Elegy for April
A Novel
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4.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Quirke returns in the third volume of John Banville’s celebrated series
A junior doctor at a local hospital, April Latimer is a scandalous presence in the conservative and highly patriarchal society of 1950s Dublin: the independently-minded scion of a well-connected family, she has decidedly unconventional taste in men. When she vanishes, her friend Phoebe fears the worst—and calls on her father, forensic pathologist Quirke, for help.
Sober again after intensive treatment for alcoholism, Quirke enlists his old sparring partner, Detective Inspector Hackett, in the search for the missing young woman. In their separate ways the two men retrace April's trail through Dublin’s seedier side. But as Quirke contends with a beguiling actress, racial tensions, and April’s formidable family, Phoebe finds she is being watched…
Elegy for April is a masterclass in tension and atmosphere from “one of the best novelists in English” (The Guardian).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Black's engrossing third crime thriller set in 1950s Dublin (after The Silver Swan) finds pathologist Garret Quirke fresh from a stint in alcohol rehab. Quirke reluctantly agrees to help his daughter, Phoebe Griffin, with whom he has a tenuous relationship, find her missing best friend, April Latimer, a junior doctor at a local hospital. Quirke soon finds that members of the powerful Latimer family have all but disowned April, and yet he's sure they know more than they're letting on. Phoebe does her own sleuthing among the group of friends she shared with April, including a stage actress, a handsome Nigerian surgical student, and a reporter. Black (the pen name of Booker Prize winner John Banville) is equally concerned with exploring the idea of family and loyalty as with spinning a suspenseful whodunit, and his depiction of a fragile father-daughter relationship is as powerful as the unsettling truth behind April's disappearance. Author tour.
