about the story - it's what is revealed around it about the people and community involved that leave the most lasting impression. It's a bit too quiet and settled for my taste, hence the three star rating, but people who love 'literary' writing styles and a detective story - not two things that get combined as often you'd expect - are in for a treat.

Thoroughly enjoyable read but with a dark undertone.Was well. written and engaged me throughout. Unfortunately I solved the murder early into the book and was correct in my theory about why it had happened. Will make a good book to debate in a book club.

This brilliant book is my first encounter with this Irish author and it certainly won't be the last.Storytelling is of an excellent quality, all done with a poetic prose, the dialogue between characters is very believable and absolute humanlike, while the atmosphere of Ireland in the 1950s is wonderfully pictured by the author, with all its hardship and misdemeanour.Its a wonderful literary and historical Irish mystery, that is set in the Winter of 1957, with a self-confessing flashback by one of the main characters in 1947, with at the end set in 1967 a surprising revelation from the real perpetrator about the murder of Father Tom, and with the title "Snow" acting as metaphor for concealing and revealing certain actions.The red thread, or common theme if you like, in this superb mystery is the child abuse, young girls and in this instance young boys, by clergymen, without real consideration the psychological effect this will have on these children, and all this abuse somehow condoned and covered up by the Irish Catholic Church, including at this time of history by Archbishop Dr John Charles McQuaid.DI St John Strafford is called from Dublin, and arrives at Ballyglass House, county Wexford, to find the murdered corpse of the Catholic priest, Father Tom, and this same corpse is lying dead in the house of the Protestant aristocratic Osbourne family.While investigating this case DI Strafford, assisted by DS Ambrose Jenkins, and much later on also by Wexford Garda Sergeant Radford, they will meet with many obstructions as to the why and how of this particular murder, and not only from the people at Ballyglass House and its close surroundings, but also from the powerful Archbishop McQuaid.What is to follow is an intriguing and revealing Irish crime mystery, in which child abuse within the Irish Catholic Church will play a very important and sinister part, and in this environment the unsure but very willing DI Strafford must somehow find the killer of Father Tom, but in the meantime several other deaths will occur to boys/young men mainly due to shame of having been abused and this being concealed, while not getting the necessary help that they really need from the Catholic Church and Archbishop McQuaid, while also DS Jenkins will lose his life in their search for the revealing truth.Highly recommended, for this is a magnificent Irish crime mystery with a clear and sound message, and that's why I like to call this great book: "A Marvellous Revealing Irish Crime Mystery"!

This is my first experience of John Banville and I was delighted with the quality of the writing in this historical detective tale - this is truly that rare breed - a literary crime novel. I hope this gives a flavour of the writing; I could really feel the claustrophobia of the snowy landscape and sense the unease between Catholics and Protestants in 1950s Ireland. The characterisation was equally good, allowing me to appreciate the isolation of the detective, who feels distanced by religion from his largely Catholic Gardai colleagues, from women by his sexual inexperience and from people in general by his name, St John Strafford - with the 'r' that he constantly has to emphasize to get his name spelt or pronounced correctly. (Much as I loved the rest of his characterisation, I have to admit his annoying habit of tapping his teeth with his nails sounds extremely improbable.) The skill in revealing credible character and emotion is not confined to Strafford - this outpouring of grief by the murder victim's sister is so intense that I want to include it here: -" ‘I can’t get myself organised. My brain is spinning, round and round. I feel nothing will ever be right again. I suppose that will pass. They say it does.’ She gave a low, bitter laugh. ‘Time is a great healer, that’s what they say, don’t they? They’re all so wise.’ " Raw grief really permeates her words.So, as character-driven historical fiction, this is an excellent work. Where I feel it fares less well is as a detective novel. Although there are red herrings to throw the reader off the trail, I didn't feel that the big reveal was a satisfying one, as I had solved the case before Strafford.