Frames (Trilogy 2): The Book of Evidence; Ghosts; Athena

THE BOOK OF Freddie Montgomery has committed two crimes. He stole a small Dutch master from a wealthy family friend, and he murdered a chambermaid who caught him in the act. This is a remarkable crime novel, unlike any other in its flawlessly flowing prose, its irony, its aching sense of loss. An unnamed murderer has served his time in prison and now lives on a sparsely populated island with the enigmatic Professor Kreutznaer and his eery companion, Licht. Their uneasy calm is disturbed one day with the arrival of a party of castaways. A beautiful and beguiling novel full of resonances that continue to sound long after you have turned the final page, this is also one of Banville's funniest books. Morrow is at a loose end when, separately, two people beckon him up the stairs of an empty Dublin house. One offers work of a dubious kind; the other offers a sort of love. Banville's sleek, beautiful, breathtakingly cunning prose will leave the reader longing for more from this consummately skilled novelist. Banville's sleek, beautiful, breathtakingly cunning prose will leave the reader longing for more from this consummately skilled novelist. 'Banville writes a dangerous and clear-running prose and has a grim gift for seeing people's souls' Don De Lillo (on The Book of Evidence)