The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black

The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black

It has been two years since the events of Christine Falls, the bestselling novel that introduced the world to an irascible Dublin pathologist named Quirke. Quirke's beloved Sarah has died, his surrogate father lies paralyzed by a stroke, and he's been sober for half a year. When a near-forgotten acquaintance asks him to cover up his beautiful young wife's apparent suicide, Quirke knows he should stay clear, for the sake of his sobriety and his peace of mind. But his old itch is irresistible, and before long he is probing further into the circumstances of Deidre Hunt's death, into a web of drugs and illicit sex that may have snared his own daughter, Phoebe. With its vivid, intense evocation of 1950s Dublin, and intricate, psychologically complex storyline, The Silver Swan is even more engrossing than last year's Christine Falls (Entertainment Weekly).

John Banville, the Man Booker Prize-winning novelist, uses the pen name Benjamin Black. He lives in Dublin and is the author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed Quirke novels: Christine Falls, The Silver Swan, Elegy for April, and A Death in Summer.