Even the Dead - (Quirke) by John Banville & Benjamin Black (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Quirke's latest case leads him inexorably toward the dark machinations of an old foe, in the seventh mystery from "one of the most imaginative literary novelists writing in the English language today" (The Washington Post)

Perhaps Quirke has been down among the dead too long. Lately the Dublin pathologist has suffered hallucinations and blackouts, and he fears the cause is a brain tumor. A specialist diagnoses an old head injury caused by a savage beating; all that's needed, the doctor declares, is an extended rest. But when a body turns up, any possibility of rest vanishes...

The corpse is discovered in a crashed car one hot June night. The police assume the driver's death was either an accident or a suicide, but Quirke's examination of the body leads him to believe otherwise. Then his daughter Phoebe gets a mysterious visit from an acquaintance; when the woman later disappears, Phoebe asks her father for help, and Quirke in turn seeks the assistance of his old friend Inspector Hackett. Before long, the two men find themselves deep in a shadowy world where one of the city's most powerful men uses the cover of politics and religion to make obscene profits.

Even the Dead--John Banville's seventh novel featuring the endlessly fascinating Quirke--is a story of surpassing intensity and surprising beauty.

Review Quotes

Praise for Even the Dead

"There are now seven [novels] that feature Quirke, and by the latest, Even the Dead, they make a series with a complex intertwining of places, obsessions, memories, and characters, many of whom return frequently: something like Raymond Chandler played through a Proustian woodwind....We can now look at the books as an ensemble that does something remarkable within the detective genre."
--The New York Review of Books

"At the heart of Even the Dead is an insidious plot...[Banville] never worries about letting the plot dangle, breathing lovely, rich emotion through these pages with his unhurried, reflective prose....You linger over his descriptions."
--Chicago Tribune

"With its flowing prose, penetrating observation and deft evocation of time and place, Even the Dead is an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish....[Banville's] masterly evocation of [Dublin], with its smoke-shrouded and boozy pubs, the decrepit, uncared-for buildings, the unruly traffic and the often depressed mien of the average Dubliner, is scarily accurate."
--The Independent

"The pleasures of the narrative, the parade of eccentric characters, and the human dilemmas the plot exposes give us fiction of a high order."
--Commonweal

"[Banville] fashions a meticulously written installment notable for its palpable sense of place, a slate of fully drawn characters, and a meaningful denouement....The investigation's tense, yet largely nonviolent, resolutions carry great resonance for Quirke."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"EW's books editor Tina Jordan is a major fan of [John Banville's] Quirke series--and his seventh, Even the Dead, is as great as ever. If you haven't yet met Quirke, an alcoholic pathologist, prepare to binge read the first six books in a fever so you can get to this one."
--Entertainment Weekly (11 Books You Have to Read in January)

"Reminiscent of the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear or Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge series...[Even the Dead] quickly draws readers in--even readers new to the series...[John Banville] has a gift for finely drawn characters and small details. And Quirke's undeniable eccentricity lends him an irresistible charm that will keep the reader engaged until the very end."
--Shelf Awareness

"In [Banville's] hands, Dublin is a mysterious beauty menaced by its powerful elite. Quirke's latest entanglement forces him to revisit some unresolved issues that go back to the series' beginnings....Fans will welcome this tying up of loose ends."
--Booklist

"[Banville] certainly knows how to spin an engaging, often suspenseful noir."
--Publishers Weekly

Praise for John Banville

"Ireland's greatest living novelist...a literary polymath."
--The New York Times

"A grand writer with a seductive style."
--The New York Times Book Review

"The Irish master."
--The New Yorker

"One of the best novelists in English."
--The Guardian

"One of the most imaginative literary novelists writing in the English language today."
--The Washington Post

"[Banville's] books are like baroque cathedrals."
--The Paris Review

"Prodigiously gifted. He cannot write an unpolished phrase."
--The Independent

"One periodically rereads a [Banville] sentence just to marvel at its beauty."
--USA Today

"Banville is a master at capturing the most fleeting memory or excruciating twinge of self-awareness with riveting accuracy."
--People

About the Author

JOHN BANVILLE was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of numerous novels, including The Sea, which won the 2005 Booker Prize, and the DI Quirke mysteries. In 2011 he was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize, in 2013 he was awarded the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature, and in 2014 he won the Prince of Asturias Award, Spain's most important literary prize. He lives in Dublin.