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A Death in Summer

by Benjamin Black

Series: Quirke (4)

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4784451,106 (3.56)35
When newspaper magnate Richard Jewell is found dead at his country estate, clutching a shotgun in his lifeless hands, few see his demise as cause for sorrow. But before long Doctor Quirke and Inspector Hackett realize that, rather than the suspected suicide, "Diamond Dick" has in fact been murdered.
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English (38)  Spanish (4)  Italian (1)  French (1)  All languages (44)
Showing 1-5 of 38 (next | show all)
So slow and meandering that at times I almost forgot a murder was being investigated. When an infamous newspaperman is found shot with his own shotgun it is thought at first that it was suicide. No one was particularly upset. Despite the title I always visualize Black's Quirke stories in dismal, smoky, black and white, particularly fitting for this bleak story that looks at Dublin's anti-Semitism and dark topics that were usually kept quiet in 1950s Ireland. As always, Black's writing is outstanding. ( )
  VivienneR | Sep 25, 2023 |
How is Quirke so easily seduced by every woman he meets? Ending in some way similar to the last book. ( )
  Doondeck | Apr 8, 2021 |
In the fourth of Benjamin Black's (aka John Banville) crime novels to feature pathologist Quirke, the people of Dublin are suffering through a stretch of scorching summer weather. Widely reviled newspaper owner Richard Jewell has been found dead in his home office, his head blown off by a shotgun blast. He’s holding the gun, which gives the death the trappings of suicide. But no one knows why he would kill himself. What’s more, the details of the scene don’t add up, so Quirke and Detective Inspector Hackett decide that the death must be treated as a homicide. Hackett takes charge, but Quirke, ever curious, cannot help but be drawn into the investigation, especially after encountering Jewell’s sultry widow, the imperturbable and enigmatic Françoise d’Aubigny. It turns out that Richard Jewell (known to his many detractors as “Diamond Dick”) was a ruthless businessman with shady connections and lots of enemies. The list of potential suspects is long and includes employees, business rivals and family members. In addition to Françoise, Richard’s troubled sister Dannie is also of interest to Hackett and Quirke, less as a suspect than as a source of information. In a bizarre coincidence, Dannie Jewell is a friend of David Sinclair, Quirke’s taciturn and socially awkward assistant in the path lab at the Hospital of the Holy Family. Quirke’s attempt to encourage friendship (possibly even romance) between David and his daughter Phoebe, situates Phoebe at the periphery of the case: through David, Phoebe meets Dannie and starts forming her own theories about Richard's death and the Jewell family. Quirke, back on the booze and at something of a loose end in his life, is seduced by a mystery that only grows more perplexing the deeper he digs, and by a widow who doesn’t seem to be grieving. The narrative shifts seamlessly among perspectives—mostly Quirke’s and Hackett’s. As the story progresses, Quirke time and again pokes his nose where it doesn’t belong, placing himself and others in danger but also exposing secrets that suggest an array of credible motives for murder. The story Banville has concocted moves at a leisurely pace, veers in unexpected directions, and is never less than enthralling. The writing throughout is elegant and dripping with atmosphere. Quirke is a man wracked by self doubt, alert to his many flaws and weak in the face of temptation—be it booze or women. A loner at heart, he does not trust easily, and yet craves companionship. Women find him attractive, but whenever he drops his guard he ends up in a compromising situation and wakes up the next morning hungover and burdened with regret. As a pathologist who deals in death and who’s seen it all, he is sensitive to the depths of depravity to which humanity can sink. But there are also times when he speaks and acts impulsively and imperils himself by downplaying the importance of his own observations. His fallibility and contradictory nature make him achingly human. The overall mood of the novel is sombre, and the book exhibits once again Banville’s unparalleled skill at individualizing characters and using setting to project states of mind. A Death in Summer is a dazzling addition to a stellar series, one that leaves us hungry for the next. ( )
  icolford | Mar 18, 2021 |
This was an exciting thriller playing in the 1950s in and around Dublin. It's the fourth volume from the Quirke series, but for me it's the first book I read from this series.
Richard Jewell, a nasty contemporary, is found dead at his desk. At first everything looks like a suicide. Only the pathologist Quirke and Inspector Hackett believe in murder. To enlighten this is very difficult, because all the protagonists have something to hide. Furthermore, it turns out that even sexual abuse is a motive. ( )
  Ameise1 | May 5, 2018 |
Having enjoyed Banville's forage into Chandler's World with a "new" Philip Marlow novel, "The Black-Eyed Blonde", I decided to give Banville's "Quirke" series a try. After all, it was obvious in The Black-Eyes Blonde, Banville was no slouch as a writer and, more evidence of this is that Banville was short-listed for the Booker Prize in 1989 for "The Book of Evidence", won the Booker Prize in 2005 for "The Sea" and was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize in 2013. Banville has at least a dozen or so other most-prestigious awards--and, it is rumored, he is on the short-list for a Nobel Prize in Literature. Even though Banville has labeled his crime fiction as "cheap fiction" , Banville's writing has been called perfectly crafted, beautiful, and dazzling. His skill shows up here in this pleasurable read of his "cheap fiction". The only book in the Quirke series in the Library at the time I went looking was "A Death in Summer" from 2011, by Banville's alter-ego Benjamin Black. I read it in three stayed-up-late sittings. The writing is magnificent and, as he is known-for a terrific sense of humor it, fortunately, in a subtle and not easily perceived way, shows through in this novel-which is the 4th book of the Quirke series. Beginning with the main protagonist "Quirke" , starting with the character's name, moving on to his occupation, and his dialogue and his image of himself, that sense of humor continues to reside in a light dusting throughout the personalities, the language, the places, and the physical being of the other characters. The plot does not hold center stage here--the people, and the places do. The plot is importantly there however, is believable, i effective and not fabricated, but who did it and how was it done frequently turns over the stage to who who is, and why and what who will do next , and why who did what was done in the first place. Make no mistake, however; the book has power, reward, suffering and pain, laid on with a most delicate hand. ( )
  SmithfieldJones | Dec 10, 2016 |
Showing 1-5 of 38 (next | show all)
"A Death in Summer," Black's fourth book featuring pathologist Garret Quirke, is a swift, hopscotching murder mystery set in postwar Ireland. Quirke is called in on the Jewell case by Detective Inspector Hackett, and he can't help but get involved. He and Hackett believe Jewell's death was not a suicide, and they spend much of the book working together. They're similar and different; both are middle-aged, but Hackett is plump and rumpled, while Quirke is tall and dissolutely handsome. In one of Black's previous novels, Quirke went to rehab, but here he starts drinking again; it's as if the genre demands that he lift a glass.
 

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When word got about that Richard Jewell had been found with the greater part of his head blown off and clutching a shotgun in his bloodless hands, few outside the family circle and few inside it, either, considered his demise a cause for sorrow.
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When newspaper magnate Richard Jewell is found dead at his country estate, clutching a shotgun in his lifeless hands, few see his demise as cause for sorrow. But before long Doctor Quirke and Inspector Hackett realize that, rather than the suspected suicide, "Diamond Dick" has in fact been murdered.

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