This was a listen rather than a read. Timothy Dalton is an excellent narrator. He expertly captures the atmosphere of the setting and the nuances of the characters.

The Silver Swan is set two years after the events in Christina Falls and is set in Dublin. Quirk, the forensic pathologist, is approached by someone from his college school days, Billy Hunt. Billy's wife, Deidre, has recently been pulled from the ocean, an apparent suicide. Billy doesn't want a post mortem performed on his wife explaining that he can't bear the thought of Deidre being cut open. Quirk agrees and gets the body sent to his dissecting room. However, when he examines Deidre, his curiosity is piqued by something he observes and he performs the post mortem anyway.

The Silver Swan is not a fast paced crime thriller. Black shifts the point of view between Quirk and the principle players - his somewhat estranged daughter Phoebe Griffin, Deidre Hunt (business name Laura Swan), her husband Billy, Leslie White, Deidre's business partner, and White's wife, Kate. He peals back layers of the story, revealing a bit here, a connecting fact there, slowly bringing out the story and kind of people populating it. There isn't a character in the story that is particularly likable. Some you might have sympathy or pity for but you come away thinking what a sad lot they are.Black is a wonderful writer and I found <i>The Silver Swan</i> a well written and compelling story. Highly recommended.