The Silver Swan

THE SILVER SWAN; Benjamin Black; New York: Henry Holt, 2008, 290 pgs. Fiction

If you need a few laughs, better look elsewhere. Benjamin Black is the murder mystery pseudonym of Booker prize winning author John Banville and he has chosen his pen name
well because this book is a very dark story of a faked suicide, a blackmail/porno operation,
a father who pretty much loses his already disaffected daughter by trying to save her from a truly icky guy. Black/Banville is a fine prose stylist with the bleakest of outlooks, as befits any winner of the "dark is deep" Booker. The Silver Swan is a finely tuned psychological drama, but be prepared if you read it for the irresistable impulse to crawl under your bed that will follow.

LW