Christine Falls (2006)

I made the mistake of reading the second in the series--The Silver Swan, which gave away much of the mystery in this one. Therefore, I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I might have. Also, Benjamin Black is a pseudonym for John Banville (I've never read anything by him) who is an author of "literary fiction" and won the Booker Prize for The Sea. He seemed to be trying to meld the literary and the mystery, and that just didn't work for me. I did like the descriptions of Dublin in the 1950s, though. ( )

Noir mystery by John Banville, one of my favorite novelists. Excellent read. ( )

I am reading this book for the second time because the second book in the series Silver Swan keeps referring to things that happened in it.

This may contain spoilers but I don't want to have to read it a third time. Pathologist Quirke , despite being brain addled from drink a lot of the time becomes increasingly aware of malfeasance involving his brother Mal, an eminent OB-Gyn. There is a case of a young dead woman who gets shuffled along with a possible inappropriate diagnosis as to cause of death. Mal did something to her records. When Quirke finds out that she had been staying with a certain woman, also apparently known to his family members, he makes a visit. it is not long before this woman is murdered.

Drawn into this puzzle Quirke cannot rest until he finds out what the relationship of these women to his brother is. He also finds that newborn children are part of the equation and they are passing through a somewhat unsavory convent onto the USA into the hands of similar wrong thinking fanatical people in Boston who have their own egomaniacal plans for these children which really goes far beyond the tenets of all faiths. The foundations of Quirke's family are shaken but he says the whole endeavor ends regardless of the fallout. ( )

As nicely detailed and vivid as the book may be, and as corrupt as the villains may be, the book is rather boring and pointless. Little is solved, less is made straight, and almost nothing eventually happens. Justice receives little service, especially for the children who have suffered in this sort of semi-legal skullduggery. It is really a mystery of whether the middle aged, often drunken fat man has any character or backbone or if the honored judge who has been his benefactor for years does or not? ( )

Dublin immediately after WWII. Wonderfully atmospheric. Feel sure I read somewhere that John Banville feels more comfortable as Benjamin Black than he does as John Banville. Here he invents a new sub-genre – pathologist procedural. Loved it. ( )