The Drowned (Audiobook)

Cold, compelling and seamlessly plotted, The Drowned also offers a fine portrait of that familiar and never likeable figure in Banville’s fictions: the supercilious villain who has lost his moral compass.

A beautifully written and intriguing slowburn of a book, in which the various quandaries in the main characters’ private lives are as absorbing as the central mystery.

Brilliant . . . You need not have read the earlier novels to follow this one, but it will be a better read if you do . . . while various loose ends are left tantalisingly in the air, making it clear that a sequel will follow. It can’t come too soon for this devoted fan.

Richly atmospheric . . . It’s a Dublin where you can smell the pubs, feel the drizzle, and taste the Bewley’s coffee. [...]At the centre of it all is the strained relationship between Quirke and Strafford, a couple at odds who are right up there with Banville’s greatest achievements.

Tight-lipped humour thrums through the latest in the Booker winner’s Strafford and Quirke crime series . . . The Drowned stands alone, too, suspenseful on its own terms . . . while it’s ultimately evil, not good, that gives The Drowned its crackling denouement, the novel takes care to part on a more cheerful note – even if the logic of the series demands that Quirke can hardly be content for too long.

The Drowned delivers an ultimately satisfying and immersive mystery in beautifully wrought prose.