Two Refreshing Splashes of Summertime Homicide
By Janet Maslin
Benjamin Black (photo)
A DEATH IN SUMMER
By
Benjamin Black
308
pages. Henry Holt & Company. $25.
TIGERLILY’S ORCHIDS
By
Ruth Rendell
257
pages. Scribner. $26.
Both
Benjamin Black and Ruth Rendell have written inviting new novels filled with
nicely malevolent characters. It hardly seems sporting to relegate these books
to the murder-story genre just because some of those characters wind up dead of
unnatural causes.
Benjamin
Black, whose fifth book is “A Death in Summer,” started out as the escapist
alter ego of John Banville, who won the Man Booker Prize for his 2005 novel
“The Sea.” But his Black persona has been such a success that he looks
increasingly like the Superman to Mr. Banville’s more literary Clark Kent. His books about the dour Irish pathologist named Quirke have effortless flair, with their
period-piece cinematic ambience and their sultry romance. The Black books are
much more like Alan Furst’s elegant, doom-infused World War II spy books than
like standard crime tales.
“Through
the satin stuff of her dress he could feel the twin sharp flanges of her
shoulder blades,” this new book says of Quirke and his latest flame. (Note the
voluptuous satin.) “Her sobs made them twitch like tensely folded wings.” The
weeping woman is beautiful, French, aloof and newly widowed. And Quirke would
be a lot more comfortable with Françoise d’Aubigny if he were not also dealing
with the corpse of her newly murdered husband, an Irish newspaper tycoon named
Richard Jewell. He is just guilty enough to feel “a whiff of brimstone” while
succumbing to her dangerous allure.
Like
Ms. Rendell, the so-called Benjamin Black is astute and particular in capturing
such nuances. And for both of them the crime-solving aspect of storytelling is
not a book’s top priority. So “A Death in Summer” takes its sweet time figuring
out who wanted to get rid of Richard Jewell. While waiting it often allows its
characters to shiver and tremble unaccountably in summer weather and succumbs
to the occasional fit of verbosity. At one atypically overripe moment the
author manages to use “miasmic,” “ether,” “teeming,” “bacilli,” “succumb,”
“writhe” and “tender torment” in the same sentence.
The
four Black books are very similar in caliber. But they become increasingly
complicated as Quirke’s past escapades pile up. In addition to its abundant
back story “A Death in Summer” has an unusual interest in the uncertainties
that faced Irish Jews (Richard Jewell was one) in the post-World War II era.
Some of the book’s characters choose to recall recent history and notice
anti-Semitism while others remain willfully oblivious, and the clash can be
dramatic.
“Jewishness
is a state of mind,” insists Quirke’s daughter Phoebe, who has picked up that
idea from her Jewish suitor. “It most certainly is more than a state of mind,”
counters Rose, the incongruous American Southerner in this book full of
Dubliners. Rose also says, “Some of the most charming and cultivated men I have
known were bigots to the bone.”
Yet
Rose is a lot more bighearted than the people Ms. Rendell imagines in her
latest artful stand-alone, “Tigerlily’s Orchids.” At 81, Ms. Rendell, a k a
Barbara Vine, a k a Baroness Rendell of Babergh, a member of
the House of Lords, continues to write in impeccable form, dripping both
mirth and malice. So she centers this book on Lichfield House, an apartment
building that has six flats, and begins by ticking off its motley crew of
residents. First up: the nasty Ms. Olwen Curtis, whose all-purpose reply to any
remark made to her is “Not really.” Having survived two husbands and become
free to do whatever she wants, Olwen has decided to drink herself to death.
That’s it. No other plans.
But
nothing, not even self-destruction, is easy in this well-built little book. How
is Olwen to solve the logistical problem she has created? She’s not very
strong; how is she going to haul home all those bottles and get them upstairs
to Flat 6?
Now
Ms. Rendell introduces the residents of the other five apartments and their
interlocking problems. Although the characters in “Tigerlily’s Orchids”
ricochet off one another constantly, none of them has any understanding of the
others. Each is utterly self-absorbed, none more so than a busybody named
Duncan Yeardon who lives in a nearby building. As Duncan nosily watches the
residents of Lichfield House come and go, he displays a talent for totally misunderstanding
them all.
Duncan
is at his most clueless when it comes to the neighborhood’s beautiful,
uncommunicative young Asian woman who lives in a building that has a
summerhouse in its yard. Duncan thinks of her as Tigerlily and imagines her as
the exotic orchid grower of the book’s mischievous title. So we know what she
is not. Long before the book reaches its denouement and explains Tigerlily, Ms.
Rendell has created multiple reasons for ambulances to visit the neighborhood
and a string of half-comical misunderstandings. This book’s tone would be
screwball if its story didn’t have a body count.
Among
Ms. Rendell’s most enjoyable creations are Michael Constantine, a columnist who
is always looking for fodder (a snowfall makes him wonder if he should write
“something about the crystals all being of a different pattern”); Stuart Font,
a show-off who cannot pass a mirror without being captivated; Freddy Livorno,
who uses bugging equipment to find out that Stuart has bewitched not only
himself but also Freddy’s wife, Claudia; and at least one character who is
conducting a secret life on the Internet, with unfortunate consequences.
For an
ordinary author this densely populated story might have too many moving parts.
For Ms. Rendell it’s one more merry chance to create seemingly harmless
characters and lead them into harm’s way.
This article has been revised to reflect the following
correction:
Correction:
July 14, 2011
The
Books of The Times review on July 4, about “A Death in Summer” by Benjamin
Black (a pseudonym of the author John Banville), and “Tigerlily’s Orchids” by
Ruth Rendell, misstated the number of books Mr. Banville has published as
Benjamin Black. “A Death in Summer” is the fifth, not the fourth.
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