In the second book of John Banville's masterful Quirke series, a faked suicide ensnares the pathologist in a deadly web of cons and deceit.

It has been two years since the events of Christine Falls, the bestselling novel that introduced the world to irascible Dublin pathologist Quirke. Quirke's beloved Sarah has died, his surrogate father lies paralyzed by a stroke, and he's been sober for half a year. When a near-forgotten acquaintance asks him to cover up his beautiful young wife's apparent suicide, Quirke knows he should stay clear, for the sake of his sobriety and his peace of mind. But his old itch is irresistible, and before long he is probing further into the circumstances of Deirdre Hunt's death, into a web of drugs and illicit sex that may have snared his own daughter, Phoebe. With its vivid, intense evocation of seedy 1950s Dublin, and intricate, psychologically complex storyline, The Silver Swan shows "the Irish master" (The New Yorker) at the top of his game.