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Book Cover for: The Lock-Up: A Detective Mystery, John Banville

The Lock-Up: A Detective Mystery

John Banville

Critic Reviews

Good

Based on 6 reviews on

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*NATIONAL BESTSELLER*
A New York Times Editors' Choice

Booker Prize winner and "Irish master"
(The New Yorker) John Banville's most ambitious crime novel yet brings two detectives together to solve a globe-spanning mystery

In 1950s Dublin, Rosa Jacobs, a young history scholar, is found dead in her car. Renowned pathologist Dr. Quirke and DI St. John Strafford begin to investigate the death as a murder, but it's the victim's older sister Molly, an established journalist, who discovers a lead that could crack open the case.

One of Rosa's friends, it turns out, is from a powerful German family that arrived in Ireland under mysterious circumstances shortly after World War II. But as Quirke and Strafford close in, their personal lives may put the case--and everyone involved--in peril, including Quirke's own daughter.

Spanning the mountaintops of Italy, the front lines of World War II Bavaria, the gritty streets of Dublin and other unexpected locales, The Lock-Up is an ambitious and arresting mystery by one of the world's most celebrated authors.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Hanover Square Press
  • Publish Date: May 23rd, 2023
  • Pages: 320
  • Language: English
  • Edition: Original - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.27in - 6.32in - 1.08in - 0.93lb
  • EAN: 9781335449634
  • Categories: Thrillers - HistoricalMystery & Detective - TraditionalLiterary

About the Author

Banville, John: - JOHN BANVILLE was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of numerous novels, including The Sea, which won the 2005 Booker Prize, and the DI Quirke novels written under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. In 2011 he was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize, in 2013 he was awarded the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature and in 2014 he won the Prince of Asturias Award, Spain's most important literary prize. He lives in Dublin.

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

"Elegant...with finely wrought moments that make you want to slow down to savor them."--New York Times Book Review

"Another worthy thriller from the Irish master novelist."--Kirkus

"Strikingly beautiful prose...Banville's complete mastery of mood wins the day."--Booklist

"A haunting and memorable experience."--New York Journal of Books

"Banville at his best...a novel that will have his readers hooked."--Financial Times


"The Lock-Up is to be relished above all for its richly realised characters, and their understanding of the vagaries of human nature."―Scotsman

"The ultimate page-turner, expertly paced and beautifully written."―Irish Independent

"A hypnotic thriller. . . with prose this lush and mordantly funny, it's a shame it has to end."― Sunday Business Post