Christine Falls by Benjamin Black

June 19, 2007 at 1:15 am (Book review, Mystery fiction)

This mystery begins in Dublin with a faked death certificate and ends in Boston, where a distinguished Irish American family deals with the ramifications of that fateful act. The lives of many others are unalterably affected as well; a young couple and their “adopted” infant are a particularly poignant case in point.

The main character, pathologist Garret Quirke, easily fits the profile of the bereft middle-aged protagonist with a secret sorrow. In addition, there is a potentially explosive secret about Quirke’s life that he himself does not know anything about until halfway through the novel. It is revealed to him by Sarah, the woman he has loved his entire adult life: Sarah, who is married to Quirke’s stepbrother Mal Griffin, a highly respected obstetrician. I had a problem with the character of Sarah, in that she seemed prissy and humorless – anything, in other words, but lovable. But this is an old love that can apparently absorb changes and deterioration – “Love is not love, which alters, when it alteration finds…”

My one other problem with this novel is that the plot turns on a conspiracy involving the Catholic Church and the not-quite-legal adoption of infants of questionable provenance. Oh, no, I sighed, another conspiracy involving the Catholic Church. Fortunately, Black does not dwell long on this aspect of the plot. Christine Falls is as much a novel of character as a novel of suspense, and Quirke himself is the best thing in it: he is an unjustly injured man – emotionally, psychologically, and physically – yet he does his best not to give way to self-pity or resentment. More then that, he is committed to finding out the truth about a dodgy set-up that people in high places wish he would not interfere with. (In my mind’s eye, I’m seeing John Hannah as the actor to play Quirke. Yes, I know: Hannah is Scottish, not Irish – but still…)

Benjamin Black is the pseudonym of Irish novelist John Banville, who won the Booker Prize in 2006 for The Sea. I read that novel, and while I greatly admired the beauty of the writing, I found myself somewhat impatient with its sluggish pace. In Christine Falls, though, Banville/Black’s marvelous prose is in service of a plot with plenty of forward thrust and momentum. A good read, then, and a good choice for book clubs as well.

John Banville