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Elegy for April

A Novel

Quirke (Volume 3)

Benjamin Black

Picador

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The New York Times Bestselling Author of Christine Falls

April Latimer, a junior doctor at a local hospital, is something of a scandal in the conservative and highly patriarchal society of 1950s Dublin. She’s known for being independent, and her taste in men is decidedly unconventional. Now April has vanished, and her friend Phoebe Griffin suspects the worst. Phoebe seeks out Quirke, her brilliant but erratic father, and asks him for help. Sober again after intensive treatment for alcoholism, Quirke follows April’s trail through some of the darker byways of the city, and finds himself deeply involved in April’s murky story, facing ugly truths about family savagery, Catholic ruthlessness, and race hatred. Both an absorbing crime novel and a brilliant portrait of a father and his daughter, this is Benjamin Black at his sparkling best.

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It was the worst of winter weather, and April Latimer was missing.

For days a February fog had been down and showed no sign of lifting. In the muffled silence the city seemed bewildered, like a man whose sight has suddenly failed. People vague as invalids groped their way through the murk, keeping close to the house fronts and the railings and stopping tentatively at street corners to feel with a wary foot for the pavement's edge. Motorcars with their headlights on loomed like giant insects, trailing milky dribbles of exhaust smoke from their rear ends.

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Elegy for April by Benjamin Black--Audiobook Excerpt

Listen to this audiobook excerpt from Benjamin Black's crime novel Elegy for April, narrated by actor Timothy Dalton. Quirke—the hard-drinking, insatiably curious Dublin pathologist—is back, and he's determined to find his daughter's best friend, a well-connected young doctor. April Latimer has vanished. A junior doctor at a local hospital, she is something of a scandal in the conservative and highly patriarchal society of 1950s Dublin.

Benjamin Black discusses his novel Elegy for April

Hear New York Times bestselling author Benjamin Black discuss his mystery thriller novel Elegy for April. Black talks about his inspiration for the book and the 1950's Dublin setting. An absorbing crime novel and a portrait of a father and daughter, this is Benjamin Black at his best.

Reviews

Praise for Elegy for April

“Methodical, detailed, and always gripping.” —USA Today

“Elegant...[Black/Banville’s] sinuous prose, subtle eroticism, and 1950s period detail do more than enough to put [his] series on the map.” —The New York Times

“In Elegy for April, Black’s nailed down the recipe, the style and pace, that allows him to craft a story of suspense while filling it with sharp-eyed, bigger-picture observations.” —Time Out (Chicago)

“Mr. Black/Banville has raised the bar for the soul’s-night genre....Cool, atmospheric…memorably etched.” —The Dallas Morning News

“The writing has an elegance and nimbleness that surpass almost all other genre fiction….[He] evokes Dublin—which he knows inside out—with an almost bitter love, and his feeling for the city’s class and religious divisions and its urgent, albeit repressed, sexual atmospheres helps his characters spring from the page.” —Los Angeles Times

“Quirke, the haunted Dublin pathologist and haphazard sleuth, returns in the third novel in Black’s superb series of sharply etched, nearly Jamesian mysteries....In Black’s atmospheric and penetrating works of Irish noir, pain, prejudice, greed, and violence brew behind lace curtains.” —Booklist (starred review)

Reviews from Goodreads

Kelsey rated it

Mar 18, 2012

Not quite a four-star rating, but an enjoyable read. I'll definitely read books 1 and 2 with Quirke as the main character. Maybe I would've enjoyed this one more if I hadn't read it out of order.

The thing I loved most was how Quirke's character is developed in comparison with everyone and everyth... ...more

Rett rated it

Feb 2, 2012

Quirke, if not at his best, is at his most intriguing
Benjamin Black’s third crime thriller involving Dublin pathologist Garret Quirke “Elegy for April,” like the other novels in the series, ultimately is about love or to be more apt, the perversity of love. In “Elegy for April” love is obsessive... ...more

Paul rated it

Dec 26, 2011

Another enjoyable read by John Banville's alter-ego, but another annoyingly slapdash tale. He wrote somewhere that the Benjamin Black books took him a fraction of the time to write compared with his 'serious' books - and it shows. Riddled with inconsistencies, it's nevertheless a well-written ent ...more

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About the Author

Benjamin Black

Benjamin Black, the pen name of acclaimed novelist John Banville, is the author of Christine Falls and The Silver Swan. Christine Falls was nominated for both the Edgar Award and Macavity Award for Best Novel; both Christine Falls and Silver Swan were national bestsellers. Banville lives in Dublin.

Benjamin Black