A Death in Summer

A Novel

De: John Banville, Benjamin Black

Narrado por: John Keating

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.

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.

Elegantly construction

Would you listen to A Death in Summer again? Why?

I'm going to listen to it again immediately to study Black's construction of scenes, his graceful transition from one point of view to the next, his prose and his dialogue.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

It was the blossoming revelations of the characters and their interactions that was most compelling.

What does John Keating bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

John Keating is one of the best male narrators at performing female voices. He also has an ability to differentiate clearly different Irish accents without making them cartoonish which helps to differentiate the characters.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

There was one laugh-out-loud moment but I don't recall where it was.

Any additional comments?

The student of writing mysteries could do well to study this book.

Reading is unbearable

I tried for an hour to listen to John Keating reading. Black/Banville’s prose is monotone and totally lost in it. I couldn’t take it anymore so I switched to Spanish. It’s really annoying to have spent the money!
Timothy Dalton read the first three Quirke books. Though he did not bother with character voice differentiation, he totally understood how to bring the poetry of the prose to life.

The elegant writing and development of characters, plus the description of another time and milieu

The one thing I was uncomfortable with was the narrator. Weak voiced and monotoned. The acclaimed author deserved the embellishment of a more soothing voice

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.