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| Christine Falls: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Authors: Benjamin Black, John Banville
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $9.45
You Save: $15.55 (62%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  67 reviews
Sales Rank: 527370
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
ASIN: B001714Z0C
Publication Date: March 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new book
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Product Description
In the debut crime novel from the Booker-winning author, a Dublin pathologist follows the corpse of a mysterious woman into the heart of
a conspiracy among the city’s high Catholic society It’s not the dead that seem strange to Quirke. It’s the living. One night, after a few drinks at an office party, Quirke shuffles down into the morgue where he works and finds his brother-in-law, Malachy, altering a file he has no business even reading. Odd enough in itself to find Malachy there, but the next morning, when the haze has lifted, it looks an awful lot like his brother-in-law, the esteemed doctor, was in fact tampering with a corpse—and concealing the cause of death.
It turns out the body belonged to a young woman named Christine Falls. And as Quirke reluctantly presses on toward the true facts behind her death, he comes up against some insidious—and very well-guarded—secrets of Dublin’s high Catholic society, among them members of his own family.
Set in Dublin and Boston in the 1950s, the first novel in the Quirke series brings all the vividness and psychological insight of Booker Prize winner John Banville’s fiction to a thrilling, atmospheric crime story. Quirke is a fascinating and subtly drawn hero, Christine Falls is a classic tale of suspense, and Benjamin Black’s debut marks him as a true master of the form.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 62 more reviews...
 "We all have our own kinds of sin." March 17, 2007
80 out of 88 found this review helpful
(4.5 stars) With the same care that he devotes to his "serious" fiction, Booker Prize-winning author John Banville, under the pen name of "Benjamin Black," plumbs Dublin's Roman Catholic heritage in a mystery which examines the question of sin. The result is a vibrantly alive, intensely realized story of Dublin life and values in the 1950s--a mystery which makes the reader think at the same time that s/he is being entertained. Unlike most of the characters, Quirke, the main character, holds no awe for the church. In his early forties, "big and heavy and awkward," Quirke is a pathologist/coroner at Holy Family Hospital, a man who "prizes his loneliness as mark of some distinction." A realist, he has seen the dark side of life too often to hold out much hope for the future, his own or anyone else's.
His vision of humanity is not improved when he goes to his office unexpectedly one evening and finds his brother-in-law, famed obstetrician Malachy Griffin, altering documents regarding the death of a young woman, Christine Falls. Quirke's autopsy of Christine shows, not surprisingly, that she has died in childbirth, a "fallen woman" in the eyes of the church. The nature of Christine's sin, however, does not begin to compare to the sins that Quirke uncovers during his investigation of her death and the fate of her child.
John Banville (Black) has always been at least as interested in character as plot, and this novel is no exception. Quirke lived in an orphanage before being unofficially adopted by Judge Garrett Griffin, father of Dr. Malachy Griffin, who is obviously involved in the case. Developing on parallel planes, the novel becomes a study of Quirke and his personal relationships, at the same time that it is a study of Christine Falls and what she represents about Dublin society, the medical profession, the church and its influence, and the nature of power in upper-echelon Dublin.
Murders, torture, beatings, and violence keep the action level high (and a bit melodramatic), in keeping with the great, old-fashioned tradition of 1950s' mystery-writing. A change of location from Dublin to Boston broadens the scope, connecting the Dublin mystery to the history of the Irish and their traditions in Boston. The author's use of parallel scenes emphasizes contrasts and similarities (a Christmas party in Dublin vs. a Christmas party in Boston, for example), and he maintains a conversational voice appropriate for Quirke. After this fine debut mystery, one can easily imagine Banville developing the character of Quirke in future mysteries and becoming, like Graham Greene, a writer of both serious literary fiction and "entertainments." n Mary Whipple
 Plodding Melodrama October 14, 2007
27 out of 36 found this review helpful
This foray by Booker Prize-winner John Banville into crime fiction under a pseudonym pretty much tanks, and I was surprised to read that it is the first in an intended series. Set in the oppressive 1950s Dublin, it revolves around a widowed pathologist named Quirke who stumbles across some funny business at the morgue involving the corpse of the titular young woman. Because his brother, Mal, may be somehow implicated, he decides to poke around a bit. Quirke's attempt to find out more about the dead woman eventually segues into a search for her baby -- which eventually leads him into the upper strata of society, including the Catholic church.
Unfortunately, pretty much every thing about the plot feels creaky and predictable, from a conspiracy to smuggle "unwanted" babies to America via orphanages, to the corruption at the highest levels, to Quirke's ultimate grail, the identity of the baby's father. Most readers will have figured this out quite early on in the book and will grow weary of waiting for Quirke to catch up. Indeed, the pacing of the entire book is far too slow and plodding. Black/Banville appears to enjoy trying to create rich psychological backgrounds to his characters, however he's much less assured when it comes to having them actually act. Given how much of the book is devoted to Quirke's brooding on the past, his relationships with Mal, his sister-in-law, his niece, and his adoptive father, this develops as more of a plodding family melodrama than a suspenseful read. Thing climax in a burst of violence that feels more convenient for the writer than actually organic to the characters involved. Whatever this book is, it's certainly not a thriller.
 BANVILLE STANDS April 17, 2007
22 out of 25 found this review helpful
I'm not a mystery/thriller reader (strictly speaking, this book fits neither genre) and so bought this book only because its author is Banville. So to an extreme outsider it seems that Banville has taken almost every pulp cliche and turned it inside out, doubling up at every opportunity (Mal works with the living / Quirk with the dead. They are married to sisters: Mal's wife is alive / Quirk's dead -- thus they are brothers-in-law and because they share a parent, brothers by law. Father to Mal, adoptive father, or better still, Judge to Quirk. Mal orders an omelet, Quirk, the bird, and so on to deliriously detailed levels of interplay...and later still remarkably persisent stretches of alliteration) that make this something of a entertainingly postmodern excursion in Fun with Form wrapped within a dark to darker noir setting. All this is done without ever abandoning the fundamental obligation of delivering a well-told tale. Time, place, character, plot and the hazy details that shape up lives and deaths are all convincing in their familiarity, but the surface texture isn't all that matters here. As is usual for Banville, the language is exceptionally rich and lyrical, with some allusions proving profoundly unnerving, others profoundly amusing and still others so tenuously connected to their subject that you'll stop and think and think again. And importantly -- unlike another work by a "serious" writer pursuing a theoretically less demanding form -- "Christine Falls" never strains under the weight of all this talent in the way that Martin Amis' "Night Train" sadly came to a creaking halt, mid-rail. Bottom line, this one is as engrossing to read as it must have been to write.
Banville's, er, Black's style March 17, 2007
16 out of 21 found this review helpful
Since Benjamin Black's identity is revealed on the dust cover, it is no secret that he is really John Banville. Although this book is more accessable than Banville's earlier works, it is no less intriguing. The real genius behind his writing is his ability, like a minimalist painter, to create an entire character with the briefest of strokes. His characterizations, even of the smallest characters, are so acute, that the richness of his books fills out to the furthest corner. He does not sacrifice his literary talent even when writing a thriller like CHRISTINE FALLS. Here's hoping that "Black" had as much fun writing this book as the reader has reading it and that there will be many more instllments featuring Quirke.
terrific 1950s medical thriller March 8, 2007
14 out of 32 found this review helpful
In Dublin after a few drinks at an office going away party for a nurse, pathologist Garret Quirke enters his prime work area the morgue only to be stunned by what he sees in spite of being drunk. His stepbrother Dr. Malachy Griffin was sitting at Quirke's desk writing in a file that the pathologist noticed is that of Christine Falls. Too tired to think any further Quirke leaves a nervous Mal behind.
After several hours of sleep, Quirke wonders why Mal was at the morgue instead of home with his wife Susan. He begins to look closer at the death of the young maid, Christine Falls, who died during childbirth especially since he knows Mal changed the file. However, whenever he raises a point, he finds the Irish medical establishment protecting one another while the clues take him to Boston.
This is terrific 1950s medical thriller that constantly pulls the rig out from underneath the reader with fabulous unexpected yet plausible twists. The subplot in Dublin is foggy and mysterious as the audience alongside the obstinate hero wonders what is going on. The shift to Boston turns more detective like in tone and less sinister, as the clues begin to come together though spins still will fool the reader. Benjamin Black provides a superior medical investigative tale that will have fans clamoring for more work by quirky Quirke.
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