The main character of The Lemur is John Glass. He is a famous investigative journalist who has grown soft through his marriage into money. Now he has settled down to write the biography of his father in law for a fee of one million dollars. In this dark and mysterious tale Glass meets with and hires a man he deems the Lemur to do research for the book for him. And The Lemur, a young geek seemingly with access to mountains of information, has extensive knowledge of his father in law.

His father in law is William ‘Big Bill’ Mulholland, an Irish-American. He is a CIA operative turned communications mogul. And Big Bill has his secrets and expects Glass to keep them. Now Mulholland lives the good life. He has set up a charitable trust – run by Glass’s wife Louise, who is also a UN Special Ambassador for Culture – and thinks the story of his life should be told. “Not a hagiography–I don’t merit one, I’m no saint,” he insists. “What I want is the truth.”

Only a few days into his assignment, The Lemur calls Glass to pressure him for money. He knows something and he wants half a million dollars for it. Then later The Lemur is found dead, having been shot through his left eye. The last person he called before being shot was John Glass. ‘That makes you the last one to talk to him alive,’ says Captain Ambrose from the NYPD. And, when Glass replies, ‘You mean, the second last’, Captain Ambrose grins. ‘Yeah. Right.’

However, Glass has a cast-iron alibi. But who killed The Lemur? What was the secret? John Glass turns detective, fearing that his own affair with a young artist may be the damaging secret. With little information, John assembles what facts he can, guilt eventually pointing back to himself and his extended family: wife, Louise; step-son, David; and father-in-law, Big Bill Mulholland.

I greatly enjoyed Black’s other novels (Christine Falls, The Silver Swan). I did not like this one nearly as much. I did not find the characters even remotely likeable. Overall, it is not nearly as gripping, fresh and original as the two previous books featuring Quirke. For me the pages of The Lemur turned fast, but I am a great fan of John Banville and Benjamin Black. So, if like me, you must read it, then do. Otherwise, I recommend holding tight till the next book in the Quirke saga.

Read more about Benjamin Black and his books!

Links to the books by Benjamin Black at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Euro bookblog. All Rights Reserved.

The Silver Swan features Quirke, a somewhat grumpy pathologist at the Hospital of the Holy Family in Dublin. It is a mystery book set in 1950s Dublin.

Quirke is an “incurably curious” guy. He often finds it necessary to go far beyond a pathologist’s normal duties, and in this second novel in the Quirke series (after Christine Falls), he is visited by Billy Hunt, a casual friend from college. Hunt asks him not to autopsy the body of his wife Deirdre, who was found drowned and naked. This, of course, is a somewhat curious request. However, Deirdre may have drowned herself, and the family wants to avoid conflict with the Catholic Church over her burial.

Quirke, being curious, conducts a secret autopsy, and Deirdre gets her church burial. However, when Quirke examines the body, he finds things that make him suspect she’s been murdered. Quirke, being Quirke, cannot help but to begin his private investigation into her death.

Black expertly balances Quirke’s investigation with chapters detailing Deidre’s past, from her marriage to Billy to her shady business deal with Leslie White, an enigmatic Englishman who knew Deidre as Laura Swan, the proprietress of their joint venture, a beauty salon called the Silver Swan. And as Quirke digs deeper and deeper, he discovers a web of lies and blackmail that threatens to envelop even his own estranged daughter, Phoebe.

Quirke is a brooding Irish soul with a very independent code of ethics. This makes him the kind of troubled hero the genre loves. In The Silver Swan, Black runs Quirke’s private investigation on a parallel track with the victim’s own story, told in intimate flashbacks. The result is a lyrical crime fiction book – beautifully and intelligently written, but not quite a mystery book. But Banville’s talents are on full display in the book, so it is not any less of a book for not falling neatly into the mystery category – perhaps rather the opposite! And the laconic, stubborn Quirke makes an appealing hero as the pieces of this unsettling crime come together in a shocking conclusion.

Black is a literary stylist who revels in long descriptive passages laced with elegant similes and metaphors. The characters are meticulously delineated. And the writing is elegant to the extreme. The book is a great pleasure to read.

Links to the books by Benjamin Black at amazon US, amazon UK, and amazon CAN.

©2010 Euro bookblog. All Rights Reserved.