MADreads

Under the silver surface, shadows

April 5th, 2008 Katie H.

A few years ago, Benjamin Black (or John Banville as he is known in real life) introduced the world to his reluctant Irish sleuth/pathologist Quirke in the moody noir Christine Falls.  With The Silver Swan, Quirke is back, on the wagon and trying to make amends to his newly-acknowledged daughter, Phoebe.  After the murder of Christine Falls turned his life upside down, he wants nothing more to do with investigating.

But then Deirdre Hunt turns up on his autopsy table.  She looks like an apparent suicide, but when Hunt’s husband begs Quirke not to do a postmortem, Quirke’s suspicions are raised.  Against his better judgement, Quirke starts to uncover Deirdre’s secrets, including a risky business deal with an Englishman whose tastes run to unsavory and illegal pursuits.  When the same man begins to pursue Phoebe, Quirke is faced with a dilemma:  expose the truth and jeopardize his daughter, or cover up the real cause of Deirdre’s death. 

Like the earlier book, Black steeps his settings in an atmosphere charged with deception: even with Silver Swan’s summery Dublin setting, the shadows never fully recede.  In the first portion of the book, I was a little disappointed in the characterization–everyone seemed a little too much like they had stepped out central casting for a Hollywood film noir.  And some mystery affectionados may not find Black’s tendency to emphasize setting over an intricate mystery to their liking.  That being said, Black’s nuanced grasp of human relationships more than made up for these failings.  The suspense crescendos to the last page and Black, like the best of crime writers, kept me guessing to the end.

Entry Filed under: Mystery