I hadn’t expected to come across a new novel by John Banville when I was browsing the tables of Daunt Books in Marylebone a couple of weeks ago. The surprise was all the more pleasant when I realized The Lock-Up was the latest installment in his Strafford & Quirke series. There is much here that’s familiar. Quirke, the state pathologist, is as curmudgeonly as ever, while Strafford, the “Big House” Protestant detective, is as cool and analytical as his sidekick is emotional and unpredictable. But something is different about The Lock-Up. Perhaps it is the novel’s sweep, covering events not just in Ireland but in wartime Germany and in Israel in the years immediately after its foundation. Or maybe it’s the darker atmosphere; the evil of antisemitism, the horror of its expression in Nazi Germany, and the shameful complicity of the Catholic Church.

This novel was a delight to read, but I think even Banville’s most steadfast fans will conclude, as I did, that the denouement felt hurried and too neatly packaged. The journey was a delight, but the destination was a disappointment.