“A sleek black motorcar was edging its way through the crowds of passengers going toward the boat. It stopped when it was still a good ten yards away from her, and a woman got out at the passenger side with a canvas bag in her hand and a bundle in a blanket in the crook of her other arm. She was not young, sixty if she was a day.”
Those are some lines from the introduction to Christine Falls by John Banville. This novel was first published in 2006 under the author’s pen name Benjamin Black.
It’s the 1960s, and the main character, Quirke, is a pathologist in Ireland. He discovers his pediatrician brother-in-law Mal faking morgue records of a young woman, disguising the fact that she died in childbirth. Quirke determines to solve the mystery of why Mal would do such a thing.
The story is as much about solving the mystery as revealing what a dysfunctional family he married into. Mal and Quirke married sisters. Quirke’s wife, Delia, died years before, also in childbirth. Mal married Sarah, who was really Quirke’s preference. There’s Mal’s father, a well-connected judge in Ireland, and their wealthy, ailing father-in-law who lives in Boston.
I don’t want to spoil the story for you, but I will tell you that the two fathers have been involved in a religious scheme for 20 years. This is a well written, dark story without a happy ending. As one of the readers on GoodReads wrote, “It’s like watching a black and white movie.”
If you’re interested in noir fiction, then you must read Christine Falls by John Banville.
