Crime novels set in Ireland

Reading lists

11 top crime novels set in Ireland

Prague Nights

'The emperor's mistress had been murdered, and the world had been taken hold of and turned upon its head' 
 
Prague, 1599. Christian Stern, a young doctor, has just arrived in the city. On his first evening, he finds a young woman's body half-buried in the snow. 
 
The dead woman is none other than the emperor's mistress, and there's no shortage of suspects. Stern is employed by the emperor himself to investigate the murder. In the search to find the culprit, Stern finds himself drawn into the shadowy world of the emperor's court - unspoken affairs, letters written in code, and bitter rivalries. But there's no turning back now...

Black is a master of high-class crime fiction, literary noir in the tradition of Georges Simenon and Raymond Chandler

An atmospheric evocation of a city frozen by winter and riddled with intrigue

This is an intriguing excursion into different historical territory

Benjamin Black is the pen name of acclaimed author John Banville, who was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of fifteen novels, including The Sea, which won the 2005 Man Booker Prize. In 2013 he was awarded the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature, and in 2014 the Quirke novels were adapted into a major BBC TV series. This is the seventh book in the acclaimed Quirke series.

'The emperor's mistress had been murdered, and the world had been taken hold of and turned upon its head' 
 
Prague, 1599. Christian Stern, a young doctor, has just arrived in the city. On his first evening, he finds a young woman's body half-buried in the snow. 
 
The dead woman is none other than the emperor's mistress, and there's no shortage of suspects. Stern is employed by the emperor himself to investigate the murder. In the search to find the culprit, Stern finds himself drawn into the shadowy world of the emperor's court - unspoken affairs, letters written in code, and bitter rivalries. But can he unmask the killer before they reach their next victim?

A Quirke Mystery

Even the Dead

NO CRIME IS EVER TRULY BURIED... 
 
Visceral, gritty and cinematic, Even the Dead is the latest stylish thriller from John Banville's crime-writing alter ego, Benjamin Black. 
 
Pathologist Quirke works in the city morgue, watching over Dublin's dead. The latest to join their ghostly ranks is a suicide. But something doesn't add up. The victim has a suspicious head wound, and the only witness has vanished, every trace of her wiped away. 
 
On the trail of the missing woman, Quirke finds himself drawn into the shadowy world of Dublin's elite - secret societies, High Church politics and corrupt politicians. It leads him to a long-buried conspiracy that involves his own family. But it's too late to go back now... 
 
THE DEAD WILL BE HEARD 
 
'Fresh and original' Guardian 
'Warm, sensitive, psychologically acute characterisation' Indepedent on Sunday 
'Quirke is human enough to swell the hardest of hearts' GQ 
'A beach read for the brainy' LA Times 
'Superb' Irish Times 
'Beautifully written' Literary review 
'Ravishing prose' Independent

Quirke is an endearing hero and the Dublin of the 1950s - wet, cold, foggy, sinister - is evoked with harsh realism and nostalgia

Addiction, morbid sexual obsession, blackmail and murder, as well as prose as crisp as a winter's morning by the Liffey . . . Quirke is human enough to swell the hardest of hearts

With Quirke, Banville has made a fascinating addition to the ranks of the defective detective in books that combine respectful reading of the genre with brightly original writing

A requiem for a cursed city, its inhabitants' inner lives doomed to remain as locked away, unhappy and unknowable as whatever lies buried

It is doubtful that anyone can write as well as Benjamin Black when it comes to a psychological mystery

Even the Dead offers pleasures one doesn't always associate with the crime thriller. Like subtle characterisation and a calm, elegant prose style. What makes the novel stand out is the warm, sensitive, psychologically acute characterisation. When I reached the end of the novel, I had a sense of having been nourished, rather than manipulated. It just goes to show that it isn't the genre that counts, but the talent that a writer brings to it

In Even the Dead, Black goes beyond the atmospheric stage and scene setting, delving deeper than in any previous novel into the soul of his pathologist hero Quirke, an enigmatic loner whose voice colours every page as if staining it with nicotine

Down among the dead men... 
 
Pathologist Quirke works in the city morgue, watching over Dublin's dead. The latest to join their ghostly ranks is a suicide. But something doesn't add up. The victim has a suspicious head wound, and the only witness has vanished, every trace of her wiped away. 
 
On the trail of the missing woman, Quirke finds himself drawn into the shadowy world of Dublin's elite - secret societies, High Church politics and corrupt politicians. It leads him to a long-buried conspiracy that involves his own family. But it's too late to go back now... 
 
THE DEAD WILL BE HEARD

Benjamin Black

Elegant and witty. Fans of The Crown will enjoy this playful novel

A master of high-class crime fiction, literary noir in the tradition of Georges Simenon and Raymond Chandler

This is one thriller to read and savor

It is 1940 and the bombs are falling thick and fast on London. The royal family must do all they can to assure the British public of their solidarity. But what of the two young princesses - Elizabeth and Margaret? How can they be kept safe without jeopardizing morale in the capital? 
 
Meanwhile Celia Nashe is delighted when she finally gets her long-awaited transfer to MI5. But whatever she was expecting of her mission for the war effort, it wasn't this. A crumbling castle in remote, rural Ireland, playing nursemaid to two pampered young girls. 
 
But her posting soon turns out to be very far from tame. Questions are being asked by the locals about the identities of Celia's secret charges. And when a dead body turns up at the castle gates, it will take every effort to uncover the truth, and to stop it from coming to light.

Benjamin Black

Books by Benjamin Black

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11 top crime novels set in Ireland

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