A slowly-evolving story of family secrets - Rated 
The blurb on the book cover states "introduces Quirke - a truly original addition to the pantheon of crime-fiction detectives". So I was expecting a crime novel. This is not the case. It's an interesting and engaging story that slowly unpeels layers of hypocrisy and deceit among well-heeled members of Irish Catholic society in 1950s Dublin and Boston, USA. I admire the author's writing: he has a wonderful ability to conjure up images with a few words. There are no over-used cliches to be seen. The build up of the story is such that the rather perfunctory ending is unsatisfactory.
The Pseudonym Is The Problem - Rated 
The rationales for an author choosing to write under a different moniker are probably unlimited. The logic I have never understood is what will the explanation be once the true name is known? Several people have commented on interviews done by Mr. Banville where he evidently has stated the speed with which he pens these books is notable. My reading is that people also feel his speed is better described as haste and that these books are intentionally meant to be more commercial, publications to facilitate a payday for an author who is well respected/admired but might like to sell more books. In this case it may have worked. A brief review of works under the Banville name generally garner much less attention, the exception being the work that won The Man Booker Prize.
As I have read all of Mr. Banville's previously published novels this new name only served to ensure that I knew nothing of this book until someone pointed out to me, a year after publication, that he had written it. I doubt the goal was to make the work invisible to admirers of his work but that is exactly what happened in my case.
He may place any name he likes on his work but unless he is to radically change the manner with which he writes I do not believe there is massive audience awaiting his books. I would suggest that readers like me enjoy his work for the many reasons others do not. If you are looking for a tale told at a blistering pace look elsewhere, if you enjoy a tale that is wrapped up as quickly as the 60-minute TV mysteries (43 minutes without commercials) his books will try your patience.
This work is a grim tale of deceit, hypocrisy and betrayal by an institution that is supposed to exist in counterpoint to these failures of character. The author did not set out to lift anyone's spirits or provide even a mildly positive outcome. The events in this book document the depravity that comes with moral certitude together with the arrogance that a simplistic belief system facilitates.
And that may be why this book does not seem to be very appealing to many, it is relentless at exposing the flaws of its characters and the institutions they believe they are the champions of. It also reads like contemporary news accounts. The topic may be different but the evil is the same.
I don't like this version of "John Banville" as much as his other works. How much of this is caused by my curiosity as to why this work came out camouflaged is something I cannot gauge.
Ellipitical Tale of a Drunk and His Guilt - Rated
If you are not already a fan of John Banville but like suspense stories, you will probably grade this book as a two. Why? The "mystery" is heavily contrived by holding back details that the main characters know from the beginning. That method of story telling is a John Banville specialty that makes his "serious" novels smack you with epiphanies after you are lulled into complacency by "predictable" seeming plots and his lovely prose into assuming that more is well than is.
Having a narrator who is usually drunk makes for interesting fiction, if the complication doesn't drive you away from the story. Clearly, that's a "serious" book ploy.
Quirke is a pathologist. Malachy (Mal) Griffin is an OB/GYN. They work in the same hospital. In the rest of their lives, they are rivals for the approval of Mal's father, Judge Griffin, and were rivals for the love of Quirke's life, Sarah, who married Mal. The two are brothers-in-law due to Quirke having married Sarah's sister, Delia.
Into that conflicted background, Quirke staggers down towards his office after overindulging at a staff party and finds Mal sitting at his desk writing in a patient record. The patient's name? Christine Falls. Her young body lies on a near-by gurney that Quirke accidentally undrapes.
Soon, Quirke doesn't even remember the incident until he is reminded. But he cannot get the image off his mind and starts to probe into what happened to her. Strong forces strike back to limit his progress.
If you stick it out, you'll be rewarded by appreciating some remarkable causes and effects that trace back over several decades . . . and make you realize that everything we do counts. A good analogy for this story is the effect of dropping a huge stone into a small pond -- the ripples will radiate out to the bank and back creating considerable turbulence for some time.
The book is skeptical about the sanctity of the Catholic establishment in Dublin and in Boston. Some may be offended by the turns that the story takes in that direction.
Christine Falls - Rated 
The Pathology Department doesn't have too many visitors and Quirke's patients never talk back. Those are just two of the reasons Quirke loves his job. One night after drinking a little too much at a party, Quirke calls in to the Pathology Department on his way home and discovers a body that didn't get there through normal procedures. His brother-in-law, a paediatrician named Malachy Griffin, is with the body filling in some paperwork. Malachy's reaction arouses Quirke's curiosity, so he begins to ask questions.
For a start, Christine Falls' listed cause of death doesn't match with Quirke's findings; there are signs that the young woman had recently given birth. Dublin of the 1950's is very conservative and when Quirke discovers a network of the rich and powerful in the background he finds himself uncovering uncomfortable secrets: secrets that force him to confront his own past; secrets which take him to Boston in the U.S.A.
Benjamin Black is a nom de plume for Booker Prize-winning author John Banville. Before writing this review, I read some reviews and articles about CHRISTINE FALLS. In one of them, the writer wondered why recognised authors felt the need to use another name when venturing into crime fiction, especially when the book promotion makes a feature of the fact that the author is writing under another name. What's the point?
The plot synopsis plays up the mystery element of CHRISTINE FALLS, but I found it took a back seat to the relationships and the exploration of the past and how it can surface to hurt those in the present. In Quirke's journey to find the truth about the fate of Christine Falls, he also uncovers truths about his own orphaned childhood and the lives of those close to him, with some shocking results.
I found myself a little disappointed in CHRISTINE FALLS. Because of Quirke's occupation, I was expecting to learn more about pathology and how it was practiced in the 1950's. In fact, Quirke could have just as easily been an accountant or a lawyer and it wouldn't have changed the plot.
There is a thread of the book that takes place in Boston which I found to be a little more compelling than Quirke's part in the story. However I found the U.S. thread to be just a little predictable. The book is well written and the author has a nice line in prose, but ultimately I felt a little let down because CHRISTINE FALLS wasn't quite what I was led to believe by the blurb.
Thought it was Mills and Boone - Rated 
I can't believe anybody enjoyed this novel. It's full of carefully crafted cliches, and in his description of one of the male characters, Banville gets so over heated, I really began to feel quite sorry for him. He should stay away from detective genre, it's harder than it looks. Stick to boring, so-called "intellectual" novels, which no one will ever read - and thus spare himself some embarrassment.
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