First published 2007
Quirke works nights in a Dublin morgue. After an office party, he stumbles downstairs and catches his brother-in-law Malachy tampering with a file he shouldn't be reading. The next morning, Quirke realizes Malachy was actually altering a corpse and hiding the real cause of death. The dead woman was named Christine Falls. Quirke begins investigating what really happened to her. His search pulls him into dangerous secrets that Dublin's wealthy Catholic families will do anything to protect. These secrets reach into his own family. The trail leads from Dublin to Boston in the 1950s. Quirke must decide how far he'll go to uncover the truth about Christine Falls, even when that truth threatens people he loves.
Genres: fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, crime, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, secrets, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Boston, Dublin
Period: 1950s
352 pages · Hardcover · Henry Holt and Co.