Ratings18
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings18
Average rating3.6
The incomparable Booker Prize winner's next great crime novel--the story of a family whose secrets resurface when a parish priest is found murdered in their ancestral home Detective Inspector St. John Strafford has been summoned to County Wexford to investigate a murder. A parish priest has been found dead in Ballyglass House, the family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family. The year is 1957 and the Catholic Church rules Ireland with an iron fist. Strafford--flinty, visibly Protestant and determined to identify the murderer--faces obstruction at every turn, from the heavily accumulating snow to the culture of silence in this tight-knit community. As he delves further, he learns the Osbornes are not at all what they seem. And when his own deputy goes missing, Strafford must work to unravel the ever-expanding mystery before the community's secrets, like the snowfall itself, threaten to obliterate everything. Beautifully crafted, darkly evocative and pulsing with suspense, Snow is "the Irish master" (New Yorker) John Banville at his page-turning best.
Featured Series
4 primary booksSt. John Strafford is a 4-book series with 4 primary works first released in 2019 with contributions by John Banville.
Reviews with the most likes.
I kept thinking that the author wasn't going to go for the obvious answer; surely he was more clever than that? But no, it was that obvious.
Curious to know if the use of the words such as queer or gay (plus a few others) were intended to be foreshadowing, of a sort. There's even a reference to Oscar Wilde. I do have some qualms, if they were intended, as pedophilia and homosexuality are not at all the same thing.
A murder takes place in a country house with the parish priest as the victim is the stuff of classic detective fiction. Everyone is a suspect and the victim had many enemies. The Book excels with the period detail, and the main protagonists St John Strafford as he is a mass of contradictions. The supporting cast are all fleshed out perfectly and the ending is very satisfying.
