A great thriller book will have you encapsulated within its pages, unable to put it down as you try to find out who, what, when, where, and how. Great thriller writers are known for throwing in those last minute loops where you are jolted into the present as you begin to comprehend exactly what the truth is. The best in the genre make the answer only accessible near the end, and when they do it is so shocking yet makes perfect sense.

I wouldn’t say that Christine Falls was the greatest thriller novel that I have ever read, but it is a good book. The novel, which is the first for Benjamin Black (the pseudonym of author John Banville) is set in Ireland, an area with which the Irish-born Black is quite familiar. Write what you know they always say and Black has certainly done that as he intricately describes the setting in which his vibrant characters react and interact with one another.

The book follows a somewhat unlikeable protagonist, Quirke, a pathologist at Dublin’s Holy Family Hospital in the 1950’s. The author takes great care in setting his scene by mentioning the surroundings and establishing how they could possibly differ from present day Dublin. The book, while not only a thriller has somewhat of a moral message to it. In the increasing devout, Roman Catholic Dublin, the debauchery that occurs behind closed doors is both shocking and against anything the church could possibly believe or perceive.

In the beginning, we find a very drunk Quirke (a goodbye party for a nurse at the hospital was held upstairs from his office) who stumbles downstairs to the morgue to find his adopted brother, Malachy Griffin, sitting at Quirke’s desk. Quirke is not too drunk to realize Malachy has been hastily writing in a file, which reads the name Christine Falls. As Quirke passes out in the morgue, he awakens to find Malachy gone though he knows he has been there because the famed obstetrician, Malachy, in his hurry to leave, has left his favorite pen behind on Quirke’s desk. Thus begins an investigation into the mysterious Christine Falls’ death, who Malachy has listed as having died from a pulmonary embolism.

At the same time, we have Malachy’s father (who also adopted Quirke from an orphanage in his youth), a famous Dublin Judge, who has just become a knight of the Catholic Church. Seeing as how Ireland was run by the church back in the 1950’s, this is quite the prestigious honor for the Judge and it also comes with quite a bit of power. Of course, the drama is intensified as a young baby is brought to the United States, to a Catholic convent/orphanage by the nurse who had the goodbye party where Quirke got drunk (he seems to have a drinking problem though…but let’s not get into that). The baby is given to the doe-ish Claire and troublesome Andy Stafford, who are told that her name is Christine. The child will only live with them though, because the convent will have ultimate say over her education and future.

As if the plot could not become more complicated, the relationship between Malachy, which seems as if it has always been strained, becomes even more torn apart. Three women stand between the men. One is Quirke’s deceased wife, Delia Crawford. Another is her very much alive sister, Sarah, who Quirke has always been in love with, since both Malachy and Quirke were in medical school in Boston. Sarah chose to marry Malachy and Quirke married Delia as a result. Third is the daughter of Malachy and Sarah, Phoebe, who looks so much like her Aunt Delia it breaks Quirke’s heart to look at the girl.

Throughout the book, a deceitful plan, which involves the true cause of Christine Falls death, is revealed. Dolly Moran, the woman who lived with Falls when she died, and later turns up gruesomely murdered, reveals both she and Falls worked for none other than Malachy Griffin, adding fuel to the fire. To make matters worse, Josh Crawford, Sarah’s father is dying in Massachusetts, and this journey across the ocean, which Quirke takes to accompany Phoebe, reveals even more about the morally disturbed Crawford and Griffin families as well as Quirke himself.

Christine Falls is not your traditional thriller novel, though it does have plot twists that will surprise and perhaps even shock you. However, the most disturbing part of the book is the lack of empathy that is felt for Quirke and many of the other central characters in the book. In most novels, you expect to at least empathize with the protagonist, even when he has more antagonistic qualities, but not Quirke. By the end, I felt a supreme sense of loathing for him, and I am sure I am not alone.

Overall, the question of morality in 1950’s, Catholic-powered Dublin plays an important and crucial part in the book. Those with the most power in Christine Falls seem the most corrupt, despite the mores and values they have not only sworn to uphold, but have also expected the people of Dublin to follow as well. The ride that Black takes you on through Christine Falls is a whirlwind adventure that will leave you wondering how truly pure religion is and whether all people in power are as corrupt as those in this novel.

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Technorati Tags: Benjamin Black, Christine Falls, Dublin, Book Review, Novel, John Banville