Very often when an author changes genre and picks a pseudonym so not to confuse his existing fans, he makes a secret of it and the publishers sell it into the trade as a first novel and only sometimes acknowledges it as being from an established ‘bestselling’ name. Well, here there is no secret. We know that Benjamin Black is John Banville, winner of the Man Booker Prize in 2005 with The Sea, so we know the quality of writing is going to be good but can a literary prize winner write crime? Oh yes … this is startlingly disturbing, gripping stuff introducing an aptly named series character, Quirke, in a complex, absorbing plot centred around a secret society within the Catholic Church in Dublin. It’s first-rate.
The Quirke series
1. Christine Falls
2. The Silver Swan
3. Elegy for April
4. A Death in Summer
5. Vengeance
Comparison: Ian Rankin, Simon Kernick, Robert Edric.
| Primary Genre | Crime and Mystery |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
Now a major TV series: Quirke starring Gabriel Byrne and written by Andrew Davies.
Quirke's pathology department, set deep beneath the city, is his own gloomy realm: always quiet, always night, and always under his control. Until late one evening after a party he stumbles across a body that should not be there - and his brother-in-law falsifying the corpse's cause of death.
This is the first time Quirke has encountered Christine Falls, but the investigation he decides to lead into the way she lived and died uncovers a dark secret at the heart of Dublin's high Catholic network; one with the power to shake his own family and everything he holds dear.
'A ripping detective yarn with the template to follow in the golden bootprints of Rebus' Scotsman
'Superb . . . the final outcome is almost unbearably moving. You're in for a treat' Michael Dibdin, Guardian
'Succeeds sensationally . . . An absorbing plot, beguiling characters and evocative settings . . . His pacing is impeccable' Marcel Berlins, The Times
Christine Falls features in the following genres: Crime and Mystery, Thriller and Suspense, eBooks of the Month, Fiction, Recommendations
Christine Falls is available in Paperback
Christine Falls was written by Benjamin Black and published by Picador an imprint of Macmillan
Christine Falls has 389 pages
Yes it is part of Quirke Mysteries series
