A Death in Summer (Quirke 4) Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

A Death in Summer (Quirke 4) Book

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 ForshawRead More

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  • TheBookPeople

    When newspaper magnate Richard Jewell is found dead at his country estate, clutching a shotgun in his lifeless hands, few see his demise as cause for sorrow. But before long Doctor Quirke and Inspector Hackett realise that, rather than the suspected suicide, 'Diamond Dick' has in fact been murdered. Jewell had made many enemies over the years and suspicion soon falls on one of his biggest rivals. But as Quirke and his assistant Sinclair get to know Jewell's beautiful, enigmatic wife Francoise d'Aubigny, and his fragile sister Dannie, as well as those who work for the family, it gradually becomes clear that all is not as it seems. As Quirke's investigations return him to the notorious orphanage of St Christopher's, where he once resided, events begin to take a much darker turn. Quirke finds himself reunited with an old enemy and Sinclair receives sinister threats. But what have the shadowy benefactors of St Christopher's to do with it all? Against the backdrop of 1950's Dublin, Benjamin Black conjures another atmospheric, beguiling mystery.

  • Blackwell

    The new Quirke Dublin mystery from John Banville writing as Benjamin Black When newspaper magnate Richard Jewell is found dead at his country estate, clutching a shotgun in his lifeless hands, few see his demise as cause for sorrow.

  • 0330509098
  • 9780330509091
  • Benjamin Black
  • 1 July 2011
  • Mantle
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 256
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