Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
The inimitable Quirke returns in another spellbinding crime novel, in which a young woman's dubious suicide sets off a new string of hazards and deceptions Two years have passed since the events of the bestselling Christine Falls , and much has changed for Quirke, the irascible, formerly hard-drinking Dublin pathologist. His beloved Sarah is dead, his surrogate father lies in a convent hospital paralyzed by a devastating stroke, and Phoebe, Quirke's long-denied daughter, has grown increasingly withdrawn and isolated.
With much to regret from his last inquisitive foray, Quirke ought to know better than to let his curiosity get the best of him. Yet when an almost forgotten acquaintance comes to him about his beautiful young wife's apparent suicide, Quirke's "old itch to cut into the quick of things, to delve into the dark of what was hidden" is roused again. As he begins to probe further into the shadowy circumstances of Deirdre Hunt's death, he discovers many things that might better have remained hidden,as well as grave danger to those
he loves.
Haunting, masterfully written, and utterly mesmerizing in its nuance, The Silver Swan fully lives up to the promise of Christine Falls and firmly establishes Benjamin Black (a.k.a. John Banville) among the greatest of crime writers.
Quirke, an irascible, hard-drinking Dublin pathologist, investigates the apparent suicide of Deidre Hunt, the beautiful young wife of an old acquaintance, and discovers many things that might better have remained hidden, as well as grave danger to those he loves.--From publisher description.
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Following the success of Christine Falls, Black, the pen name of Booker Prize-winning author John Banville (The Sea), returns with a second atmospheric crime novel once again starring Quirke, a 1950s Dublin pathologist and unlikely hero, a deeply curious man with the insight to know "something in him yearned for the darkness." Like the first book, this novel opens with the death of a young woman, the owner of a seemingly successful beauty salon called the Silver Swan. Her body is found in the river, her clothing neatly folded at the edge of the water. The distraught husband, not wanting his beautiful wife's body harmed, asks Quirke (a former classmate of the husband) to bypass the standard postmortem. Upon examining it, Quirke quickly notices a puncture mark visible on the dead woman's arm. And so Quirke's descent into darkness begins yet again. Black/Banville is a master of atmosphere; the fear and dread associated with hidden desires and deeds fairly leap off the page. Highly recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/07.]-Andrea Y. Griffith, Loma Linda Univ. Libs., CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Review
In this stunning follow-up to 2007's Christine Falls, Black (pseudonym of Booker Prize-winner John Banville) spins a complex tale of murder and deception in 1950s Ireland. Pathologist Garret Quirke, surprised by a visit from a college acquaintance, Billy Hunt, is even more surprised when Billy begs Quirke not to perform an autopsy on his wife, Deirdre, whose naked body was recently retrieved from Dublin Bay. Though everything points to suicide, Quirke knows something's amiss and begins to retrace Deirdre's steps. Black expertly balances Quirke's investigation with chapters detailing Deidre's past, from her marriage to Billy to her shady business deal with Leslie White, an enigmatic Englishman who knew Deidre as Laura Swan, the proprietress of their joint venture, a beauty salon called the Silver Swan. As Quirke digs deeper, he discovers a web of lies and blackmail that threatens to envelop even his own estranged daughter, Phoebe. Laconic, stubborn Quirke makes an appealing hero as the pieces of this unsettling crime come together in a shocking conclusion. Author tour. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Black, a pseudonym for Booker Prize winner John Banville, continues his exceptionally nuanced crime series featuring a soul-sick Irish pathologist named Quirke that began with Christine Falls (2007). Black sets his darkly poetic Dublin mysteries in the classic noir postwar era, revitalizes traditional tropes, and assembles provocative and labyrinthine plots. Quirke, large and brooding, is a newly reformed alcoholic damned awkward in conversation and perversely destructive in his efforts to do good. As in the first novel, the suspicious death of a young woman launches the drama: a long out-of-touch childhood acquaintance asks Quirke not to perform an autopsy on Deidre, his drowned wife. Naturally, Quirke is all the more vigilant in his investigation, and once again his fractured family is drawn into the bloody mess, especially his angry, austere daughter, Phoebe. Black loops back to tell Deidre's harrowing tale of poverty; sexual abuse; brief venture as the proprietor of the Silver Swan, a beauty salon; and sordid, if erotic, affair with silver-tongued con man Leslie White. Black keenly threshes misogyny, class and racial conflicts, and Irish fatefulness in this tense, engrossing tale of passion, crimes, and chaos shot through with lightning wit and radiant compassion.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2008 Booklist