Murder? Who cares?

In the traditional mystery novel, the hero often feels compelled at the end to explain to other characters (and, of course, to readers) what really happened and what evidence led to the killer. In John Banville's intriguing 2024 novel The Drowned, however, the situation is reversed. It is the reader who wants desperately to explain everything to the hero.

The heroes — actually there are two of them — are too busy dealing with their own personal problems to give much thought to a possible murder. Quirke, the 1950s Dublin pathologist, still mourns the shooting death of his wife in a previous novel in the series. Detective Inspector Strafford is told by his wife that she wants a divorce and by Phoebe, Quirke's daughter, that she is pregnant by him. So who can worry much about a woman who disappears in the night in rural Ireland and may have drowned in the sea?

Even when the woman's body is found and Quirke discovers she has drowned in fresh water, not salt water, our investigators don't seem all that interested. Yet the novel's omniscient narrator tells readers exactly what happened, not only to this woman but to a woman murdered in a previous novel. Quirke and Strafford remain preoccupied with their own problems.

While fictional detectives, whether professional or amateur, who don't actually solve mysteries might seem disappointing, the fact is that for readers, too, their personal problems may seem more compelling than the murder.