A Death in Summer

A Death in Summer by Benjamin Black
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On the cover of this paperback it says, “John Banville writing as Benjamin Black”, a clue as to why this novel reads as a piece of literature and not a standard whodunnit (Banville won the Man Booker Prize some years back). I confess I’ve never read anything like it. There’s a policeman or two, although the actual (amateur) detective in this case is the pathologist. It’s set in Ireland, and while no particular date is mentioned, Banville carefully and lovingly reconstructs the early 1960s. Everybody chain smokes in hospitals, police stations, and restaurants; a rather chic woman wears tapered black trousers with elastic straps underfoot to keep them taut; the pathologist’s daughter seeks her independence by taking a bedsit. There’s a murder and a murderer, but the distant look on some character’s face, or the way he or she rearranges their hands as the last of the violet light fades in the sky takes precedence over any questioning, clue gathering or detecting. The solution is arrived at via a process of osmosis, but the writing is so good that this feels perfectly acceptable.
But that’s just my own humble opinion…what do you think? Do let me know! Read for the Crime & Thrillers reading group that I attend at Canada Water Library, and also for my 2015 Goodreads reading challenge.


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