Snow

A Novel

By: John Banville

Narrated by: John Lee

*NATIONAL BESTSELLER*

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA HISTORICAL DAGGER AWARD*

A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year

A New York Times Editors’ Choice Pick

“Banville sets up and then deftly demolishes the Agatha Christie format…superbly rich and sophisticated.”—New York Times Book Review

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 the tight-knit community he begins to investigate.

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.

Don't miss John Banville's next novel, The Lock-up!

Other riveting mysteries from John Banville:

• April in Spain

Well written, but not much of a mystery

If you are looking for a mystery this isn't it. If you are curious about the social dynamics of 1950s Ireland this is your ticket. Deliciously meticulous descriptions of landscapes, but exaggerated and simply drawn characters.

Narrator ruins stylish book

John Lee is overly theatrical and turns every character into a caricature. Really destroys a good book

Bad impression

Did not like the story about a priest and his horrible behavior and how he preyed on children.

spoiler alert

Very graphic child abuse. Mystery solid and simple—nothing complicated. Easy listen (except for graphic parts)

Great Irish accents, but a sad tale of priests

I enjoy John Banville’s books as they typically are located in Ireland. This one was sad in that it brought to light, yet again, the scandals involving Catholic priests. As a Catholic, it’s so sad that so many of our good and devoted priests were caught up in a web of lies and sin. Despite this, “Snow” is a good ‘listen.’