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The third crime novel from Man Booker Prize-winner John Banville, writing as Benjamin Black. It was originally commissioned as a serial by the "New York Times" magazine, and is a standalone thriller. 'What stands out is Black's portrayal of contemporary New York...It's an edgy read, worthy of Don DeLillo' "Evening Standard"
Synopsis
Commissioned as a high profile serial by the New York Times Magazine, The Lemur is a stylish new thriller from a rising star of literary crime
Book Details
Publisher:
PICADOR
Publication Date:
02-Oct-2009
ISBN:
9780330456746
Observer review
The Lemur by Benjamin Black
Mary Fitzgerald the observer Sun 15 November 2009
The third crime drama from John Banville's alter ego, Benjamin Black, replaces 1950s Dublin with contemporary Ireland and New York, where John Glass, a burnt-out journalist, has agreed to a fee of $1m to write the biography of his father-in-law, "Big Bill" Mulholland "one of the fiercest and most controversial of the last cohort of cold warriors". Glass hires a researcher to dig, who tries to blackmail him and is then found dead. In places, the writing is of the quality one might expect from Banville/Black: smooth, textured, well-observed. Elsewhere there's a lack of originality which, if intended as pastiche, does not come off. There's a knowingness to the stock phrases - we are following a man who still "thinks of his life in journalese" but the overall effect is still limiting.
