Quirke is an endearing hero and the Dublin of the 1950s - wet, cold, foggy, sinister - is evoked with harsh realism and nostalgia (The Times)

Addiction, morbid sexual obsession, blackmail and murder, as well as prose as crisp as a winter's morning by the Liffey . . . Quirke is human enough to swell the hardest of hearts (GQ)

With Quirke, Banville has made a fascinating addition to the ranks of the defective detective in books that combine respectful reading of the genre with brightly original writing (Guardian)

A requiem for a cursed city, its inhabitants' inner lives doomed to remain as locked away, unhappy and unknowable as whatever lies buried (Metro)

It is doubtful that anyone can write as well as Benjamin Black when it comes to a psychological mystery (Washington Times)

Even the Dead offers pleasures one doesn't always associate with the crime thriller. Like subtle characterisation and a calm, elegant prose style. What makes the novel stand out is the warm, sensitive, psychologically acute characterisation. When I reached the end of the novel, I had a sense of having been nourished, rather than manipulated. It just goes to show that it isn't the genre that counts, but the talent that a writer brings to it (Independent on Sunday)

In Even the Dead, Black goes beyond the atmospheric stage and scene setting, delving deeper than in any previous novel into the soul of his pathologist hero Quirke, an enigmatic loner whose voice colours every page as if staining it with nicotine (Sunday Herald)

NO CRIME IS EVER TRULY BURIED...

Visceral, gritty and cinematic, Even the Dead is the latest stylish thriller from John Banville's crime-writing alter ego, Benjamin Black.

Pathologist Quirke works in the city morgue, watching over Dublin's dead. The latest to join their ghostly ranks is a suicide. But something doesn't add up. The victim has a suspicious head wound, and the only witness has vanished, every trace of her wiped away.

On the trail of the missing woman, Quirke finds himself drawn into the shadowy world of Dublin's elite - secret societies, High Church politics and corrupt politicians. It leads him to a long-buried conspiracy that involves his own family. But it's too late to go back now...

THE DEAD WILL BE HEARD

'Fresh and original' Guardian
'Warm, sensitive, psychologically acute characterisation' Indepedent on Sunday
'Quirke is human enough to swell the hardest of hearts' GQ
'A beach read for the brainy' LA Times
'Superb' Irish Times
'Beautifully written' Literary review
'Ravishing prose' Independent