Author:Benjamin Black
NO CRIME IS EVER TRULY BURIED...
Visceral, gritty and cinematic, Even the Dead is the latest stylish thriller from John Banville's crime-writing alter ego, Benjamin Black.
Pathologist Quirke works in the city morgue, watching over Dublin's dead. The latest to join their ghostly ranks is a suicide. But something doesn't add up. The victim has a suspicious head wound, and the only witness has vanished, every trace of her wiped away.
On the trail of the missing woman, Quirke finds himself drawn into the shadowy world of Dublin's elite - secret societies, High Church politics and corrupt politicians. It leads him to a long-buried conspiracy that involves his own family. But it's too late to go back now...
THE DEAD WILL BE HEARD
'Fresh and original' Guardian
'Warm, sensitive, psychologically acute characterisation' Indepedent on Sunday
'Quirke is human enough to swell the hardest of hearts' GQ
'A beach read for the brainy' LA Times
'Superb' Irish Times
'Beautifully written' Literary review
'Ravishing prose' Independent
Quirke is an endearing hero and the Dublin of the 1950s - wet, cold, foggy, sinister - is evoked with harsh realism and nostalgia
—— The TimesAddiction, morbid sexual obsession, blackmail and murder, as well as prose as crisp as a winter's morning by the Liffey . . . Quirke is human enough to swell the hardest of hearts
—— GQWith Quirke, Banville has made a fascinating addition to the ranks of the defective detective in books that combine respectful reading of the genre with brightly original writing
—— GuardianA requiem for a cursed city, its inhabitants' inner lives doomed to remain as locked away, unhappy and unknowable as whatever lies buried
—— MetroIt is doubtful that anyone can write as well as Benjamin Black when it comes to a psychological mystery
—— Washington TimesEven the Dead offers pleasures one doesn't always associate with the crime thriller. Like subtle characterisation and a calm, elegant prose style. What makes the novel stand out is the warm, sensitive, psychologically acute characterisation. When I reached the end of the novel, I had a sense of having been nourished, rather than manipulated. It just goes to show that it isn't the genre that counts, but the talent that a writer brings to it
—— Independent on SundayIn Even the Dead, Black goes beyond the atmospheric stage and scene setting, delving deeper than in any previous novel into the soul of his pathologist hero Quirke, an enigmatic loner whose voice colours every page as if staining it with nicotine
—— Sunday HeraldStep through The Gates of Evangeline with Charlotte Cates, a grief-stricken Northerner tasked with uncovering a Southern dynasty's dark secrets. Hair-raising and heart-rending, Hester Young's first novel is one of buried shame, children taken too soon, and, ultimately, of immense true love that binds across the mortal divide.
—— Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, New York Times best-selling author of BittersweetThe hothouse atmosphere of Evangeline and the tortuous and tangled motives of its denizens make for an enjoyable puzzle box of a mystery. An eerie but inviting debut.
—— Kirkus ReviewsIn Hester Young's haunted Louisiana, the ghostly labyrinth of the past opens its great doors to deliver up a lush gothic thriller. The Gates of Evangeline is a darkly marvelous debut, a classic whodunnit stitched with otherworldly chills.
—— Jedediah Berry, author of the Hammett-prize winning The Manual of DetectionA grieving mother but a determined journalist. What a box of mysteries this story is. Life, death, heartache and hope for the future. I loved it. Very much a book you don’t want to put down. A fabulous first novel. I hope this is the first of many, particularly if ‘Charlie Cates’ is involved.
—— Mojo MumsYoung’s The Gates of Evangeline is a stunning debut novel. A lyrical, haunting, heart-wrenching work of suspense with echoes of du Maurier, Hitchcock, and King.
—— Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author of Robert B. Parker’s The Devil WinsHaunting, heartbreaking, yet ultimately hopeful...Young handles the spectral elements with restraint as her tremendously sympathetic heroine seeks to build a new life after death.
—— Publishers WeeklyA dreamy, Southern gothic mystery…Young’s novel is powerful and captivating.
—— New Orleans MagazineA dangerously good thriller
—— Wegener Dagbladen (Holland)This thriller gets under your skin and won't let you go. One thing is very clear at the end: we want to read more about Holger Munch and Mia Krüger!
—— Booksection.de (Germany)A very sophisticated and terrifying thriller, which keeps the reader guessing and gasping to the very last page. The story is powerful, the style is fluent, and the cast of characters is simply irresistible
—— Thrillermagazine.it (Italy)