Another disappointment! While I quite liked Michael Dibdin's End Games (reviewed here ), his "Cabal" (1992), a substandard thriller, is a badly botched effort. Although The Scotsman in its back-cover blurb pronounces: "Michael Dibdin is an absolutely sensational writer", my take would be: "Michael Dibdin is a master of hiding his solid writing skills under the cover of embarrassingly amateurish style."Sunday Times writes "Dibdin puts together a fictional structure that combines the intriguing twistiness of the mystery story with sharply angled perspectives on contemporary Italy." Well, to me the fictional structure of "Cabal" resembles a high-school student's naive attempt to construct a thriller by combining a variety of clichés, found in low-grade books of the genre, and the author's portrayal of contemporary Italy is limited to throwing thousands of Italian words and names of places at the reader without conveying much sense of location.The ridiculous plot begins with an apparent suicide jump in St. Peter's basilica in Rome. "The glistening heap of blood and tissue subsided gently into itself with a soft farting sound." Mmm, evocative style! When it is determined that the farting heap of blood and tissue used to be Prince Ludovico Ruspanti, the Vatican officials call Inspector Aurelio Zen to conduct the investigation. In the worst tradition of cheap thrillers super secret organizations are involved; Cabal is a clandestine group within a secretive society, Order of Knights of Malta. The preposterous main plot line is intertwined with inane thread about Zen's jealousy.The writing is really bad; let's quote some pearls of phrasing: "Unachieved coition made his testicles ache", "He skied the ball and whacked it across the net with a grunt suggestive of a reluctant bowel motion", "Ciliani stuck his finger in his ear and extracted a gob of wax which he scrutinized as though deciding whether to eat it." Mr. Dibdin also likes to mention the smell of urine (for some reason, a teenage computer hacker, another tired cliché, routinely pisses his bed) and bad breath. Oh, how very funny! There are some good things in this badly disappointing novel; the best, probably, is when the author makes fun of fashion designers who price up their cheap creations, to "sell the price rather than the garment". (Apple Inc. has long been doing exactly the same - raising prices on average-quality products to dupe the gullible public into believing that their wares are better than the cheap Samsung stuff). Also, the symmetry of the beginning and the ending is neat. These are not enough, though, to save this mess from a low rating.One and a half stars.
This is the third book in the series featuring Aurelio Zen, a detective from Venice. Each book is set in a different location, in this case Rome, since the cabal in question is thought to be a secret society operating within the Vatican. This review contains a mild spoiler concerning Zen’s love life.The starting point is the death of Prince Ludovico Ruspanti, who falls a hundred and fifty feet to his death in the chapel at St. Peter's in Rome. Zen is invited to investigate the death. Though the Italian police have no jurisdiction within the Vatican, the church authorities want an outsider to investigate to allay any suspicion that they might have something to do with it.There is a second line to the plot concerning the relationship between Zen and his lover, Tania Biacis, whom we met in the previous title. With no justification whatsoever, each becomes suspicious of the other, though their misunderstandings are resolved in due course. Tania is a civil servant who, if Dibdin is to believed, is but one of many using her working hours to run a private business. Zen is unaware of this fact, and of the fact that she is actually very well off, and is spending money he can ill afford, but she could, renting a flat for her. The question of Tania’s money arises early in the book, when he sees her wearing an expensive outfit by the famous designer, Falco (Falcone). When he learns how successful she is, it spurs his competitive instinct, but his attempt to make money backfires badly.The plot is complex and the standard of writing very high, as is always the case with this author. While the death of Ruspanti is well explained (as are the two subsequent deaths) I felt there were two weaknesses. The invention is whimsical in places, most notably when Zen goes to consult a young computer hacker. And the ending is foreshortened, the book coming to a somewhat abrupt conclusion. In particular, I would have liked at least a hint as to what happened to Falco and his talented but unfortunate sister, Ariana.
Do You like book Cabal (1993)?
I had put off reading any of Dibdin's popular Zen series on the grounds that gritty, macho tales of corruption are not, generally, my thing. After watching the new miniseries adaptation, however, I decided to give them a shot. Cabal was a well-plotted thriller with a nice twist at the end. Sure, it's full of corrupt organizations and unfair political machinations, but they are presented as simply being part of the Italian modo di vivere, and they actually come off as being rather charming. Zen is Italy's answer to Morse, and his girlfriend Tania has more depth than the usual bit of skirt one tends to run across in manly thrillers. The real star of the book, however, is Italy, and Rome in particular. Dibdin manages to conjure up the eternal city with incredible vividness, yet with an ease that never feels false or forced. This book would be a great choice for people who enjoyed Angels & Demons, or fans of David Hewson or Donna Leon.
—Victoria
I love mystery stories set in exotic locations, but this book left me a little cold. Mr. Dibdin's Rome seems like a maze of traffic, bureaucracy, and corruption. The mystery starts out with a promising premise, a well-connected member of the aristocracy falls from the dome of St. Peters. Was it suicide or murder? The Vatican, worried about the appearance of impropriety, calls the local authorities to "sign off" on the judgement of suicide. Enter Dottore Aurelio Zen, who is unlucky enough to be o
—Cathy
've read most of the Aurelio Zen novels, my favourite being Cosi fan Tutti. Re-reading this one on the Kindle was an unexpected pleasure offered by its being available for only 99p.Vice-Questore Aurelio Zen is a detective inspector in the Ministry of the Interior based in Rome. Having recently solved an important case, the Vatican requests his services to confirm that there were no "suspicious circumstances" surrounding the death of Prince Ludovico Ruspanti in St. Peter's basilica. They want his
—Peter Auber
