April in Spain
A Detective Mystery
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3.8 • 8 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
*NATIONAL BESTSELLER*
Booker Prize winner John Banville returns with a dark and evocative new mystery set on the Spanish coast
Don't disturb the dead…
On the idyllic coast of San Sebastian, Spain, Dublin pathologist Quirke is struggling to relax, despite the beaches, cafés and the company of his disarmingly lovely wife. When he glimpses a familiar face in the twilight at Las Acadas bar, it's hard at first to tell whether his imagination is just running away with him.
Because this young woman can't be April Latimer. She was murdered by her brother, years ago—the conclusion to an unspeakable scandal that shook one of Ireland's foremost political dynasties.
Unable to ignore his instincts, Quirke makes a call back home to Ireland and soon Detective St. John Strafford is dispatched to Spain. But he's not the only one en route. A relentless hit man is on the hunt for his latest prey, and the next victim might be Quirke himself.
Sumptous, propulsive and utterly transporting, April in Spain is the work of a master writer at the top of his game.
Don't miss John Banville's next novel, The Lock-up!
Other riveting mysteries from John Banville: Snow
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Banville's slow-moving eighth crime thriller featuring Irish pathologist Quirke (after 2015's Even the Dead) finds Quirke and his wife, Evelyn, vacationing in San Sebastián, Spain. When the couple forget to buy an oyster-opening tool, Quirke tries to use a nail scissors instead and accidentally wounds himself badly enough that Evelyn insists they go to a hospital. There, he's initially examined by Angela Lawless, an Irish physician who looks familiar, but who never returns to the exam room, leaving another doctor to tend to the injury. Her appearance and her initials lead Quirke to suspect that she's actually April Latimer, a woman believed to be dead. April's brother, who was sexually involved with his sibling, had confessed to killing her before taking his own life. Quirke shares his suspicions with his daughter, Phoebe, who had been April's friend, and Phoebe travels to Spain to see for herself. Meanwhile, a psychotic hit man emotionally attached to his gun lurks in the background. The melodramatic ending doesn't compensate for a story line too slight for the book's length. Banville has been much better.
