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Title details for Elegy for April by John Banville - Available

Elegy for April

#3 in series

by John Banville
Timothy Dalton
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
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2 of 2 copies available

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. Though her family is one of the most respected in the city, she is known for being independent-minded; her taste in men, for instance, is decidedly unconventional.
Now April has disappeared, and her friend Phoebe Griffin suspects the worst. Frantic, Phoebe seeks out Quirke, her brilliant but erratic father, and asks him for help. Sober again after intensive treatment for alcoholism, Quirke enlists his old sparring partner, Detective Inspector Hackett, in the search for the missing young woman. In their separate ways the two men follow April's trail through some of the darker byways of the city to uncover crucial information on her whereabouts. And as Quirke becomes deeply involved in April's murky story, he encounters complicated and ugly truths about family savagery, Catholic ruthlessness, and race hatred.
Both an absorbing crime novel and a brilliant portrait of the difficult and relentless love between a father and his daughter, this is Benjamin Black at his sparkling best.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Quirke

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 13, 2010

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781427209467
      • File size: 244587 KB
      • Duration: 08:29:33

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Benjamin Black is the pen name of Booker Prize-winning author John Banville. From narrator Timothy Dalton's first words, listeners sense the overwhelming bleakness and despair of life in 1950s Dublin and the grim outlook of the hero pathologist, Garret Quirke, a recovered alcoholic who expects life to deliver few comforts and little joy. The story concerns the disappearance of a doctor who is a friend of his daughter. This is Black's third Quirke novel. As always, the mystery takes a backseat to Black's primary interest--the inescapable maw that is the past. Dalton embraces all the dolefulness of the novel's atmosphere perfectly. M.O. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from February 22, 2010
      Black's engrossing third crime thriller set in 1950s Dublin (after The Silver Swan
      ) finds pathologist Garret Quirke fresh from a stint in alcohol rehab. Quirke reluctantly agrees to help his daughter, Phoebe Griffin, with whom he has a tenuous relationship, find her missing best friend, April Latimer, a junior doctor at a local hospital. Quirke soon finds that members of the powerful Latimer family have all but disowned April, and yet he's sure they know more than they're letting on. Phoebe does her own sleuthing among the group of friends she shared with April, including a stage actress, a handsome Nigerian surgical student, and a reporter. Black (the pen name of Booker Prize–winner John Banville) is equally concerned with exploring the idea of family and loyalty as with spinning a suspenseful whodunit, and his depiction of a fragile father-daughter relationship is as powerful as the unsettling truth behind April's disappearance. Author tour.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 31, 2010
      Timothy Dalton, former James Bond and longtime reader of Black's thrillers, channels his Royal Shakespeare Company roots to give life to pathologist Garret Quirk. Black (a pseudonym of Booker Prize–winner John Banville) specializes in psychologically complex 1950s Dublin noir. In this latest installment set in a gray, sleeting winter, Quirk—fresh out of rehab and at the behest of his daughter, Phoebe—delves into the disappearance of a young doctor, April Latimer. The two young women were members of a clique that also includes an arrogant, diminutive reporter, a theatrical actress, and a Nigerian prince. Dalton uses only subtle shifts in tone to delineate the characters, focusing more on their temperaments than gender or ethnicity. He does the same for the members of April's influential family, effectively underlining their arrogance and disdain for the unruly Quirk. As the haunted pathologist shambles through his unauthorized investigation, questioning events in his own life and falling back on his alcoholic ways, the author is more successful in creating a mood of melancholy rather than suspense. But thanks to his exquisite style and Dalton's precise locutions, that more than suffices. A Holt hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 22).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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