Benjamin Black is the pen name of acclaimed author John Banville, who was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. His novels have won numerous awards, most recently the Man Booker Prize in 2005 for The Sea. He lives in Dublin.
"From less than promising material, Black fashions a meticulously written installment notable for its palpable sense of place, a slate of fully drawn characters, and a meaningful denouement."
Solving a case has a profound effect on its investigator in this Dublin-set thriller.
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"The portrait of 1950s LA is less precise than Chandler's, but the aging, reflective Marlowe is appropriately sententious. A treat for fans, even if they end up throwing it across the room."
Man Booker Prize-winning novelist John Banville, already disguised as mystery writer Black (Holy Orders, 2013, etc.), goes under even deeper cover to imitate Raymond Chandler in this flavorsome pastiche.
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"Quirke remains a compelling mystery, perhaps to himself most of all, but initiates might better read these novels in order rather than starting here."
Another breezy read in the mystery series by a Dublin novelist whose more literary work is often considered "difficult."
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"This tale of two families—April's clearly dysfunctional, Quirke's nearly so—is the most conventional of the pathologist's three cases to date (The Silver Swan, 2008, etc.)."
Alcoholic Dublin pathologist Quirke emerges from rehab in the 1950s to an urgent request from his daughter Phoebe to find an even more troubled daughter.
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"If the book's big secret doesn't quite live up to its press notices, Black's prose is so mesmerizing—crisp, precise, alive with telling details—that you'll enjoy every step in the trail that leads there."
A man who's hired to dig up the bodies becomes one himself in this sly novella from Booker-winner John Banville's alter ego Black (The Silver Swan, 2008, etc.).
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A boozy, bitter pathologist becomes a most unwilling detective when he uncovers a baby-trafficking scheme in Dublin in the 1950s.
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