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  • April in Spain

  • A Strafford and Quirke Murder Mystery
  • By: John Banville
  • Narrated by: Stanley Townsend
  • Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (126 ratings)
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April in Spain cover art

April in Spain

By: John Banville
Narrated by: Stanley Townsend
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Summary

The sumptuous, propulsive, sun-kissed follow up to the bestselling Snow, from the Booker Prize winning author

'He wanted to know who she was, and why he was convinced he had some unremembered connection with her. It was as simple as that. But he knew it wasn't. It wasn't simple at all.'  

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.

©2021 John Banville (P)2021 Faber & Faber

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What listeners say about April in Spain

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

What a team. Great script, great performance.

After ‘reading’ SNOW I was looking forward to April in Spain. I was not disappointed. Excellent.

We will forgive Stanley Townsend’s Michael Caine impressions in the “Cockney” chapters. Part of the entertainment.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
  • AM
  • 17-02-22

Ruined by reader's painful Michael Caine parody

Basically fairly boring beginning but hard to tell if things might have picked up because I had to stop listening. I just couldn't carry on with the reader's bad, laborious and mildly comic Michael Caine impression for the cockney character. A shame because the book might be okay (though signs weren't good).

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Implausible plot and too many unrounded characters

That was my 4th and probably my last John Banville book. Two Quirke books, one Strafford book and now one Quirke/Strafford book. If anything I think they are getting worse or I just wanted them to be really good after seeing the Quirke TV series which was fantastic.

There is almost no plot in this one and what there is is so full of holes you wonder whether Banville really had his heart in it. For example if Inspector Strafford is sent over you would think he would be told do some questioning of Quirke and Quirke's daughter as to who else they may have told about the sighting. Or to try to at least think about the reason why the young lady is happy to let her friends believe she is dead? Oh no none of that goes on. (I dont think this is a spoiler)

Also for my mind there is too much characterisation and background of the minor players. For example lots of description of a doctor who works with the missing young lady and has lunch with Quirke. Why if he turns out to be nobody in particular - and its pretty obvious he is not by the way? Maybe Banville is playing with us saying you "you might want to be interested in this one".

I am not saying characterisation is bad in itself and would have been ok if the book was an extra five hours of plot but it was not. It was nine hours and I was thinking at about seven hours "Oh no we are not going to fill in any of the inconsistencies here are we". And Banville did not he just steamed full ahead and then it was over.

So my challenge to Mr B is if you want me to read your next one it must be 15 hours plus.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Disappointed

Disappointing after Snow but easy listening and an okay story. I was confu by Evelyn’s dying comment about her boy

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping and atmospheric.

I've read all the Quirke novels and this one doesn't disappoint. Full of suspense, it builds to an inexorable climax.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great atmosphere interesting characters

Character are brought together from different worlds, Creates an interesting chain of events. Each role have deep back stories

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Don’t bother.

Rubbish. Hardly any substance to the story. Feels like the author couldn’t wait to finish it but earlier had padded out the story with totally irrelevant details. I won’t be listening to any more by this author. The narrator did the best he could with a flimsy story.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Jk
  • 30-08-23

Dreary

I don’t understand why this has so many positive ratings, while poetic descriptions and reflections by a main character can be wonderful in print, I find it too tedious to listen too.

Also even though I have done what I can to get rid of this book, audible keeps starting to read it whenever something else has finished which may add to my increased irritation with this book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant.

Cannot wait for the Quirke series to be made into films- but having said that, this played like a film in my head.
Outstanding story, plot- and narration!
More please.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Awful narration (“Cockney geezer”)

The story was fine though struggled with a number of implausible parts - but I couldn’t stand the narration of one of the major characters, Terry. Didn’t finish I’m afraid.

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