Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
Vengeance (Quirke #5)
A bizarre suicide leads to a scandal and then still more blood, as one of our most brilliant crime novelists reveals a world where money and sex trump everything
It's a fine day for a sail, and Victor Delahaye, one of Ireland's most successful businessmen, takes his boat far out to sea. With him is his partner's son—who becomes the sole witness when Delahaye produces a pist...more
It's a fine day for a sail, and Victor Delahaye, one of Ireland's most successful businessmen, takes his boat far out to sea. With him is his partner's son—who becomes the sole witness when Delahaye produces a pist...more
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
August 7th 2012
by Henry Holt and Co.
(first published 2012)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
756)
Maybe the best yet in this outstanding Irish noir series by Benjamin Black (pen name of Man Booker-winner John Banville) featuring Dublin pathologist Quirke. Why has Victor Delahaye taken his partner's son (a confirmed land-lubber) sailing, dropped sail in open sea and started telling the young man a tale from his childhood? I'd tell, but that would be giving a plot twist away...from Chapter ONE! In fact, saying ANYthing about the plot risks betraying a head-shaking turn along the way. Suffice i...more
I got a review copy of this Sunday week for half-price a day before the official publication date. I was well chuffed indeed.
And of course, it was pretty good, Banville at his Black-est. Plenty of fun with somewhat stock characters: Dublin toffs (of both RC and Prod varieties), Trinty boys (this being the '50s, of course they're boys), and the lovable, taciturn, Midlands-bred Inspector Hackett, as well as the enigmatic pathologist Quirke. Add in the now-familiar extended family of Quirke—his dau...more
And of course, it was pretty good, Banville at his Black-est. Plenty of fun with somewhat stock characters: Dublin toffs (of both RC and Prod varieties), Trinty boys (this being the '50s, of course they're boys), and the lovable, taciturn, Midlands-bred Inspector Hackett, as well as the enigmatic pathologist Quirke. Add in the now-familiar extended family of Quirke—his dau...more
It was a very interesting novel. I felt like there were too many characters who were trying to play detective, so we didn't really focus on the main detective. I also haven't read the earlier books featuring this detective, so although the character's backstories were explained so I wasn't completely lost, I wish I had read the other books featuring Quirke first.
Overall it was pretty enjoyable. Not too long and drawn out. The plot is more character based than actually hunting out clues.
I receive...more
Overall it was pretty enjoyable. Not too long and drawn out. The plot is more character based than actually hunting out clues.
I receive...more
“Vengeance” is the fifth book in Black’s mystery series featuring Quirke, a pathologist who supports Detective Inspector Hackett in his cases.
The plot is an interwoven, complicated story about two families headed up by business partners who are the sons of business partners. It seems as though one of the families has always been the ‘top dog,’ holding the upper hand in all the business dealings that have occurred over the years.
Victor Delahaye (the dominant partner), takes Davy Clancy (son of t...more
The plot is an interwoven, complicated story about two families headed up by business partners who are the sons of business partners. It seems as though one of the families has always been the ‘top dog,’ holding the upper hand in all the business dealings that have occurred over the years.
Victor Delahaye (the dominant partner), takes Davy Clancy (son of t...more
I finally caught up my Benjamin Black reading with this last book. This is the latest in his "Quirke" series, so it will probably be a year or two before another comes out. If you are not familiar with Black, you would probably know Mann-Booker winner, John Banville. I've become addicted to this author. They are not the "easy reads" of so many mystery writers out there. The plotting is deliberate, even slow. Motives are tangled and obscure. Endings are seldom satisfactory. In this latest story,...more
The quality of the writing in this work is superior to any other crime novel I have read, and its protagonist is among the most complex and opaque among a legion of inquisitors. The prose simply stopped me, requiring a rereading, and sometimes another. Here, a man enters his father's nursing home room.
"There was a bed, a chair, a bedside locker. A copper beech tree outside loomed in the high sash window, darkening the room within and giving it an underwater look. Jack's father inhabited this cis...more
"There was a bed, a chair, a bedside locker. A copper beech tree outside loomed in the high sash window, darkening the room within and giving it an underwater look. Jack's father inhabited this cis...more
Under the pen name Benjamin Black, Mann Booker winner John Banville has written a series (five or six novels) about Quirk, an Irish pathologist who tends to get caught up in helping the police solve crimes.
While it helps to have read the earlier novels, "Vengence" can stand alone as a mystery with holding power. The earlier novels set Quirk's character in the context of a traumatic childhood which explains some of his aloofness, and sheds greater light on his relationship with his daughter Phoe...more
While it helps to have read the earlier novels, "Vengence" can stand alone as a mystery with holding power. The earlier novels set Quirk's character in the context of a traumatic childhood which explains some of his aloofness, and sheds greater light on his relationship with his daughter Phoe...more
VENGEANCE. (2012). Benjamin Black. ***.
Benjamin Black is the alter ego of the Man Booker Prize-winning author John Banville. This is his fifth novel as Black that features the cases involving Detective Inspector Hackett and his pathologist colleague Dr. Quirke. In this one, we meet the members of both the Delahaye and Clancy families. The two senior men started a business years ago in export/import, which is now run by their sons. The heads of the two families couldn’t be any different, one is...more
Benjamin Black is the alter ego of the Man Booker Prize-winning author John Banville. This is his fifth novel as Black that features the cases involving Detective Inspector Hackett and his pathologist colleague Dr. Quirke. In this one, we meet the members of both the Delahaye and Clancy families. The two senior men started a business years ago in export/import, which is now run by their sons. The heads of the two families couldn’t be any different, one is...more
Set in the mid-1950s in Dublin, Ireland, Benjamin Black's mystery series featuring pathologist Quirke (honestly, I think I knew his first name once but can't find it anywhere now) is magical and perfect. Taken as a five-part series, it's flawless, and the latest installment, Vengeance is the best in the series since the first book Christine Falls. Black (actually John Banville) is the Raymond Chandler of Dublin. It hit me when I reached the end of Vengeance that Quirke reminds me a lot of Philip...more
Fifth in the mystery series featuring complicated pathologist Quirke and seemingly bumbling detective Inspector Hackett. Once again set in 1950s Dublin, the story this time centers around the suicide of a wealthy business owner--whose relationship with his partner raises a lot of questions and uncovers many secrets. The cast of suspects include the businessman's beautiful but unsympathetic widow, his very strange twins sons, his unstable sister, and the son of his partner who witnessed the suici...more
Benjamin Black, aka John Banville, gets back to 5-stars from me in this 5th Quirke novel. He's drinking too much, and he has his familiar weaknesses with women, but he's spot-on in his powers of ratiocination. The narrative is excellent here - intriguing deaths to be investigated and an array of interesting characters. We get to know Quirke's daughter Phoebe a bit more, and I really feel for her. Period atmosphere and details are fantastic. Distinctions between Dublin and Dun Laoghaire, between...more
first: I received this book as an ARC; I loved it so much I bought a regular copy. So my ARC is available and needs a good home. If you live in the US and you want it, just be the first to leave a comment saying you'd like it and I'll send it to you. The postage is on me.
My thanks to Librarything's early reviewers program and to Henry Holt for sending this copy. Book number five in Black's excellent Quirke novels, Vengeance continues the winning streak of beautiful writing and excellent charact...more
My thanks to Librarything's early reviewers program and to Henry Holt for sending this copy. Book number five in Black's excellent Quirke novels, Vengeance continues the winning streak of beautiful writing and excellent charact...more
1 like · like · see review
view all 6 comments
In terms of plot, this book has everything: two decadent dynasties in business partnership with one another battling it out; a pair of sinister identical twins; hints of incest (but only hints); a seemingly innocent spinster, who turns out to be highly disturbed; a seductress; a playboy by the name of Clancy. Perhaps it is because I'm Irish, and familiarity breeds a certain weariness, but I found Hackett and Quirke to be a depressing, slightly jaded duo in this book, and I think that was my prob...more
The latest in a mystery-esque series under the pseudonym of novelist John Banville, this installment gets high marks from critics but was a big thud for me. Benjamin Black, aka Banville, has created an intriguing Irish noir investigator in Quirke, a coronor with his own pathology which he tamps back with copious amounts of alcohol while compulsively pursuing the whodunnit components behind the corpses who are sent to his lab. Earlier novels delve into Quirke's troubled familial relationships tha...more
Over 4 previous books, Benjamin Black (novelist John Banville) has developed a wonderful world. He has sucessfully recreated 1950's Dublin and Irish society in it's post war nuances and foibles. Quirke is a great protaganist, not some all knowing savant, but a intelligent man who works hard and has demons of his own. I appreciate that Black has crafted him this way, his weaknesses andd failures are always with him. And the people around him don't simply love him unconditionally. The relationship...more
Benjamin Black is John Banville writing under a pen name. Not sure why literary authors feel compelled to do this when writing "detective novels", but I know I look forward to each new installment of this series. They are set in 1950s Dublin, all rain and cold rooms and palpable Catholic Church dictates. Our star is the troubled and troubling Dr. Quirke, pathologist, who seems to get involved in more detecting than should be called for. Along with his friend, Inspector Hackett, they solve morall...more
Good idea for a story, but the author doesn't bother to execute it. There is no character development, and the reader is left to imagine what a stereotypical rich/bored person might think or feel. It felt like watching a muted movie. You see people moving around, but you don't really know why. It was also very difficult to keep characters straight. The character's reactions throughout the story seemed abnormal and aren't explained, so the story just feels unrealistic.
The langage is also very th...more
The langage is also very th...more
Victor Delahaye commits suicide on his boat in front of his partner's son. Detective Hackett and Dr. Quirke are called in to investigate. They interview his wife Mona, twin sons James and Jonas, and partner Jack Clancy. While investigating, Jack Clancy turns up drowned, and Hackett and Quirke must look into family secrets before finding the truth about the deaths. This is the first book I've read in the series. I was surprised that the partners didn't work together more in the investigation and...more
Another very good Quirke mystery by Benjamin Black. I love Quirke - he's so flawed, but yet so brilliant. I especially like the relationship between Inspector Hackett and Dr. Quirke. This book revolves around two families who have been in business together for generations; the senior partner of the firm takes the junior partner's son out on a boat, far from land and shoots himself, stranding the young man (a non-sailor) alone in the boat. Once the boat is found, Hackett is brought into the inves...more
i think this is john banville's fifth "pulp" mystery and while it is probably the smoothest, and the least "pomoish", it seemed a bit by-the-numbers. as for example, jimmy, a recurring character who as a journalist is a legitimate finger-poker into things dead and mysteries revolving around rich people, but makes a cameo in this story that just seems pointless. that said, these benjamin black mysteries, with the redoubtable, whiskey swilling, bed jumping quirke the pathologist are still fun and...more
Benjamin Black is the pen name of Booker prize winner John Banville. The wting is beautiful and the evocation of 1950's Ireland enhances the story. If you have not read the series, I suggest you do not start with this as the back story of many of the characters expalin what is happening is some scenes.The mystery is secondary to the story, but every character is described in such detail the reader becomes immersed in the feel of the times. Everyone smokes, drinks and banters. Clothes and rooms a...more
In the austere, repressed gloom of 1950s Dublin, crime and death lurk just below the surface of polite society--the suicide of a major Protestant businessman triggers the murder of his Catholic partner, and the investigation into both reveals the cheating trophy wife, the mad spinster sister, the creepy twin heirs and the disgruntled senior accountant. As usual, this lands on the autopsy table of serially depressed Dr. Quirke, who feels compelled to delve into things he would rather not know and...more
A bizarre suicide leads to a scandal and then still more blood, as one of our most brilliant crime novelists reveals a world where money and sex trump everything
(From Book Description)
It's a fine day for a sail, and Victor Delahaye, one of Ireland's most successful businessmen, takes his boat far out to sea. With him is his partner's son—who becomes the sole witness when Delahaye produces a pistol, points it at his own chest, and fires.
This mysterious death immediately engages the attention of D...more
(From Book Description)
It's a fine day for a sail, and Victor Delahaye, one of Ireland's most successful businessmen, takes his boat far out to sea. With him is his partner's son—who becomes the sole witness when Delahaye produces a pistol, points it at his own chest, and fires.
This mysterious death immediately engages the attention of D...more
I love the mysteries by Benjamin Black, pen name for John Banville, which feature the pathologist Quirke in 1950's Dublin. This is the sixth book in the series, all of them beautifully written, atmospheric, more concerned with character than who-did-what --although there's always enough plot to keep the reader going. If you like literary mysteries, this series will reward. Start at the beginning, with Christine Falls, and work your way through. You won't be disappointed!
I loved the first few books by Benjamin Black. He had created a unique character in a unique setting with interesting crimes and personal struggles. However, book four in the series lost some of my interest, possibly because there was a lot less about Quirke and his struggles and more about a crime which was interesting but not unique. Unfortunately, I liked this addition to the series even less. Again we have a crime which is unusual but not really unique and even less about Quirke and his fami...more
So now, your man Quirke is one for the ladies, all right. Three in this book, and he's only after getting started. But at least he's not plootered the whole time in this one, and ties it all up neatly for his friend Inspector Hackett. You begin to to wonder though how far this bollix Black or Banville or whatever name he goes by can take it, cute hoor though he is, without running out of hoops for your man to jump through.
Sep 19, 2012
Woodbury Public Library www.woodburylibrary.org
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Shelves:
2012-goodreads-challenge-book-club
A book club member says: It is clear why John Banville uses the pen name Benjamin Black for his mysteries. He let himself off the hook and doesn't maintain the quality he's known for. It's not the genre that makes it a lesser work - it's the lack of attention to structure. For example, he devotes the first 150 pages or so to introducing characters before anything happens.
Another excellent mystery in the series about Quirke the pathologist, loner, alcoholic, and womanizer of Dublin. This time Inspector Hackett, his sidekick, plays a larger role. Black (Banville) has done it again. It has all the requirement of a successful genre piece, but the prose is tight and right and the character development reveals Banville's literary alter ego.
successful businessman Victor Delahaye sails out to sea with his junior partner's landlubber son Davy and...shoots himself. Of course, Davy doesn't know how to sail. That's chapter one. A second sailing death (not Davy) follows. DI Hackett and Quirke, the pathologist, embark on a roundabout investigation and eventually we learn whodunit and all about the two families. John Banville is a wonderful writer but this series is just too much of the same old, same old Irish noir; I got bored with it.
I received this book as a goodreads giveaway.
In the novel Vengeance, Mr. Black brings back Inspector Hackett and his pathologist friend Quirke to investigate a mysterious suicide. The book moves briskly while these two characters are on the page. Their repartee is enjoyable and their relationship is intriguing. Unfortunately they only occupy about one-third of the story. The family of the suicide victim take up the rest and their parts are hit and miss. Mr. Black is capable of writing delicious...more
In the novel Vengeance, Mr. Black brings back Inspector Hackett and his pathologist friend Quirke to investigate a mysterious suicide. The book moves briskly while these two characters are on the page. Their repartee is enjoyable and their relationship is intriguing. Unfortunately they only occupy about one-third of the story. The family of the suicide victim take up the rest and their parts are hit and miss. Mr. Black is capable of writing delicious...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Pen name for John Banville
Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland. His father worked in a garage and died when Banville was in his early thirties; his mother was a housewife. He is the youngest of three siblings; his older brother Vincent is also a novelist and has written under the name Vincent Lawrence as well as his own. His sister Vonnie Banville-Evans has written both a children's novel and a r...more
More about Benjamin Black...
Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland. His father worked in a garage and died when Banville was in his early thirties; his mother was a housewife. He is the youngest of three siblings; his older brother Vincent is also a novelist and has written under the name Vincent Lawrence as well as his own. His sister Vonnie Banville-Evans has written both a children's novel and a r...more
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“All the same, she wondered if they did know what she thought and felt, if they knew without knowing, in that way the Irish were so adept at doing.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
