Christine Falls

A Novel

By: Benjamin Black

Narrated by: Timothy Dalton

Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

It's not the dead that seem strange to Quirke. It's the living. One night, after a few drinks at an office party, Quirke shuffles down into the morgue where he works and finds his brother-in-law, Malachy, altering a file he has no business even reading. Odd enough in itself to find Malachy there, but the next morning, when the haze has lifted, it looks an awful lot like his brother-in-law, the esteemed doctor, was in fact tampering with a corpse—and concealing the cause of death.

It turns out the body belonged to a young woman named Christine Falls. And as Quirke reluctantly presses on toward the true facts behind her death, he comes up against some insidious—and very well-guarded—secrets of Dublin's high Catholic society, among them members of his own family.

Set in Dublin and Boston in the 1950s, the first novel in the Quirke series brings all the vividness and psychological insight of Booker Prize winner John Banville's fiction to a thrilling, atmospheric crime story. Quirke is a fascinating and subtly drawn hero, Christine Falls is a classic tale of suspense, and Benjamin Black's debut marks him as a true master of the form.

©2006 Benjamin Black (P)2006 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC

Critic reviews

“Christine Falls is a triumph of classical crime fiction, finely, carefully made, not a single false move or wrong word--why don't they write books like this anymore?” —Alan Furst

Not Your Light Summer Reading

Not that it has to be, but this book dragged on in endless boring detail with every character, no matter who they were, thinking and seeing things in the same poetic way.
But that was only one of the difficulties that I had with this book. Other reviewers said it as well---the characters were so unlikeable and every one of them utterly depressed that it was impossible to care. And not even one moment of lightness or humor!
And to make matters worse, Timothy Dalton, whom I adore, read this so morosely, so heavily with every single character sounding the same utterly depressing tone, even if they were saying "Do you want fries with that?" It made me want to take to my bed.
So I slogged through this downer with intrepid resolve only to reach the unsatisfying ending. Whereupon, I immediately started listening to a nice, fun romance novel.

Okay... I Give Up. What's the point here?

Four hours of heavy tedium have caused any interest I've got in listening to this... this... thing reveal what it's about to dissipate like a parking lot puddle in searing heat. Nope, bad metaphor. This book and the word "heat" should never appear in the same sentence. It is cold and not even interesting enough to be called boring.

Perhaps this is a "literary" author's attempt to become more commercial by having his book marketed as a "mystery" or a "thriller"? The mystery here is what went through the publishers' minds when they green lighted this thing. Maybe they acted on a pitch instead of actually reviewing a manuscript and once granting an advance found themselves stuck?

Dunno. But I do know that Benjamin Black is on my, er, blacklist. I'll return this book, but no way that Audio can give me back four hours of my life. Pity.

Oh, and Timothy Dalton? His read was as uninspiring as the text. They made a good match.

This was a chore

Sorry to see so many readers blame the narration for the tedium of listening to this book. To my mind it was the fault of the author. It's just so unrelentingly monotously wordy. "Atmosphere" etc. is fine, and an essential part of storytelling, but it's better ladled on with a spoon than dumped in by the bucketful.

Disappointing

The story itself is glib, the narration over dramatic and unvarying. I expected much more deft writing from this author.

A disappointment

This book had gotten great reviews, so I was very surprised at my negative reaction. I wonder if this is the first book in my experience that is worse in the audio version than the print version. I usually love atmospheric mysteries, and these get points if set in the UK or Ireland (William Boyd's Restless is excellent). But I just could not get into this one--the characters did not seem at all believable and they all just became annoying after awhile. There were no shades of gray; even the villain was so villainous as to be tedious. A major problem for me may have been the narration--it was really overwrought. And as someone who grew up in Boston, I found the southern (?!) accents of the characters living there to be very jarring. In fairness, I should say that I did finish the book and was curious to see how it turned out. But I'm not eager to try another book by Banville/Black or one narrated by Timothy Dalton!

Dreary and Pointless

I like "dark" books. Stories do not have to have unrealistically happy endings for me to enjoy them. But ... this book had nothing positive in it, from beginning to end. Dreary, depressing and hopeless are words I would use to describe the plot and the characters.

The narrator is excellent. But the book is absolutely not worth reading.

Not Reccomended

I have been an avid Audible listener for three years now. Having paid for this book, I tried to force myself through listening to it, but finally had to give up. This is a first for me and felt like sheer punishment to hear.
I suggest listening to the sample. If you think you can tolerate the monotonous reader and colloquial language, you’ve still yet to get through meticulous detail described in all the live-action color of someone reading a phone book. I do not recommend this book.

I should have listened to the few negative reviews

I probably wasted 4 hours trying to get into this book. I couldn't. I liked the narrator's voice and reading style but the story just dragged on and on without creating any interest on my part. Moreover, it was depressing, something I do not need from what is supposed to be entertainment.

When I am halfway through a book and find I do not care what happened or what is going to happen I consider that my signal to stop listening. Obviously there was something in this book that caused many others to like it, but whatever it was didn't reach me.

Slowwwwwww

I tried multiple times, but this book never caught me up into the story. Very slow. If there is a payoff at the end, I will never get it, because it is too painful to get to that point.

If you have trouble going to sleep this book is fo

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I think a person who enjoys reading books along the lines of Harlequin Romance novels may enjoy this.

Has Christine Falls turned you off from other books in this genre?

I will continue reading books in this genre but would not attempt to make it through another book by this author.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Timothy Dalton?

Timothy Dalton did the best he could with the material he was given. I don't think the narrator is the problem here.

What character would you cut from Christine Falls?

Andy, Claire, Phoebe

Any additional comments?

I am an avid audio book listener but this one was very disappointing. I wanted to like it since I love Ireland but the story bordered on silly and it the storyline was too predictable.