A man walking his dog in rural Ireland comes upon an expensive abandoned car with the motor running. After turning off the car, he heads towards the closest house, but on his way learns from the woman’s husband that she fled the car and may have flung herself into the ocean. Detective Strafford and Dr. Quirke are called in to investigate her disappearance.

The Drowned, another Quirke mystery, begins where Banville’s last mystery, The The Lock-Up, ended. It is not essential to have read The Lock-Up before reading The Drowned, but it does help. I don’t read mysteries often, but I appreciate Banville’s prose and enjoy his characters, especially Quirke and Strafford. There is a mystery in The Drowned but at times it is laugh out loud funny and not very mysterious.