❄ A parish priest was found murdered at Ballyglass House, a house of the aristocratic family of Osborne, in Wexford county. St. John Strafford was summoned to investigate. He found out that the priest was stabbed behind his neck at night during his stay at the house. Not only that, his genitals were then castrated. Catholic Church ruled Ireland with iron fists in the 1950s, and you can imagine what will happen when the news of brutal murder of a priest at a Protestant family house reaches the public. This makes Strafford's investigation more difficult than it is. Not that it's relatively easy so far.
❄ The crime had happened when the house was snowbound. No forced entrance was found either, meaning that the crime was most likely be done by insider. But which one? Colonel Osborne? His insomniac frail wife who'd found the body? The idle son or the spoiled attention-seeker daughter, maybe? Or even the coquettish maid? Strafford's interviews were fruitless, he didn't have any lead for some time. When it began to be rather boring, the next chapter brought a startling revelation about the late priest. Well, actually it's not very surprising, a priest, mutilated on his genital organ, is quite suggestive on what kind of priest he might have been, isn't it? The revelation is for our- readers'-benefit, though. Strafford kept struggling until near the end.
❄ All in all, it's a gloomy read for me. The snow took almost a center part of the story. It's as if there are two villains here, the murderer and the snow. I think the mystery itself could have been a nice one; murder in a country house, snowbound house, body found in the library - very Agatha Christie-ish. However, it lacks one important element - the detective figure.
❄ St. John Strafford is the most distracted, unfocused detective figure I've ever come upon. He doesn't fit anywhere, physically not very fit, and his mind strays to his own family or hometown much too often while performing his duty. Not even Banville's beautiful eloquent prose could help raise this book to my taste. I'm afraid this is the last straw, I will not continue this series after all. Maybe another Banville's non-mystery for next read? Let's see...
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2
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A Year with John Banville #JohnBanville2024
I usually really like snowbound mysteries, so I'm sorry this one didn't work better for you.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's sometimes like that with these modern mysteries. That's why I love the GA, they're almost always satisfying.
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