jjares reviewed on 6/19/2014 + 3413 more book reviews

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)

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