Banville used to write the Dublin Quirke series as Benjamin Black. DI St John Strafford was always written as Banville (see Snow, reviewed below). Apparently the two came together in April in Spain, with significant consequences. Hence we have The Lock-Up, by John Banville, as the second Strafford & Quirke mystery.
To be honest, it's not that much of a mystery. The villain of the piece is evident quite early on. I don't much enjoy Strafford as a character either, though Banville does make him more likeable during the course of the book. I also miss old Hackett, now DCI Hackett and looking forward to retirement. Despite these reservations, and the odd quibble plotwise, I thoroughly enjoyed The Lock-Up. Banville's skill as a writer of the very highest quality shines through in the characterisation, the interplay, the psychological insights.
There's one scene, in which Tommy McEvoy, Hackett's onetime school friend, now Bishop Tom, summons the DCI "for a jar over at rhe HQ." HQ, queries Hackett. "Wynn's Hotel - don't you know that's where the clergy congregrate. On a Saturday night you'd think you were in the penguin house up at rhe zoo." His purpose is put jovial ecclesiastical pressure on the Guards to look elsewhere for a culprit. It's as good as anything I've read by Banville. And Molly Jacobs makes a convincing love interest for Quirke.
It's all high quality entertainment and a fitting development of the Quirke strand.
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