The Lock-Up - by John Banville

About the Book

In 1950s Dublin, in a lock-up garage in the city, the body of a young woman is discovered, an apparent suicide. But pathologist Dr Quirke and Detective Inspector Strafford soon suspect foul play. The victim's sister, a newspaper reporter from London, returns to Dublin to join the two men in their quest to uncover the truth. But as they explore her links to a wealthy German family in County Wicklow, and to investigative work she may have been doing in Israel, they are confronted with an ever-deepening mystery. With relations between the two men increasingly strained, and their investigation taking them back to the final days of the Second World War, can they join the pieces of a hidden puzzle?

Book Synopsis

*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.

Review Quotes

"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

Praise for John Banville

"John Banville is one of my favorite writers alive, and I pick up his books whenever I need a reminder how to write a good sentence." --R.F. Kuang

"The Irish master." --New Yorker

"One of the best novelists in English." --The Guardian

"John Banville deserves his Booker Prize." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A grand writer with a seductive style." --New York Times Book Review

"Banville is a master at capturing the most fleeting memory or excruciating twinge of self-awareness with riveting accuracy." --People

"Prodigiously gifted. He cannot write an unpolished phrase." --The Independent

"[Banville's] books are like baroque cathedrals." --Paris Review

"One periodically rereads a [Banville] sentence just to marvel at its beauty." --USA TODAY