Snow

London: Faber and Faber, 2021 9780571362707. Softcover. First edition. First printing. Complete numberline. Fine. No annotations or inscriptions. 368 pages. Following the discovery of the body of a highly respected parish priest at Ballyglass House - the Co. Wexford family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family - Detective Inspector St. John Strafford is called in from Dublin to investigate. Strafford faces obstruction from all angles, but carries on determinedly in his pursuit of the murderer. However, as the snow continues to fall over this ever-expanding mystery, the people of Ballyglass are equally determined to keep their secrets. The novel has Banville's name on it, but it is also a classic police procedural in the Benjamin Black mode. It features a young Irish detective — earnest, a bit troubled — called St. John (pronounced "Sinjun") Strafford. Strafford has appeared before, as a detective in a Benjamin Black novel, "The Secret Guests," set in 1940.JOHN BANVILLE was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of many novels, including The Book of Evidence, The Sea, winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize, and, more recently, the bestselling crime novels, Snow and April in Spain, both of which were shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger.