Christine Falls by Benjamin Black

August 2, 2024

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black

Quirke is a pathologist and a functioning alcoholic in Dublin in the 1950s. Late one night, drunk after a holiday party with the hospital staff, he stumbles into the morgue to find a new body has arrived, a very young woman who supposedly died from a pulmonary embolism. After is brother-in-law, a well-known OB-GYN, falsifies the dead woman's records, Quirke is determined to get to the bottom of the case, unaware that he is exposing himself to powerful outside forces that don't want him digging into the girl's death.

A literary mystery set in Dublin by the Booker prize winning author John Banville. Examines Irish cultural and societal values in the 1950s, including family, religion, and the laws of the time. Christine Falls is the name of the dead girl, not a location. The setting, overall darkness, the brushes with the underworld, the complex plotting, and the main character Quirke will remind you of noir fiction. Recommended for readers who enjoy the complex plotting of Stuart Turton and Stieg Larsson.

Typical morgue in the 1950s