A DEATH IN SUMMER BY BENJAMIN BLACK

A DEATH IN SUMMER BY BENJAMIN BLACK

It is a warm Sunday afternoon when Dick Jewell’s body is found in his office. Dr. Quirke, who some of you might know from “Christine Falls”, “The Silver Swan” and “Elegy  for April”, is called to take a look at the body as Harrison ,the State Pathologist is recovering from a heart attack.  Quirke and Inspector Hackett quickly establish that Jewell, a newspaper mogul, was murdered. What is not so obvious is by whom.  They begin by interviewing the people present at Brookland, the Jewells country home, but Francoise d’Aubigny, Jewell’s wife, his much younger half-sister the highly strung Dannie, and yard manager Maguire are unable to shed light on the matter.  Never one to stay out of matters that don’t concern him Quirke gets involved in the case. With rumours flying around Dublin  Jimmy Minor, journalist and sometime friend of Quirke daughter Phoebe, turns up on Quirke’s door step to see if he can get the inside scope. Jimmy reveals to Quirke that Carlton Sumner, son of a Canadian timber baron, who had a fight with Jewell weeks before he died, also owned 29% of Jewell holdings and was trying to buy Jewells paper ‘The Clarion’.

Quirke and Hackett head Wicklow to interview Sumner, who was in college with Quirke. Sumner denies killing Jewell, but makes reference to Jewells involvement in ‘Friends of St Christopher’s’ a group of wealthy Dublin men  who raise money for St. Christopher’s Orphanage.  Suspicious of Jewell’s charitable work, Quirke pays a visit to Fr. Ambrose at the Orphanage, where Quirke himself was as a child.  Costigan, a member of the Friends pays Quirke a visit to warn him off digging around. A warning when ignored lands Quirke’s assistant, who is in the early stages of a romance with Phoebe, in hospital missing a finger. The investigation encounters many twists and turns before Quirke learns the truth about Jewell’s death and ‘The Friends’ interest in the children in the orphanage.

I am a huge fan of John Banvilles crime novels. I was glad to see the story feature more of the supporting characters like Inspector Hackett and Sinclair. What do you think of the books? Who would you like to see more of