A slow-moving novel set in Dublin in the 1950s featuring Quirke and his newly-admitted daughter, Phoebe. Quirke has been trying to give up drinking and after showing some early promise it was not long before he fell back into his old habits. Phoebe disclosed her anxiety about a friend, a junior doctor, who is not at work and not responding to calls. She and Quirke look into her absence. Black's sense of place and time has been captured perfectly here but as usual it is his writing, expressive and lyrical, that is the star of his stories. ( )

“Elegy for April” (2010), the third Quirke novel by Benjamin Black (John Banville), once again flawlessly blends literary fiction with genre fiction.
Set in Dublin in the 1950s, the story opens with Quirke, who conducts autopsies by profession, drying out in a clinic. His job is not the only thing that drives him to drink. In Christine Falls, the first book in this series, Quirke finally admits that Phoebe, a young woman raised by someone else, is actually his daughter.

Now Phoebe is worried about a friend, Dr. April Latimer, a member of a prominent Irish family, who has not been seen for several days. She worries that something serious may have happened to her, even though April's own family doesn't seem concerned. In fact, they complain when Phoebe tells Quirke, who then tells a friend in the police force. Traces of blood are found in April's flat, suggesting she may have had a miscarriage or an abortion.

No missing-person case is ever formally opened, yet Quirke and Phoebe continue to ask questions, while raising the ire of the Latimer family, more worried about bad publicity than April.

This is hardly a typical murder mystery -- in fact, there is no murder -- yet the tension builds progressively just the same. Some of that tension results from Quirke's relentless struggle with strong drink and his romantic involvement with another of his daughter's friends. There's a hint of comedy, too, mostly involving his purchase of an expensive car even though he lacks both insurance and a driver's license.

Banville once described crime novels as "cheap fiction," implying that he didn't think much of his Benjamin Black novels and wrote them only because they were easy to write and more profitable than his serious fiction. Yet there's nothing cheap about “Elegy for April.“ ( )

Irlanda, años cincuenta. La misma niebla densa y desconcertante que cubre Dublín parece haber ocultado el rastro de la joven April Latimer. Cuando Phoebe Griffin se ve incapaz de recabar noticia alguna sobre su amiga, Quirke responde a su petición de ayuda y muy pronto los dos, junto con el inspector Hackett, comienzan la búsqueda. Mientras Quirke ve su sobriedad distraída por la joven y bella actriz Isabel Galloway, la familia de April silencia su desaparición ante el terror a un escándalo. ¿Por dónde comenzar a desenredar la enorme y compleja telaraña de amor celos, mentiras y oscuros secretos con la que April tejió su vida?

tercera del Dr Quirke y hasta ahora por la descripción de los caracteres la mejor. Desaparece la amiga de una hija de Quirke, y se destapa una historia familiar, paralelamente la historia de Quirke se sigue desarrollando ( )

I am constantly amazed at Quirk's way with the ladies! Good story with a number of possibilities leading up the ending ( )