As I've said before, I don't ordinarily like noir, but I read this on recommendation from my daughter. Enjoyed it immensely. In large part because of the absolutely stunning prose, which hit this reader almost immediately. Benjamin Black (the mysterious pseudonym of Irish novelist John Banville) does have a way with words. Here are a few, chosen almost at random:

Alas, I have been diverted from my journey through Dorothy Sayers' opus, not that I haven't been reading (I have), just not keeping up with Sayers or my posts. I do intend to catch up--eventually. What diverted me, you might wonder: well, first there was Benjamin Black's "Death in Summer." I will be writing about that shortly. Then there was Sonia Sotomayor's new memoir about growing up in Fort Apache (the East Bronx projects) and how she got through Princeton, and Yale, to her first seat on the seat on the Federal bench. Wow! I may write about that one for Goodreads as it's somewhat off program here. And then there was John Grisham's first (and, he claims, favorite) novel, "A Time to Kill,"