"A page-turner told in prose so beautiful you'll want to read some passages repeatedly. Intricately plotted, beautifully written."--"The Boston Globe""" "Measured, taut, and transfixing . . . Benjamin Black's plotting is methodical, detailed, and always gripping. You can smell the smoke in Quirke's favorite pub and touch the cool walls in a Boston convent he later visits."--"USA Today" "Swirling, elegant noir . . . Crossover fiction of a very high order . . . Rolls forward with haunting, sultry exoticism . . . toward the best kind of denouement under these circumstances: a half inconclusive one."--"The New York Times " "Offers a subtler, deeper satisfaction than just finding out whodunit. . . . What's most disconcerting of all about "Christine""""Falls"""is the atmosphere of moral claustrophobia enveloping it."--"The Philadelphia Inquirer""A dark, ambitious crime novel . . . It's going to make more than a few readers flip the book over to look at the author photo to make sure Banville's really pulling the strings."--"Newsday""" "Crime fiction rarely lives up to the term 'literary, ' but ["Christine"" Falls"] is the happy exception."--"Entertainment Weekly "

Benjamin Black is the pen name of acclaimed author John Banville, who was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. His novels have won numerous awards, most recently the Man Booker Prize in 2005 for "The Sea." He lives in Dublin.