By day, he is John Banville, Man Booker prize-winning author of highly acclaimed works of literary fiction (The Sea, The Infinities). By night, or let us say by noir he goes by the name of Benjamin Black and is a best-selling author of the Dr. Quirke series of very dark mysteries set in Dublin in the 1950s and sixties, a Dublin that is a faded little city with a past that felt far more immediate than its present. If Ireland is, as Joyce famously said, the old sow that eats her farrow then mid-century Dublin is the epicenter of all of this nastiness leveled at her young often young beautiful women living damaged, desperate, desolate lives. Its all too much, and yet we cant get enough of this, we keep coming back to witness and ponder over the haunted, the wounded, and the walking dead of Dublin, not least of whom is Dr. Quirke, who, as pathologist holding court in the basement of the Hospital of the Holy Family functions as,if not King of the Dead, then as Nemesis, agent of vengeance and retribution. 4.5 stars and I cant wait for the next work in the series.
Benjamin Black is the pen name of Irish novelist John Banville. This is the fourth installment in the Quirke series. Quirke is a deeply-flawed medical pathologist in 1950s Ireland.
Quirke has been called to examine the body of publisher Richard Diamond Dick Jewell at his country estate, by DCI Hackett. There, Quirke meets the family of the deceased, especially Jewells widow, Françoise d'Aubigny. She is insular and detached, although amazingly beautiful.
Quirke is in a relationship with Isobel Galloway but is immediately captivated by the young widow. This story feels like a noir film: a stylish crime drama with expressed cynical attitudes and sexual desires.
Actually, this seems to be more of a complex character study than a traditional mystery. I believe that I could pick out the characters from a group of strangers in a room, the characters are so well-written. Black has plumbed the psychological depths of the main characters in this drama; the reader understands the troubles of these characters.
Because Id so enjoyed THE BLACK-EYED BLOND, Benjamin Blacks clever rendition of a Raymond Chandler novel, I wasnt immediately put off by the cold, distant characters. By the books half-way point, however, I was laboring to finish this story. The characters were generally unlikeable few had any redeeming features.
I really did not enjoy this book; it was stylishly written but had no heart.
2 stars
Quirke
1. Christine Falls (2006)
2. The Silver Swan (2007)
3. Elegy for April (2010)
4. A Death in Summer (2011)
5. Vengeance (2012)
6. Holy Orders (2013)
Quirke has been called to examine the body of publisher Richard Diamond Dick Jewell at his country estate, by DCI Hackett. There, Quirke meets the family of the deceased, especially Jewells widow, Françoise d'Aubigny. She is insular and detached, although amazingly beautiful.
Quirke is in a relationship with Isobel Galloway but is immediately captivated by the young widow. This story feels like a noir film: a stylish crime drama with expressed cynical attitudes and sexual desires.
Actually, this seems to be more of a complex character study than a traditional mystery. I believe that I could pick out the characters from a group of strangers in a room, the characters are so well-written. Black has plumbed the psychological depths of the main characters in this drama; the reader understands the troubles of these characters.
Because Id so enjoyed THE BLACK-EYED BLOND, Benjamin Blacks clever rendition of a Raymond Chandler novel, I wasnt immediately put off by the cold, distant characters. By the books half-way point, however, I was laboring to finish this story. The characters were generally unlikeable few had any redeeming features.
I really did not enjoy this book; it was stylishly written but had no heart.
2 stars
Quirke
1. Christine Falls (2006)
2. The Silver Swan (2007)
3. Elegy for April (2010)
4. A Death in Summer (2011)
5. Vengeance (2012)
6. Holy Orders (2013)
