Second in a series

Finished September 22
The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black
This second in a series featuring Dublin pathologist Quirke is by John Banville, writing as Benjamin Black. This is set a few years after Christine Falls, the first in the series and opens with Quirke being asked a favour by an old schoolfriend. The friend's wife has been found dead, naked and seemingly drowned and he asks that a postmortem not be done. He says he doesn't want her body dealt with in that way. Quirke is intrigued and agrees, but finds interesting information when he examines the body. He is "getting himself in trouble" again. He feels out his contact from the police, Inspector Hackett and without asking for his help, arouses suspicions in him as well. As the two men work separately to discover the truth about what happened to Deirdre Hunt, Quirke's daughter Phoebe becomes involved and is in possible danger.
The book was well written and the characters well developed, but I didn't like anybody, and thus the novel never really grabbed me. Quirke is a sad character, driven by his own past, but never really facing up to things and I find that sad.