A Death in Summer (Quirke 4)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
The literary novelist John Banville (who writes his crime fiction under the alliterative moniker ‘Benjamin Black’) has built up a faithful following for his idiosyncratic historical outings (set in the 1950s) featuring his pathologist anti-hero Quirke. It’s not difficult to see why. Just a couple of chapters of the new novel, A Death in Summer, is an object lesson in Banville/Black’s highly individual skills; he is a writer whose grasp of period and locale is second to none.
The brutal death of newspaper tycoon Richard Jewell at his country property (the shotgun that killed him clutched in his dead hands) is not the suicide it initially appeared to be, and has propelled Quirke into the search for a ruthless murderer. The dead man’s enemies are legion, and the immediate suspect is one of his most powerful rivals, but as Quirke, his assistant Sinclair and his colleague Inspector Hackett realise, there is a complex mystery behind the death. And just what is the involvement of the dead man’s mysterious wife, the seductive Françoise d’Aubigny?
As we are reminded here, Quirke himself is the author’s ace-in-the-hole: badly coordinated, prone to drink and constantly dealing with his own demons, he’s a highly individual protagonist in the over-crowded crime fiction field. Similarly, the Dublin which is the setting here is conjured with the customary skill, while the details of life in fifties Ireland are presented with acute precision, both these elements making up for the over-familiar plot revelations. A Death in Summer is as engrossing a piece of writing as anything in the current historical crime field; readers will be happy to visit vintage Dublin in the company of the badly-dressed but brilliant Quirke. --Barry Forshaw
Review
'A writer whose use of English can create an almost sensuous frisson.' --Independent Viewspaper
'With Quirke, he has made a fascinating addition to the ranks of the defective detective in books that combine respectful reading of the genre with brightly original writing.' --Guardian Review
'The horror at the heart of this bleak, brutal novel pierces deep into the soul of Ireland.'
--Metro
'Another sophisticated slice of Irish noir' --Irish Times
'Black/Banville's prose has a radiant sorrowful clarity . . . However the great strength of the Quirke novels - their poetic expansiveness - remains, as the horror at the heart of this bleak, brutal novel pierces deep into the soul of Ireland' --Metro
'Just a few pages of the latest outing (featuring his pathologist protagonist, Quirke) demonstrate just what a stylist he is; a writer whose use of English can create an almost sensuous frisson . . . the Dublin here has a richness reminiscent of the city's greatest chronicler, Joyce, while the 1950s are evoked with pinpoint precision. Raymond Chandler, too, spent little time on his plots; his genius was to reinvent the tropes of detective fiction so consummately that readers barely noticed the rickety narrative structure . . . a highly professional and engaging piece of work' --Independent
'A detective novel has an emotionally insecure life insurance risk at its centre: the challenge is what can be achieved, linguistically and psychologically, around these fixed points. The answer, in the Quirke series, is a great deal . . . But the main point of Black, as it is with Banville, is the work the words do . . . his sentences are a regular pleasure . . . There are also frequent taut metaphors in the Chandler/Fleming style . . . with Quirke, he has made a fascinating addition to the ranks of the defective detective in books that combine respectful reading of the genre with brightly original writing' --Guardian
'A swift, hopscotching murder mystery . . . A beach read for the brainy'
--LA Times
'My new favourite is "A Death in Summer." It is a quick read, building in intensity like the heat of a July day before tapering off to a cooler twilight of revelation and reconciliation. If it's mysteries you crave, and if shimmering sentences refresh you even more reliably than would a two-week vacation at the shore, then Quirke -- mournful, shambling, guilt-ridden, whiskey-soaked and irresistible -- is just the ticket'
--Chicago Tribune
`It is, in essence, a timeless story of how flawed personalities can make efforts towards the greater good, while others spread a toxic and debilitating evil...It is all beautifully done...the Dublin characters are achingly authentic...Banville's lightness of touch merely emphasizes the darkness at the heart of A Death in Summer...[he] may be dabbling with another oeuvre...but he has retained his ability to captivate, intrigue and provoke.' --The Glasgow Herald
`The fourth in this wonderfully gloomy series centered on the Dublin pathologist Quirke...does not disappoint.' --Daily Mail
`In these dark days, it's a relief to go back in time to Dublin in the Fifties for my book of the year. This is the setting of the wonderfully evocative crime series by Benjamin Black (aka John Banville) featuring the excellent, sharp-tongued pathologist, Quirke, who has a sixth sense when things don't quite add up.' --Carla McKay, Daily Mail
'With Quirke, he has made a fascinating addition to the ranks of the defective detective in books that combine respectful reading of the genre with brightly original writing.' --Guardian Review
'The horror at the heart of this bleak, brutal novel pierces deep into the soul of Ireland.'
--Metro
'Another sophisticated slice of Irish noir' --Irish Times
'Black/Banville's prose has a radiant sorrowful clarity . . . However the great strength of the Quirke novels - their poetic expansiveness - remains, as the horror at the heart of this bleak, brutal novel pierces deep into the soul of Ireland' --Metro
'Just a few pages of the latest outing (featuring his pathologist protagonist, Quirke) demonstrate just what a stylist he is; a writer whose use of English can create an almost sensuous frisson . . . the Dublin here has a richness reminiscent of the city's greatest chronicler, Joyce, while the 1950s are evoked with pinpoint precision. Raymond Chandler, too, spent little time on his plots; his genius was to reinvent the tropes of detective fiction so consummately that readers barely noticed the rickety narrative structure . . . a highly professional and engaging piece of work' --Independent
'A detective novel has an emotionally insecure life insurance risk at its centre: the challenge is what can be achieved, linguistically and psychologically, around these fixed points. The answer, in the Quirke series, is a great deal . . . But the main point of Black, as it is with Banville, is the work the words do . . . his sentences are a regular pleasure . . . There are also frequent taut metaphors in the Chandler/Fleming style . . . with Quirke, he has made a fascinating addition to the ranks of the defective detective in books that combine respectful reading of the genre with brightly original writing' --Guardian
'A swift, hopscotching murder mystery . . . A beach read for the brainy'
--LA Times
'My new favourite is "A Death in Summer." It is a quick read, building in intensity like the heat of a July day before tapering off to a cooler twilight of revelation and reconciliation. If it's mysteries you crave, and if shimmering sentences refresh you even more reliably than would a two-week vacation at the shore, then Quirke -- mournful, shambling, guilt-ridden, whiskey-soaked and irresistible -- is just the ticket'
--Chicago Tribune
`It is, in essence, a timeless story of how flawed personalities can make efforts towards the greater good, while others spread a toxic and debilitating evil...It is all beautifully done...the Dublin characters are achingly authentic...Banville's lightness of touch merely emphasizes the darkness at the heart of A Death in Summer...[he] may be dabbling with another oeuvre...but he has retained his ability to captivate, intrigue and provoke.' --The Glasgow Herald
`The fourth in this wonderfully gloomy series centered on the Dublin pathologist Quirke...does not disappoint.' --Daily Mail
`In these dark days, it's a relief to go back in time to Dublin in the Fifties for my book of the year. This is the setting of the wonderfully evocative crime series by Benjamin Black (aka John Banville) featuring the excellent, sharp-tongued pathologist, Quirke, who has a sixth sense when things don't quite add up.' --Carla McKay, Daily Mail
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This was the first Quirke novel I had read and would now go back and read the complete series as a result. I found the writing style to be witty and well crafted, if you enjoy this use of words as much as pacing through a novel, this book will work for you. I wouldn't say it is a pacy read at all, infact the plot could probably be described as minimal, but this certainly didn't matter to me. Quirke was an interesting character, full of contradictions, which made him seem very real. I would have like to have seen more of Hackett, the actual detective, but he may have centre stage in the others perhaps? I wasn't sure how much of the actual fifties background was detectable, but this was Dublin, so maybe had a different feel to fifties England. It made me want to visit Dublin and nearby County Kildare as well - especially as my maternal grandparents both came from there. An interesting introduction which I enjoyed reading and would recommend if you prefer a gentler style of detective novel, with a nod to Irish wit and love of words thrown in.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This was my first Benjamin Black, though not my first John Banville. In terms of literary style this certainly does not disappoint: witty phrasing and arresting imagery let you know you are in the hands of an elegant master craftsman. There is also a seriousness driving the narrative which announces the presence of a real novelist. Quirke is an interesting creation and he is surrounded by characters who are neatly, if not always deeply, drawn. The narrative is not over-burdened with procedural detail and Black allows 'space' around the characters for impressions to develop rather than be bludgeoned into shape.
As a thriller, it took some time for my pulse to begin to race and for the compulsive page turning to begin to take over (in fact I don't think I ever achieved that level of involvement. As others have mentioned, the solution comes as no real surprise, but I don't see that as too much of a problem or disappointment, as the seedy Dublin background is almost as much a part of the story as the characters and a source of interest and pleasure. Given the nature of the background to the motivation for Jewel's death and its relevance to contemporary events in Ireland, I was a little surprised to find Black's treatment of it to be so low key, though I am glad to be spared the lurid approach that some might have taken. However, the horror of the reasons behind his murder struck me as almost too subtly made to have the sort of impact the very much 'live' issue merits.
I suspect, too, that books 1-3 prepare completist readers for the pleasures of book 4 through the development of the central character's world-weary persona. Will I become one of those completists? Probably, though not quite with the passion of some reviewers.
As a thriller, it took some time for my pulse to begin to race and for the compulsive page turning to begin to take over (in fact I don't think I ever achieved that level of involvement. As others have mentioned, the solution comes as no real surprise, but I don't see that as too much of a problem or disappointment, as the seedy Dublin background is almost as much a part of the story as the characters and a source of interest and pleasure. Given the nature of the background to the motivation for Jewel's death and its relevance to contemporary events in Ireland, I was a little surprised to find Black's treatment of it to be so low key, though I am glad to be spared the lurid approach that some might have taken. However, the horror of the reasons behind his murder struck me as almost too subtly made to have the sort of impact the very much 'live' issue merits.
I suspect, too, that books 1-3 prepare completist readers for the pleasures of book 4 through the development of the central character's world-weary persona. Will I become one of those completists? Probably, though not quite with the passion of some reviewers.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This is a consciously "literary" crime novel. How you respond to it will depend upon whether you like the sort of heightened language employed by Benjamin Black (the Man Booker winner John Banville writing under a well-publicised pseudonym). I do like it and so I did enjoy the book, although I thought it had its flaws.
To illustrate the style of the book, Banville describes a buffet table which has "at its centre, a mighty salmon, succulently, indecently pink, arranged on a silver salver..." Or as another example, "The priest was studying him closely again, running ghostly fingers over the Braille of Quirke's soul." I found all this atmospheric and evocative - which is just as well, because there is a lot of atmosphere and character and a great deal of Fine Writing but, frankly, not all that much plot. What plot there is, is a bit thin and covers very well-trodden ground - child abuse, the wealthy believing they can behave as they wish and so on - and it flagged pretty badly in places. However it serves well enough as a vehicle for conveying the author's character analyses and sense of the mores of 1950s Ireland, which seems to me to be the real point of this book
I thought Inspector Hackett (only a relatively minor character, sadly) a wonderful creation, and there is one prolonged interview scene conducted by him which is utterly compelling and quite brilliantly done, I thought. Although less engaging, Black's other characters seem very real and well-drawn to me and I thought he made some penetrating observations about the way people think and behave.
In short, this is not really a whodunit sort of crime novel, but it is a very well written, thoughtful book and an enjoyable, intelligent read.
To illustrate the style of the book, Banville describes a buffet table which has "at its centre, a mighty salmon, succulently, indecently pink, arranged on a silver salver..." Or as another example, "The priest was studying him closely again, running ghostly fingers over the Braille of Quirke's soul." I found all this atmospheric and evocative - which is just as well, because there is a lot of atmosphere and character and a great deal of Fine Writing but, frankly, not all that much plot. What plot there is, is a bit thin and covers very well-trodden ground - child abuse, the wealthy believing they can behave as they wish and so on - and it flagged pretty badly in places. However it serves well enough as a vehicle for conveying the author's character analyses and sense of the mores of 1950s Ireland, which seems to me to be the real point of this book
I thought Inspector Hackett (only a relatively minor character, sadly) a wonderful creation, and there is one prolonged interview scene conducted by him which is utterly compelling and quite brilliantly done, I thought. Although less engaging, Black's other characters seem very real and well-drawn to me and I thought he made some penetrating observations about the way people think and behave.
In short, this is not really a whodunit sort of crime novel, but it is a very well written, thoughtful book and an enjoyable, intelligent read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Solid Detective Novel
This is the first Benjamin Black book I have read and I was looking forward to reading it. I liked the idea of going back to a slower time in the 50's, with detectives who used... Read more
Published 17 days ago by Wendy Jones
Darkness at Noon
When Dublin newspaper baron Richard Jewell is found at his country house in County Kildare, his head blown off and a shotgun in his hands, it seems initially a tragic suicide. Read more
Published 19 days ago by Mr. Gtj Charmley
lyrical, atmospheric crime
What makes a book a best-seller? I had just become cross with myself for giving up too many precious hours of my life to a trite, cliche-ridden, sentimental 'best seller' that is... Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. Robins
An excellent read
Benjamin Black's series of Quirke novels, set in in the Dublin of the 1950s, are marvellously evocative of the period, and the protagonist, rather than being a police inspector who... Read more
Published 4 months ago by V. Nicholl
To see ourselves...
Every now and again, it's easy to stumble into a series of detective novels in the middle, not the beginning. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mrs. R.
Quirke 4.
Thoroughly enjoyable Dublin thriller featuring Quirke and Hackett, set in the 1950's. Having read the first 3 in the series, I think this is the best so far - less back story is... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. Peter Wilson
Description masking lack of depth and originality
Poor Benjamin Black! His characters conspired to be yawningly shallow and uninteresting, despite all that irrelevant description, and then drove his plot right into the realm of... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mom
The quirks of Quirke
In a crowded genre it is not easy for newcomers to gain a foothold. Quirke (no first name) is a pathologist but with an interest in solving crimes. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Wynne Kelly
A Long Remembered Read
The Quirke books get better and better. The first one I read was Elegy for April (the third in the series)- which I enjoyed so much I then read the first and second. Read more
Published 7 months ago by OldLaughingLady
A Death in Summer
Compared to many other novels I have read it was fairly slow to get going but incredibly detailed in its descriptions of the characters and places. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Kevin Roche
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