The Lock-Up – John Banville

Banville’s captivating prose recreates Irish life in the late 1950s with focus on the death of a young Jewish woman found in a parked car. The plot unites strands from a concentration camp commandant, to the highest levels of the Irish Catholic Church, and business deals that might be related to the Israeli development of atomic weapons. But at the heart is our favorite character, Dr. Quirke, local pathologist, Detective Inspector Hackett and Anglo-English Detective St. John Strafford who apply their talents, weaknesses, and prejudices to determine whether the death was a suicide or a murder. For readers with scant acquaintance with these characters, Banville does a nice job of filling in their backstories so that the reader feels part of the team.