The Silver Swan: A Novel | 
|  | | | Title: | The Silver Swan: A Novel | | Author: | Benjamin Black | | Publisher: | Henry Holt and Co. | | Type: | Book / Hardcover | | Publication Date: | 04 March, 2008 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0805081534 / 9780805081534 | | List Price: | $25.00 | | You Save: | $8.50 | | Amazon Price: | $16.50 | |
 This book is also available, brand-new, from 3rd-party marketplace sellers at Amazon.com, from $12.89. |
The HTML code below can be pasted onto your web-site, your MySpace page, or blog - or any number of similar places - to create a link to this page: If, instead of a text link, you'd like to create a link to this page which will display the book cover, if it's available, then the code below will do exactly that:
Check for the same book at these other US book sites:
• [ Abebooks ] • [ Alibris ] • [ Barnes & Noble ] • [ Half.com ] • [ Powells ] … or check UK bookstores
| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
The inimitable Quirke returns in another spellbinding crime novel, in which a young woman’s dubious suicide sets off a new string of hazards and deceptions  Two years have passed since the events of the bestselling Christine Falls, and much has changed for Quirke, the irascible, formerly hard-drinking Dublin pathologist. His beloved Sarah is dead, his surrogate father lies in a convent hospital paralyzed by a devastating stroke, and Phoebe, Quirke’s long-denied daughter, has grown increasingly withdrawn and isolated.
Â
With much to regret from his last inquisitive foray, Quirke ought to know better than to let his curiosity get the best of him. Yet when an almost forgotten acquaintance comes to him about his beautiful young wife’s apparent suicide, Quirke’s “old itch to cut into the quick of things, to delve into the dark of what was hidden” is roused again. As he begins to probe further into the shadowy circumstances of Deirdre Hunt’s death, he discovers many things that might better have remained hidden, as well as grave danger to those
he loves.
Â
Haunting, masterfully written, and utterly mesmerizing in its nuance, The Silver Swan fully lives up to the promise of Christine Falls and firmly establishes Benjamin Black (a.k.a. John Banville) among the greatest of crime writers.
| Other Items You May Enjoy:
Browse Books From These Related Subjects:
Customer Reviews:
• The Dubliner Victims 25 April, 2008
In a sequel to his first crime novel, the 2008 Edgar-nominated Christine Falls, Benjamin Black (nom de plume of John Banville) creates a complicated tale, filled with unnecessary characters and obfuscations clouding the mystery. It brings back Quirke, the Dublin pathologist with an "incurable curiosity."
A college acquaintance implores Quirke to forgo an autopsy on his wife who jumped off a pier and drowned in Dublin bay. In eyeing the body, Quirke discovers a puncture in her arm, and blood-work shows presence of alcohol and morphine. But Quirke allows the coroner to give a finding of accidental death. The plot involves the back story of the dead woman, alternating with events including those of Quirke's family, especially his daughter. The narratives are intended to lead the reader forward to decide whether her death really was suicide or murder, as well as laying the groundwork for future developments.
The novel is atypical of the usual mystery or crime book, and is more like an Irish drama (written without the brogue, fortunately). Perhaps that is the shortcoming of the novel, no matter how well-written it is. Nevertheless, it should be read and despite my problems with it, it is recommended.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1XRQ6YJ7HXQFQ
• Timothy Dalton's Narration 07 May, 2008
This is the second book Timothy Dalton has read by Benjamin Black and the characters are the same. If you remember where the first book left off, you're in good shape and if you've forgotten you can pretty much limp along. This book deals with the murder of a young woman, investigated by Quirk, the pathologist. Like the first novel, this one plods along without any particularly memorable (or likeable) characters and the ending comes as no surprise. Add to that the book is terribly depressing and it makes for uneasy listening.
The sole attraction for me was the fact Timothy Dalton narrated the book. The Irish and American characters gave him a good chance to stretch his talents with dialects and I found (as always) his voice soothing and rich with enunciation and emotion. I thought he was a little lazier with the American "Texan" this time (whom author Black referred to as a "Yankee" and nearly made me drive off the road) but altogether the first six discs were brilliantly read and eased along the otherwise sluggish plot. Interestingly, however, disc 7 represented an entirely different Timothy Dalton. It were as though he had to come back to the studio to re-record the final chapters and had entirely forgotten which voices he used for each character. The transition was so startling and persisted for the entire disc, that I have to believe some time lapsed between the narration of the first 6 discs and the last. He never did get the voices back and that made the final chapters of the book seem disjointed and out of place.
Without question if you're buying this for Timothy, you won't be disappointed; but beware of disc 7.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3GOG1KQZIISG8
• Warning: Read The First Book First. 30 May, 2008
Benjamin Black, The Silver Swan (Henry Holt, 2008)
The Silver Swan is one of those books that reminds me of why I like to read series novels in order. I hadn't read the first book John Banville published under the Benjamin Black name, but Henry Holt were kind enough to drop this one on my doorstep unannounced a couple of months ago, so I figured I'd read it. Black, even more than, say, Robert Parker, draws heavily on the events of his earlier novel for this one; I'm sure the epilogue would have resonated with me a great deal more had I read Christine Falls. That said, Banville still writes a very capable mystery, when he's not wallowing in the past misdeeds of Garret Quirke, the medical examiner/amateur sleuth who once again finds himself enmeshed in a mystery he doesn't really want anything to do with.
In this case, he is approached by an old college classmate, Billy Hunt, with a simple request-- his wife has just died, drowned, and Billy would like Quirke not to perform an autopsy on the body, Quirke agrees, but it's pretty standard operating procedure in mystery novels that such a request (which is relatively common in real life for religious reasons) is going to spark some neurons; in performing a quick examination of the body, Quirke finds a fresh needle mark, and we're off to the races. Things are not helped out by the fact that Quirke's daughter Phoebe is a client at the Silver Swan, Hunt's wife's salon, and that her flamboyant ex-business partner seems to be taking more than a consumerly interest in the girl.
The best thing about Banville-writing-as-Black is that he's not afraid to slap both the reader and the mystery genre around a bit. (The police sergeant's final line in the book is about as slappy as one can possibly get in a mystery novel, and we feel just as chagrined as Quirke when we realize what he's on about. Or we should.) That is always welcome in a genre that he become as codified as mystery has, and if you can get round Black's wallowing-- or if you've already read Christine Falls-- then I say have at it. There's some fun to be had with this one. ***
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2EDZH51XHFA9B
• Pleasure Is In The Writing, Not The Whodunnit Aspect 27 June, 2008
Banville is a wonderful writer (I enjoyed THE SEA), but he is not, as others have noted, a good mystery plotter. The pleasures of this text lie in his evocation of 50s Dublin and his characterizations. Anyone who reads mysteries will guess the murderer early in the plot, which relies too much on coincidence, irrational behavior, and implausibility.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AOUO5X1ZIRTUO
• Well-written But Flawed Crime Novel 11 June, 2008
Let me start by saying that I enjoyed reading this novel, which I read after finishing Christine Falls, the first Quirke novel. The writing is excellent, and it's full of rich descriptions of Dublin life, from a rather bleak perspective. Having said that, I must say that as a crime novel, it is flawed. Our protagonist Quirke does attempt to investigate the death of Laura Swan, but he never quite grasps what is going on.
There is one serious chronological error in the plot. The author's only explanation of where the killer acquired the drug used to kill Laura Swan has him getting it well after she is dead. One thing we expect from a crime novel is to have the details of the events hang together, and this book fails in that respect.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AI7WI1BLP7ETS
|
