Christine Falls (Quirke Series #1)

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
"Secrets are like wine…they get a richer flavor, a finer bouquet, with every year that passes." Blending melancholic, deeply introspective, and starkly humorous prose with hard-boiled elements of crime fiction, acclaimed Irish novelist John Banville's first novel written under the pseudonym Benjamin Black is a dark gem -- equal parts Irish noir thriller, 1950s murder mystery, and unlikely spiritual journey of self-discovery.

Hard-drinking Dublin-based pathologist Quirke -- an emotionally demoralized widower "in the foothills of his forties" -- stumbles across an international conspiracy involving his antagonistic brother-in-law, obstetrician Malachy Griffin. When Quirke catches Griffin illegally altering a dead woman's records, he investigates, only to become entangled in an elaborate -- and murderous -- criminal enterprise that includes his affluent foster family, an underground Irish orphanage, a Boston millionaire, and the very future of the Catholic Church…

While Banville (The Book of Evidence, The Sea, et al.) may be renowned for his stylish and lyrical prose, his alter ego (the aptly named Black) will surely find a solid fan base with aficionados of down-and-dirty atmospheric thrillers -- especially those who enjoy contemporary Irish and Scottish neo-noir authors like Ken Bruen, T. S. O'Rourke, and Allan Guthrie. A rich tapestry of contrasting religious, ethical, and cultural themes, Christine Falls is simply brilliant: James Joyce meets Raymond Chandler. Paul Goat Allen

From the Publisher

"A page-turner told in prose so beautiful you'll want to read some passages repeatedly. Intricately plotted, beautifully written."--The Boston Globe

"Measured, taut, and transfixing . . . Benjamin Black's plotting is methodical, detailed, and always gripping. You can smell the smoke in Quirke's favorite pub and touch the cool walls in a Boston convent he later visits."--USA Today "Swirling, elegant noir . . . Crossover fiction of a very high order . . . Rolls forward with haunting, sultry exoticism . . . toward the best kind of denouement under these circumstances: a half inconclusive one."--The New York Times

"Offers a subtler, deeper satisfaction than just finding out whodunit. . . . What's most disconcerting of all about Christine Falls is the atmosphere of moral claustrophobia enveloping it."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"A dark, ambitious crime novel . . . It’s going to make more than a few readers flip the book over to look at the author photo to make sure Banville’s really pulling the strings."--Newsday

"Crime fiction rarely lives up to the term 'literary,' but [Christine Falls] is the happy exception."--Entertainment Weekly

Patrick Anderson

Readers who love gorgeous prose and aren't in any rush to find out whodunit will savor this novel.
— The Washington Post

Janet Maslin

Christine Falls rolls forward with haunting, sultry exoticism (“The quiet in the car seemed to broaden, and something unseen began to grow up out of it and spread its indolent fronds”) toward the best kind of denouement under these circumstances: a half-inconclusive one. Though Quirke uncovers a “Chinatown”-like web of treachery, one that pits the prison of the past against escape and youth, he emerges with his own wounds still festering, his own problems unsolved.

Quirke leaves readers not at the end of this single story, but poised at what looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship, as they say in the genre of fiction to which Christine Falls belongs.
— The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

In this expertly paced debut thriller from Irish author Black (the pseudonym of Booker Prize-winner John Banville), pathologist Garret Quirke uncovers a web of corruption in 1950s Dublin surrounding the death in childbirth of a young maid, Christine Falls. Quirke is pulled into the case when he confronts his stepbrother, physician Malachy Griffin, who's altering Christine's file at the city morgue. Soon it appears the entire establishment is in denial over Christine's mysterious demise and in a conspiracy that recalls the classic film Chinatown. And the deeper Quirke delves into the mystery, the more it seems to implicate his own family and the Catholic church. At the start, the novel has the spare melancholy of early James Joyce, describing a Dublin of private clubs, Merrion Square townhouses and the occasional horse-drawn cart; as the plot heats up and the action shifts to Boston, Mass., it becomes more of a standard detective story. Though Black makes an occasional American cultural blooper, he keeps divulging surprises to the last page so that the reader is simultaneously shocked and satisfied. Author tour. (Mar.)

Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

A young woman has died. When Irish pathologist Garret Quirke discovers that his adoptive brother has altered the autopsy records, he begins an investigation that brings him into conflict with a very patriarchal Catholic Church. Christine Falls died in childbirth and yet there is no trace of a baby, living or dead. Quirke himself was an orphan and his own wife died in childbirth, driving him to trace Christine's last days. The result is violence, torture, and death. Meanwhile . . . but it would be a shame to give away any more of the plot. Black (an award-winning "serious" novelist under another name) applies his elegant writing style to a genre where short, blunt sentences are the norm. The resulting thriller is both complex and fascinating, if occasionally confusing. Timothy Dalton's clear, stylish reading complements the text well. This book should be popular with both thriller and serious fiction readers. Recommended for adult audio collections.
—I. Pour-El

Library Journal

Black is the pseudonym for Booker Prize winner John Banville (The Sea), who may have selected a pen name to distinguish his decidedly highbrow prose from this crime novel, though he needn't have been so sly. While Christine Falls reads like an accessible, classic detective story, its confident manner and psychological portrait of a conflicted, broken narrator set it apart from mass-market fare. Quirke's a Dublin coroner, a widowed alcoholic with a complex relationship with his deceased wife's sister, Sarah. When he stumbles back to his office at the morgue after a night of drinking, he happens upon his brother-in-law, Malachy, tampering with the file of a dead woman named Christine Falls. Malachy's an obstetrician; Christine Falls had delivered a baby before her death; and Quirke is immediately, irrevocably involved in the case. Quirke soon realizes that Malachy's role in the shadowy Knights of St. Patrick is central to a plot that spans decades and involves the highest levels of the Catholic Church as well their family. A solid, dark tale, the first in a new series. For public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/06.]-Christine Perkins, Burlington P.L., WA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A boozy, bitter pathologist becomes a most unwilling detective when he uncovers a baby-trafficking scheme in Dublin in the 1950s. The hero of this enjoyable crime novel from Black (the pseudonym of Man Booker-winner John Banville: The Sea, 2005) is Dr. Quirke, an oversized smoker with no illusions about himself or the bodies he carves up in the basement of Holy Family Hospital. Though he's a widower-Quirke's Boston-born wife Delia Crawford died during childbirth-he is not alone. Delia's sister Sarah married Quirke's obstetrics colleague Malachy Griffin, and Quirke is very fond of their daughter Phoebe. Quirke was reared as Malachy's brother after being rescued from a dreadful orphanage by Malachy's father, now a chief justice and a freshly minted papal count. Quirke was, oddly enough, the favored child in the family, but Malachy won the sister that Quirke really loved. The complex family relationships, including the torches Sarah and Quirke still carry for each other, muddle matters when Quirke finds that Malachy has falsified the death record of Christine Falls, a young woman who delivered a child, now vanished, before dying. Looking into the dead woman's past, the curious Quirke finds that she was once employed in the Griffin household, as was hard-drinking Dolly Moran, in whose house Christine died. Quirke's inquiries bring big trouble. Dolly Moran is murdered shortly after talking to Quirke, and then Quirke himself is viciously mugged after ignoring warnings to let drop the matter of Christine Falls and the babies that vanish from a creepy local orphanage. The pathologist, who hitherto seemed interested primarily in drinking himself to death, stays on the case until it takes him backto Boston and the home of the Crawford sisters. A good story, and gorgeous writing. Agent: Ed Victor/Ed Victor Ltd.