Customer Reviews

Elegy for April (Thorndike Crime Scene)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Elegy for April" is a new mystery novel by Benjamin Black: a none too mysterious pen name for award-winning Irish author John Banville. Under this pseudonym, he has penned Christine Falls: A Novel and The Silver Swan: A Novel. "Christine" was nominated for both the Edgar and the Macavity awards for Best Novel, and was a New York Times Best Seller.

"Elegy," like "Christine," (I've not read "Silver Swan"), is set in 1950's Dublin, the author's home town, presumably the better to continue beating it up for its stultifying social life, deeply conservative patriarchal mores, and oligarchy by the Catholic Church and select prominent families. It centers again on Quirke, the hard-drinking pathologist, adopted himself into a prominent family, who gets involved in helping his only recently acknowledged daughter Phoebe search for a friend of hers who has just mysteriously disappeared. That would be April Lavery, also of a locally prominent family, a junior doctor at the same hospital in which Quirke, and his stepbrother/brother-in-law Malachy work. April is her family's black sheep; for example, she's currently been seeing Patrick, a handsome, charismatic Nigerian student of surgery.

Fortunately, in "Elegy," Black tends to restrict his ever so Irish `literary' writing to the description of Dublin's winter, which comes out sounding so bone-chilling I was reminded of the old joke that you wouldn't want to move to/live in Ireland unless they put a roof on it. The writing overall is quite good, dialog, narrative, descriptive, and the plot is reasonably complex. The author also tells us quite a lot about an Alvis, a beautiful, pricey car Quirke decides to buy, without knowing how to drive. Furthermore, in "Elegy," Black does do better by his mystery elements than he did in "Christine," at least to my taste. The mystery is much better paced and developed, and does not rely, as did "Christine," on confusing the reader. And I found the narrative of this book was strong enough to keep me turning the pages.

The fourth of John Banville's noir mystery novels written under the pseudonym Benjamin Black, ELEGY FOR APRIL proves that any hope that Banville would get the real hang of the genre has by this point pretty much evaporated. Although Banville is an excellent prose stylist no matter what kind of fiction he writes, this novel, the third of his mysteries set in 1950s Dubin starring pathologist Garret Quirke (whom the other Benjamin Black novel, THE LEMUR, does not feature as its protagonist), just doesn't seem to come very naturally to him: he seems to be repeating a lot of the cliches of hardboiled mystery fiction yet while producing none of the frissons usually associated with reading them.

Quirke's adult daughter Phoebe is here involved with the disappearance of a close friend, a scion of one of the wealthy and unlikable families that often populate the Benjamin Black novels: here it's the Latimers, a clan of well-to-do Dublin physicians, who (as per usual) are snobbish and cruel and harboring secrets. When the secrets are unraveled by novel's end, they don't really much seem worth it: Banville does little to generate much suspense beforehand, and almost none of the characters are very interesting to begin with. Despite his name, Quirke is yet again less quirky than you might hope: he still seems pretty flat, despite his attempt at alcoholism recovery and at buying a fancy new car, and his sweet daughter Phoebe doesn't seem very three-dimensional either. Banville seems convinced atmosphere and fine prose alone can substitute for narrative suspense or for intriguing characters (usually the staples of the genre). Alas, they do not: and as a result this book really seemed to plod along.

It's no secret that Benjamin Black is the mystery-writing alter ego of John Banville, which is a way of distinguishing Banville's mainstream work from his genre fiction. He brings the same beauty of craftsmanship and appreciation of language to both branches of his career, though he might deny it. The quiet sense of humor that intermittently informs his work makes one wonder if he is just putting his readers on when he indirectly disparages his mystery novels. In any event, ELEGY FOR APRIL, the fourth of his Black novels and the third featuring the enigmatic Quirke, does not suffer from lack of attention or anything else for that matter. It is wonderful in every conceivable way.

The Quirke novels are set in the Dublin, Ireland of the 1950s. The brilliantly named Quirke, a pathologist whose erratic behavior belies a keen intelligence, is at the beginning of ELEGY FOR APRIL, newly released from an alcoholic rehabilitation facility. His reaction to sobriety is telling and two-fold: he almost immediately buys an expensive automobile --- one of only three in existence --- despite the fact that he has no insurance or driver's license, and he begins testing the waters of his tolerance for alcoholic beverages (wine, it seems, does not count). Phoebe Griffin, his quietly but deeply troubled daughter, wanders into this slowly building maelstrom, seeking his assistance. It seems that one of Phoebe's friends has vanished, and Phoebe wants Quirke to find her.

April Latimer, a new doctor at a local hospital, is what was referred to in the mid-20th century as a libertine, and her disappearance is not inconsistent with her behavior, which is regarded as wild and unpredictable. April's prominent and influential family finds her disappearance to be of little or no consequence, and her absence is greeted by them with more a sense of relief than worry or dismay. This is true even as Quirke brings his erstwhile acquaintance, Detective Inspector Hackett, into the fray. When Hackett discovers that April's absence is possibly due to foul play, the family grows even more resentful and instructs Quirke to stop his de facto investigation. He does not lack for suspects, particularly among the small group of friends with whom April associated --- at least two have potential motive to have done her harm. Quirke keeps pressing but with mixed results.

Black combines a quietly intriguing yet mesmerizing plot with an addicting character study that focuses on inflammatory relationships and smoldering emotions, and the effect of power --- both official and otherwise --- on both. By the end of the book, one story ends while one or more begin. Perhaps.

ELEGY FOR APRIL is one of those worthy books that begs to be read in one sitting. It defies the conventional wisdom that a modern novel must begin with an explosive event; instead, this one builds slowly to a conclusion that is emotionally charged yet subdued by today's standards. It is no less riveting, however, for the understatement of its action. One feels the ground shifting under Dublin and Quirke on every page, and can be left with the certainty that the next Quirke book cannot come fast enough.

I'd read the first Benjamin Black novel, and missed the second. The third in the series, Elegy for April, begins with the protagonist Quirke -- a pathologist in 1950s Dublin -- freshly released from an institution for those with alcohol and other substance abuse problems. His daughter approaches him with her concerns about a friend, April Latimer, who has abruptly disappeared. April has stopped communicating with her friends, put in for sick leave at her job, and left her flat without taking any of her clothing or other possessions. Quirke feels compelled to learn more about April and to see if he can discover where she has gone or why she has disappeared.

The premise sounds promising enough, but at 100, 150, even 200 pages in, that was really all that happened. The story is more of a psychological examination of the characters surrounding April, among them Quirke himself, of course, who struggles with a drinking problem throughout; Isabella, an actress who was another friend of April; April's cold family, who seem more relieved than concerned that April is gone; and Quirke's daughter Phoebe, struggling with her own past as a victim of crime while worried about her friend's safety. Unfortunately, I felt that the emotional study of the various characters wasn't that engaging or interesting, and without any plot developments to carry the story along, or nudge things forward, the first 3/4 of the book is slow, almost tedious. Action is crammed into the last quarter of the book, for me, it was too little, too late, and not enough to redeem the book.

Banville/Black's third murder mystery featuring a middle-aged pathologist in dreary and incessantly-inclement early 50s Dublin, and the trouble that finds him, all from his extended family; pathology is irrelevant to these stories. Though the protagonist isn't a detective, all the cliches are there, drunken, heavily-smoking iconoclast (who somehow needn't spend much time at the office). The fiddling with smoking paraphernalia is such that much of the book reads like a screenplay. That said, Banville does, of course, write beautifully, and doesn't forget the gorse, and something that was a-soughing, in Banvillease.

WARNING: THE NEXT TO LAST SENTENCE OF THIS REVIEW CONTAINS WHAT SOME MAY SEE AS A SPOILER.


Quirke, a Dublin pathologist in the 1950's, is in a rehab facility for alcohol abuse. His daughter, Phoebe Griffin, visits him faithfully; but on this visit she seeks his help. Her best friend April Lavery, a junior doctor at a Dublin hospital, usually calls her frequently; but now Phoebe has not heard from her in a week. April does not answer her door; and Phoebe (irrationally) fears that something bad has happened, though she knows that April (who is a bit "wild") is capable of just going off somewhere.

Quirke tries unsuccessfully to calm Phoebe's fears. There is no evidence of any problem, and a week is a very short time. Phoebe gets the same reaction from the small group of friends with whom she and April hang out. But Phoebe's fears persist. Quirke agrees to make a few inquiries and checks himself out of rehab and enters a foreboding Dublin, its secrets cloaked in a bitter February fog.

He discovers that April is the outcast black sheep of an influential family that boasts a government minister and a deceased father who was a hero of the 1916 rising. In repressed and conservative Ireland, this means power. The family clearly has no interest in their outcast member. Are they hiding something?

But April does not turn up and there are some disquieting signs in her flat, things that disturb Quirke and his cop friend whom he has "consulted" on his own. The family discourages police activity, and still nothing points definitively to foul play for April.

Unease, even dread, grows over time and creates ugly jealously and rifts among all concerned. No one is unaffected as uncertainty continues, fear mounts and repressed feelings and emotions (including love, fear, racial prejudice and sexual jealousy) burst their boundaries.

This novel is an excellent portrayal of a repressed and hypocritical society where, under the façade of respectability, powerful families quietly bend the rules to suit themselves. As a mystery, however, it is problematic. The book breaches a number of the genre's conventions. What, if anything, happened to April remains unknown for too many pages, while uncertainty grows but knowledge does not. There is little action and no heroics. The resolution was, to me, problematic (fully in keeping with the murky and crushing uncertainty of the book's overall atmosphere). The book is well written and interesting but will not be everyone's idea of a satisfying mystery.

Family ties, as a verb, here. Fog shrouds Dublin, secrets shame, and again intimacy curdles into revenge, hatred, and murder.

"Christine Falls" I liked better for its characters and mood than its rather mundane, if convoluted, plot. I favored "The Silver Swan" for its more exotic touches, and its elaborated focus on Quirke's battle with the bottle. (In this and in the evocation of portside Irish cities, it reminds me of Ken Bruen's Galway noir Jack Taylor series; I've reviewed all of the novels mentioned.)

John Banville as Black enriches this third installment with meditations on mortality, night terrors, dreams gone wrong, and always the fog creeping in, staying inside after it sneaks in a door so a wisp stays like an "ectoplasm." The tug of families and their indiscretions, the public face hiding the private sin, as in so many Irish stories, blankets this mystery.

"Grains of mica glittered in the granite of the steps; strange, these little secret gleanings, under the fog."(4) Some of the author's best writing as either Banville or Black can be found here, which is saying something. Quirke grows on you, and you want his own fumbling reaching out for love from his daughter and from his new lover to succeed. I miss his co-worker Sinclair's jibes, and there's comparatively little time at his job at the morgue this time, but you gain more appreciation of his domestic life, or its lack: "Quirke's flat had the sheepish and resentful air of an unruly classroom suddenly silenced by the unexpected return of the teacher."(33)

Black moves among a few characters for indirect first person narration in Joycean style. This helps widen our familiarity with 1950s Dublin, and the tone shifts subtly. Via Patrick Ojukwu from Nigeria, we imagine what it was like to live in Ireland then. No bribes exacted by the natives, "but neither would they take you seriously. That was what puzzled him most of all, the way they mocked and jeered at everything and everyone, themselves included. Yet the laughter could stop without warning, when you least expected. Then suddenly you would find yourself alone in the midst of a circle of them, all of them looking at you, blank-eyed and silently accusing, even though you did not know what it was you were being accused of."(210)

The first third sets the scene and sets up the mystery; the second part broadens the suspects; the final third accelerates and the last fifteen pages hasten to bring it all together. It's done briskly but without any cheating, and I found it rather hasty, but in the spirit of many mysteries, such is their pace. I recommend it and while it can be read on its own, those who enjoyed the earlier books will benefit the most from another few hours with Quirke, Phoebe, Hackett, and their new circle among the "little band" and those it widens to encompass in another circle.

Elegy for April is the first book I have read by Benjamin Black, the pen name for John Banville. A skilled writer, Black paints vivid pictures in this book set in 1950's Dublin while keeping the reader guessing what happened to April Latimer and who did it to her.
An alcoholic doctor, pathologist "Quirke" is a large man coming from humble beginnings in an orphanage and taken into the home of now deceased Judge Garret Griffin and raised like a son along with the Judges biological son, Malachy Griffin. Malachy married Quirke's first love, Sarah and Quirke married her sister, Delia. Delia died in childbirth when Phoebe was born. Distraught, Quirke gave baby Phoebe to Malachy and Sarah. Within 5 years of marriage, Sarah died of a brain tumor.

Raised as Malachy's daughter, Phoebe later developed a relationship with her biological father and gets him involved in solving the disappearance of her friend, April a junior doctor at a local hospital and the purported black sheep in the rich, powerful and secretive Latimere family.

Phoebe, actress "Bessy" Elizabeth Galloway, reporter Jimmy Minor and Nigerian medical student Patrick Ojukwu were a band of friends concerned with the disappearance of their friend April.

Quirke brings in Inspector Hackett. When Hackett found dried blood in April's apartment speculation became serious with a sense of urgency to put this thrilling puzzle together.

I enjoyed this thrilling whodunit and am impressed with author's skilled storytelling ability and exquisitely vivid writing technique. I think you will be too.

Booker Prize-winning author John Banville, writing under the pen name of "Benjamin Black," brings back Quirke, the alcoholic pathologist who has been the main character of two previous novels in this series. Elegy for April is the most sophisticated of the Quirke books so far, and readers who have read Christine Falls and The Silver Swan will be at a decided advantage in understanding Quirke's complex family background and the problems that dog his life as a result. Quirke's estranged daughter Phoebe contacts him for help because her best friend, April Latimer, a junior doctor, has vanished. Phoebe, to whom she usually spoke once a day; Patrick Ojukwu, an attractive Nigerian doctor, whom people suspect of being April's lover; Isabel Galloway, an actress rehearsing for a major role in a play; and Jimmy Minor, a hyperactive newspaper reporter--all these friends are in the dark regarding her whereabouts.

Quirke has been in rehab at the House of St. John of the Cross for the past six weeks, but now, feeling more in control of his life, he has suddenly checked himself out to help Phoebe with her problems while also reclaiming his pathology job at Holy Family Hospital. Whether he can maintain his self control long enough to find April becomes the major question here. As some of the characters from past novels reappear here--Inspector Hackett, Rose Crawford, and members of the Griffin and Latimer families--Banville creates a vibrant portrait of life in Dublin in the 1950s. The importance of family, the need to protect the church and its wealthiest supporters from negative publicity, and the country's attitudes toward sex, unwed pregnancy, and all forms of sexual abuse are all revealed within the context of this story.

Though the plot is well developed, the author's main emphasis here is on character, and he sets a high bar for future novels involving Quirke. Phoebe becomes a particularly sympathetic character, and Quirke himself becomes more understandable as he tries to stay off alcohol, even when it seems to be the only outlet for relieving his lifelong frustrations. Black's unique and memorable descriptions add to the color of the novel. One character has "pale, poached eyes"; bad coffee makes Quirke think unpleasantly of "a monkey's pelt."

The jarring grand finale consists of several unexpectedly sensational revelations, which do explain the motivation behind April's disappearance but lack the same elegance and sensitivity that Black has shown in his character development until this point--the final few scenes revealing the darkest and most repulsive underside of human nature. Ultimately, Black leaves a number of questions tantalizingly unanswered, allowing for more development to come, perhaps, in future novels. Of the three Quirke novels, this one is the most sophisticated in creating a plot which develops intrinsically from the novel's characters, their motivations and frustrations, and further novels suggest that Quirke will continue to evolve as an intriguing, though imperfect, "hero." Mary Whipple

Christine Falls: A Novel
The Silver Swan: A Novel
The Lemur

I think that the Irish tourism bureau should have a long and hard discussion with the authors of thrillers located in Ireland. From Ken Bruen to Benjamin Black, among others, the stories always weem to take place in miserable weather. Not the kind of ads the country would want to attract tourists!

Anyway, this is another excellent book in the Quirke series (I've read, and thoroughly enjoyed, the other two). Once again our protagonist is battling his alcoholic demons (like Bruen's Jack Taylor), and does appear to have overcome them, at least for a while. His daughter comes to him when she fears that something has happened to a friend of hers.

Quirke is a doctor, not a detective, but he bulls right into the middle of a real mess in this instance. There are excellent characters roaming through this book, and a strain of anti Catholic rumblings, but that doesn't detract from the overall sharpness of the plot. We follow Quirke as he goes about trying to help his daughter, and then he becomes almost obsessed (that's a key word in this book) with the situation.

There is a slam bang ending, and it seems as if Quirke is back off the wagon again. I hope that there will be more books in this series, for they are quite enjoyable!