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*3.5 Stars* The setting is 1950's Dublin, and Pathologist Dr Quirke and Police Inspector Hackett, join forces to investigate the death of a young man. The man was found in his crashed car in Phoenix park with the car well alight. It was thought to be a suicide initially until Quirke found evidence to Leggi tutto

I received this book from NetGalley. Thank you. This is my first Benjamin Black book about the quirky pathologist Dr. Quirke but it's not going to be the last. I so enjoyed this story set in Dublin that I am going to go back and read the earlier ones. Benjamin Black is the pseudonym John Banville,

Even the Dead was my first "Quirke" novel - which didn't matter one bit - and I have to say that I'm definitely wanting to read more. I've been a bit down on crime recently - with a few notable exceptions I've been findig them all very samey and indeed I have picked up and put down a few - with Even Leggi tutto

This was an enjoyable read, with Benjamin Black (aka John Banville) staying true to form with his lyrical, evocative descriptions. I have enjoyed some previous titles in the Quirke series, and the suspenseful, dark setting of Dublin in the 1950s continues to intrigue. Quirke, always prone to the mel Leggi tutto

I find it hard to rate and review this latest entry in the Quirke series. I liked it well enough but there isn't much of a mystery going on here. The suspicious death of a young man who crashes his car into a tree never really develops into anything surprising, and it rather takes a backseat to a fo Leggi tutto

An ordinary unhappiness The discordant and downright peculiar Griffin/Quirke family take what I presume is their final bow. Notwithstanding the disparaging comments of the author on the whole crime genre as well as viewing the mediocre television series, I confess that I have derived much pleasure fr Leggi tutto

This is an excellent well structured and plotted Irish noir that beckons the reader in and captivates until the end. It is set in fifties Dublin, where Black evokes a marvellous dark suspense-filled atmosphere, a backdrop where murky deeds take place. We find Quirke, the pathologist, in a fragile st Leggi tutto

I received this book from Sara D’Arcy/ Penguin Random House UK and the author in exchange for an honest review. I have to be fair and say that from the start, I got the feeling that I was missing out on something, having never read any of the the other books in this series. However, my curiosity got Leggi tutto

Even the Dead is the latest installment in Benjamin Black 's (aka John Banville) Quirke detective series. I'll admit I'm a huge Banville fan to begin with and have read (and thoroughly enjoyed) all of the Quirke books so far. So I was thrilled to receive a copy of Even the Dead from NetGalley. And it Leggi tutto

Benjamin Black is a superb writer. He lives up to the standard he expressed at the KW Literary Seminar some years ago that he felt an obligation to make every word as perfect as it could be. His sentences are often glorious. The only downside in this is that Black sometimes makes me impatient to get Leggi tutto