Quirke

Quirke's pathology department, set deep beneath 1950s Dublin, is his own gloomy realm: always quiet, always night, and always under his control. Until, late one evening, he stumbles across a body that should not be there. The investigation he opens uncovers a dark secret at the heart of the city's high Catholic network - a secret with the power to shake his own family and everything he holds dear.

In 1950s Dublin, world-weary pathologist Quirke is reckoning with grief. A woman he loved has died, a man he once admired is dying, and his daughter is still finding it hard to accept him as her father. When an old acquaintance approaches him about his wife's apparent suicide, Quirke recognizes trouble. But, as always, trouble is something he cannot resist.

As a deep, bewildering fog cloaks Dublin, a young woman named April is found to have vanished. Flawed pathologist Quirke responds to a request to help find her. Speaking with those who knew her, he begins to realize that there may have been more behind the young woman's secrecy than he could have imagined. When a disturbing discovery is made, the complex web of love, lies, jealousy and dark secrets that April spun her life from finally begins to unravel.

Newspaper magnate Richard Jewell is found dead at his country estate, a shotgun still in his hands. Quirke realizes that, rather than the suspected suicide, 'Diamond Dick' has been murdered. Suspicion soon falls on one of Jewell's biggest rivals, but as Quirke gets to know Jewell's beautiful, enigmatic wife, his fragile sister and those who work for the family, it becomes clear that not everything in this household is as it seems.

On the east coast of Ireland, one of the country's most prominent citizens takes his business partner's son out sailing and, while out at sea, shoots himself dead. This strange, enigmatic event captures the attention of pathologist Quirke who begins to investigate. When a second death occurs, one even more shocking than the first, Quirke uncovers dark secrets buried in a rivalry between two entangled families.

When spring storms descend on 1950s Dublin, a body is found in a canal, and pathologist Quirke must find the truth behind this brutal murder. The investigation leads him into the dark heart of the organisation that really runs this troubled city: the church. As Quirke's traumatic childhood in a priest-run orphanage returns to haunt him, he must face his greatest trial yet.

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Even the Dead by Benjamin Black, read by Sean Barrett. Down among the dead men... Pathologist Quirke works in the city morgue, watching over Dublin's dead. The latest to join their ghostly ranks is a suicide. But something...

When Dublin pathologist Quirke glimpses a familiar face while on holiday with his wife, it's hard, at first, to tell whether his imagination is just running away with him. Could she really be who he thinks she is, and have a connection with a crime that nearly brought ruin to an Irish political dynasty? Unable to ignore his instincts, Quirke makes a call back home, and Detective St John Strafford is soon dispatched to Spain. But he's not the only one on route: as a terrifying hitman hunts down his prey, they are all set for a brutal showdown.