• A Death in Summer

  • A Novel
  • By: Benjamin Black
  • Narrated by: John Keating
  • Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (160 ratings)

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A Death in Summer  By  cover art

A Death in Summer

By: Benjamin Black
Narrated by: John Keating
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Publisher's summary

One of The Chicago Tribune's Best Reads of 2011

One of Dublin's most powerful men meets a violent end—and an acknowledged master of crime fiction delivers his most gripping novel yet

On a sweltering summer afternoon, newspaper tycoon Richard Jewell—known to his many enemies as Diamond Dick—is discovered with his head blown off by a shotgun blast. But is it suicide or murder? For help with the investigation, Detective Inspector Hackett calls in his old friend Quirke, who has unusual access to Dublin's elite.

Jewell's coolly elegant French wife, Françoise, seems less than shocked by her husband's death. But Dannie, Jewell's high-strung sister, is devastated, and Quirke is surprised to learn that in her grief she has turned to an unexpected friend: David Sinclair, Quirke's ambitious assistant in the pathology lab at the Hospital of the Holy Family. Further, Sinclair has been seeing Quirke's fractious daughter Phoebe, and an unlikely romance is blossoming between the two. As a record heat wave envelops the city and the secret deals underpinning Diamond Dick's empire begin to be revealed, Quirke and Hackett find themselves caught up in a dark web of intrigue and violence that threatens to end in disaster.

Tightly plotted and gorgeously written, A Death in Summer proves to the brilliant but sometimes reckless Quirke that in a city where old money and the right bloodlines rule, he is by no means safe from mortal danger.

©2011 Benjamin Black (P)2011 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Narrator John Keating keeps a firm hold on a variety of characters and accents – from the not-so-grieving widow's French purr to the too-involved Detective Quirke's hard-edged brogue. Supporting characters are distinctly developed, and Keating's masterful style keeps the action moving forward.” —AudioFile Magazine

“Black's drab Dublin streets are full of perplexing figures, archetypes, as if the characters were stalking through some Jungian map of the unconscious: weakened, dying fathers, good mothers, bad mothers, twins, ‘dark doubles,' ghosts surging up from the past… His narratives are loaded with poetic devices.” —The New Yorker

“[A Death in Summer] is an elegant novel, well-paced with dramatic twists, disturbing surprises and richly drawn characters whose actions and motives have a tangible psychological depth. Mr. Black/Banville is well in form here... It can be either plunged into without any need to reference the previous three or else taken as a welcome new installment of a sequential quartet by one of Ireland's leading contemporary novelists.” —New York Journal of Books

What listeners say about A Death in Summer

Average customer ratings
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

Bought and enjoyed the previous Dr. Quirk books, esp. Christine Falls, but having a hard time with this due to the change in narrator. The cadence gets very tiresome, and the "acting", if you can call it that, isn't good. The character of Dr. Quirk is entirely different. Too bad.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars

agree with "disappointing" based on narrator

here is one of those unfortunate situations where the book may be wonderful but the narrator doesn't work with the book. i've listened to john keating's narrations before and don't recall him getting in the way of the story. i could only listen for 5 or 6 minutes. will try again. but this pairing doesn't work. have no idea why not. wish it could be redone with Timothy Dalton. perhaps its a case of changing narrators in the middle of a series.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Terrible narrator

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

After listening to the superb narration of Timothy Dalton in three previous Benjamin Black novels, John Keating's reading was intolerable.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I could not get beyond the first few chapters.

How could the performance have been better?

The performance was dismal, sing-song. I was unable to detect when a character was speaking.

Any additional comments?

PLEASE bring Timothy Dalton back. I was looking forward to the remainder of Banjamin Black's novels.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Narration poor.

I have enjoyed previous Benjamin Black novels with Timmothy Dalton as narrator but was not able to finish this one. The narrator completely changed my perception of the Dr. Quirke character, and not to the positive.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This narrator stinks

If you could sum up A Death in Summer in three words, what would they be?

So the darkness of Timothy Dalton is gone and instead the narrator sounds about eleven years old. I don't know about the story because I couldnt listen past the first chapter.

What did you like best about this story?

I couldn't listen to it, but I love Benjamin Black so I gave his part of this 5 stars.

What didn’t you like about John Keating’s performance?

He puts the emphasis on the wrong places in the sentences. He does not convey any meaning to what he says. He has an annoying voice. He isn't a good actor and it's an incredible disappointment after Timothy Dalton. What happened to him?

Any additional comments?

That's about it. Isn't that enough?

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

I miss Timothy Dalton

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

If the friend really liked the Quirke series, I would recommend it.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Is everyone in Ireland this grim? Was every institution in the mid-20th century in Ireland this corrupt? It's getting old - maybe Quirke needs to go to the Bahamas on vacation.

Did John Keating do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

The characters are interesting, and Phoebe is becoming more of a real person.

Do you think A Death in Summer needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Maybe if we spend more time with Phoebe.

Any additional comments?

I really miss Timothy Dalton as the narrator. He gave a real sense of danger and menace that was missing with the narration by John Keating. Keating did a decent job, but either this particular book is a lackluster followup or Dalton was giving some extra spice to the previous books that is now missing. Maybe I'm getting tired of the grim corruption that pervades these stories.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Narrator Sounds a Bit Jaunty

I am just now listening to this audiobook, and after reading the opinions of the other listeners of this audiobook and I have to agree with them that after listening to listening to Timothy Dalton read the first 2 Quirke books, I wish they would have let Mr. Dalton do the narration rather than John Keating do it.

I'm sure that Mr. Keating is a good narrator for different type of Irish books, but to me he sounds a bit to jaunty for Quirke. It needs the moodiness of Mr. Dalton's voice to make Quirke sound more believable and moody as it was portrayed in the first two books.

Hopefully Mr. Dalton will be asked to narrate the next "Quirke" book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic Story, Beautiful Language but . . .

Any additional comments?

John Banville/Benjamin Black is a brilliant writer. Passages are often more like prose poems. This book is very good and the writing sublime. But the narrator was so bad I had to turn it off sometimes and so bad that it spoilt the book for me.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic writing

The author's ability to create characters whom you can clearly see and hear, reflects his skill, as he is actually John Banville, the Booker Prize winner.
That he chooses to write mysteries is a gift to readers/listeners b/c his voice is so clear
and he paints remarkable pictures with his words.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A Very Lacking Performance

This is my fourth Dr. Quirk book. The first three were compelling and a great audiobook. The performance in number four drove me to reading it on my Kindle. The readers performance was annoying. He has a tinny voice and he is a terrible actor. It is too bad,a good story ruined.

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