Even the Dead: A Quirke Novel

Even the Dead: A Quirke Novel by Black, Benjamin. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781627790666.

A suspicious death, a pregnant woman suddenly gone missing: Quirkes latest case leads him inexorably toward the dark machinations of an old foe Perhaps Quirke has been down among the dead too long. Lately the Irish pathologist has suffered hallucinations and blackouts, and he fears the cause is a brain tumor. A specialist diagnoses an old head injury caused by a savage beating; all thats needed, the doctor declares, is an extended rest. But Quirke, ever intent on finding his place among the living, is not about to retire. One night during a June heat wave, a car crashes into a tree in central Dublin and bursts into flames. The police assume the drivers death was either an accident or a suicide, but Quirkes examination of the body leads him to believe otherwise. Then his daughter Phoebe gets a mysterious visit from an acquaintance: the woman, who admits to being pregnant, says she fears for her life, though she wont say why. When the woman later disappears, Phoebe asks her father for help, and Quirke in turn seeks the assistance of his old friend Inspector Hackett. Before long the two men find themselves untangling a twisted string of events that takes them deep into a shadowy world where one of the citys most powerful men uses the cover of politics and religion to make obscene profits. Even the Dead--Benjamin Blacks seventh novel featuring the endlessly fascinating Quirke--is a story of surpassing intensity and surprising beauty.