Elegy for April (Quirke, 3)

The aptly named Dr Quirke has just signed himself out of a rehabilitation center for alcoholics in 1950s Dublin. His daughter, Phoebe, fearing that her best friend April might be dead – she’s been missing for several days – seeks his help. April, a junior doctor at the Hospital of the Holy Family, has a reputation for living on the wild side. The mystery unfolds slowly, but the tension rises page by page. Has she gone off somewhere of her own free will? Has she been abducted? Or murdered? As Phoebe learns more about the romantic entanglements among their friends, she begins to wonder if she ever knew April at all. April’s estranged family, prominent in Dublin society and politics, brings a heavy hand down on any press coverage of her ‘disappearance.’ The denouement, when it arrives, hits the reader like a ton of bricks. It’s shocking; it’s unexpected drawing as it does on hitherto undisclosed information; and it is over before the reader can draw breath. The story may have limits as a mystery, but the writing – lyrical, mesmerizing, perceptive – more than compensates. If you love suspenseful, literary crime stories, Elegy for April should be high on your reading list.

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“name”: “Elegy for April (Quirke, 3)”,
“author”: {
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“name”: “John Banville, Benjamin Black”
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“reviewBody”: “The aptly named Dr Quirke has just signed himself out of a rehabilitation center for alcoholics in 1950s Dublin. His daughter, Phoebe, fearing that her best friend April might be dead – she’s been missing for several days – seeks his help. April, a junior doctor at the Hospital of the Holy Family, has a reputation for living on the wild side. The mystery unfolds slowly, but the tension rises page by page. Has she gone off somewhere of her own free will? Has she been abducted? Or murdered? As Phoebe learns more about the romantic entanglements among their friends, she begins to wonder if she ever knew April at all. April’s estranged family, prominent in Dublin society and politics, brings a heavy hand down on any press coverage of her ‘disappearance.’ The denouement, when it arrives, hits the reader like a ton of bricks. It’s shocking; it’s unexpected drawing as it does on hitherto undisclosed information; and it is over before the reader can draw breath. The story may have limits as a “,
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“author”: {
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“name”: “San Francisco Book Review”
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“name”: “San Francisco Book Review”
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“datePublished”: “2025-10-31”
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