An elegant twist on the detective novel, with a drunk Dublin pathologist as our wandering Marlowe, whose investigation into a missing corpse from his office starts from a point of resentment about his upbringing, only for the case to become a sort of nightmare hall mirrorshow echoing that same theme. You can see Banville relishing a slight looseness in prose - this thing moves. It's really neatly structured, too, save for a car pile-up eqsue final stretch, with revelations a-go-go.