Even the Dead cover art

Even the Dead

A Quirke Mystery

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Even the Dead

By: Benjamin Black
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
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About this listen

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 doesn't add up. The victim has a suspicious head wound, and the only witness has vanished, every trace of her wiped away.

On the trail of the missing woman, Quirke finds himself drawn into the shadowy world of Dublin's elite - secret societies, High Church politics and corrupt politicians. It leads him to a long-buried conspiracy that involves his own family. But it's too late to go back now...

THE DEAD WILL BE HEARD

 Crime Thrillers Fiction Historical Mystery Police Procedural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Crime Thriller

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Critic reviews

Quirke is an endearing hero and the Dublin of the 1950s - wet, cold, foggy, sinister - is evoked with harsh realism and nostalgia
Addiction, morbid sexual obsession, blackmail and murder, as well as prose as crisp as a winter's morning by the Liffey . . . Quirke is human enough to swell the hardest of hearts
With Quirke, Banville has made a fascinating addition to the ranks of the defective detective in books that combine respectful reading of the genre with brightly original writing
A requiem for a cursed city, its inhabitants' inner lives doomed to remain as locked away, unhappy and unknowable as whatever lies buried
It is doubtful that anyone can write as well as Benjamin Black when it comes to a psychological mystery
All stars
Most relevant
This was my favourite so far of the Quirke audiobook series, the reader was new in the series, and thankfully is finally an Irish actor, who captured the characters' voices so well, especially Quirke's moody persona, and was able to pronounce place names correctly too. I listened to this in 2 days, can't wait for the next one, would recommend.

Excellent

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So much more than a detective story. It’s life on the page with warts and all.

The writing is a joy

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Excellent with a brilliant narrator and a story that is slow to move into higher gears but goes on an unexpected roller coaster of a ride. Quirk, with his mental problems sees the world in a very unusual and lyrical way that gives an uncommon yet painterly view of life. The characters as seen by him are remote and distant but the story is vivid in its descriptions and has a very visual quality. Dublin and the Ireland of the 1950s is well drawn.

Life, all its cruelties and yet...

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Another very enjoyable book following the adventures of Quirke and Hackett. The strings of the past six books are being pulled together.

Another great book by Black

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