Like many of the reviews on this book, I turned to this book mostly after learning there was a Masterpiece Mystery series (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/zen/) coming out based on these books. And like many of the others, I find myself comparing Rufus Seawell's Zen with the character Dibdin created. That's almost always a mistake. I can't say that I don't like Dibdin's Zen, I think I prefer the version written for Masterpiece. Dibdin's Zen is a restless man in his 50s struggling with the fading of a career that hasn't fulfilled his plans. He also deals with a mother who is either losing her memory or her grip on reality, but this is so much a part of his everyday life he doesn't seem to "struggle" with this as much as float above it.The Masterpiece version is a good and decent man who is regarded as being above moral reproach. A moral center in a corrupt world. He's trying to be a good son, a good cop and win over a beautiful coworker who's in a bad marriage. His own marital state is never at issue, his estranged wife has a lover and isn't interested in remaining married to him.I take issue with every review I read calling this a "psychological thriller", I don't know where that started, but it's wrong. Police Procedural, yes. Psychological Thriller, no. I did think Zen was getting screwed with, but it had nothing to do with psychology and everything to do with everyone in Perugia resenting this outsider sticking his nose into affairs that were none of his business. After getting past the idea that these are not the same characters, I still can't decide if I liked this book well enough to read another. There is an assumption that the reader will have more than a passing knowledge of internal Italian politics. I'm reminded of an anthropology paper I wrote during college. The assignment was to write about an event we'd seen or participated in that would be foreign to outsiders. We were to write it as a cultural anthropologist would have. I wrote about a Piping Ashore Ceremony I'd attended for a Senior Chief Petty Officer who retired after a 20+ year career. I started out fine, defining terms, explaining what the outsider would have seen and heard and what it meant. At some point, I switched into an insider recounting this beautiful service and forget to explain the traditions. My professor reminded me that I'd forgotten my reader didn't know what I knew and walked away no more informed about this incredible experience. Dibdin gave me a sense of this beautiful town, Perugia and it's people, but I'm no better informed about Italy's police and justice system. I feel the need to study up on the Questura, Carabinieri and the Magistrates before I tackle another one of these books. Will I read another? Maybe. Dibdin won awards for this first book of the series, but perhaps as so many writers do, he got better with later books. I haven't given up yet, but life is too short to read bad books. I'll stumble across another book in this series and give it a try.
This was not my first time reading Dibdin, but this was the first in the Aurelio Zen series, and it remains one of the most popular. It won an award or two, made him a known writer, and was filmed by the BBC. It is not imho the best I have seen from him, but it is a solid and deftly plotted thriller. As the book began, I was not especially drawn in. The characters and writing were not as fascinating as I had hoped, but a classic detective story began to unfold nicely. A middle-aged Italian police official, a low key and civilized fellow in comparison with his colleagues, and whose career is not going terribly well, finds himself randomly assigned to a major case that no one seems in a hurry to solve - the kidnapping of a leading industrialist. He is sent from Roma to Perugia where he is viewed as an outsider by everyone, and must climb numerous hurdles in order to get a good investigation going. Much suspicion surrounds the victim's family, a number of whom stand to gain by the old man's departure, but none of the locals is in a hurry to jeopardize their situations by pushing too hard. Using subtlety and persistence, Zen eventually uncovers a number of problems and family secrets, and survives the sudden departure of a leftist prosecutor he had been working with. A couple of corpses turn up, complicating things further. As in Dibdin's "A Long Finish", the ending is handled masterfully, with a number of red herrings and plausible finales hinted at before being whisked away. This time around I did not fully buy into Dibdin's version of Italy. It does seem like an outsider's view, which I guess is all right if the reader is not Italian, but it also struck me as being not fully believable some of the time. The emphasis on old ties and social connections, the labyrinthine politics prevalent in Italian society, the great weight placed on one's hometown and origins - could these things have still been true at the time this book was written? The descriptions were a little lacking too - Perugia did not really come alive for me in these pages.This is more of a procedural than a whodunit, althou an extremely astute reader might be able to reach the same conclusions as our detective does. The main pleasures are found in the unfolding narrative, which kept me guessing until the end. The writing is pretty straightforward but is livened up with occasional humor and insight. All in all, a good mystery and a good start to the series.
Do You like book Ratking (1997)?
I've been meaning to get into the Aurelio Zen series for a while now. Just somehow Dibdin never got to the top of the 'to read' pile. It got a meteoric rise to the top when the BBC screened adaptations of the books. I had to get to know Zen myself before I saw someone else's interpretation of him.Zen's a Venetian living and working in Rome, sent to work on a case in Perugia. He's pretty typical of fictional detectives. There's nothing super original in the character so far. The interesting part of the book comes at looking at the day to day corruption in Italy. Something that never fails to fascinate me.The case Zen's sent to solve is a pretty interesting tale. Kept my attention throughout and kept me interested to see who was guilty, who was innocent and who was in the grey areas.The thing I liked most about the book is the sense of place the author gives. His descriptions of Italy are great. When a book makes me want to buy a 'plane ticket it's doing something right.4 out of 5 pawprints. I'm looking forward to the second book in the series :-)
—Mary
The first Zen novel set in southern Italy. I really loved this novel although I didn't think I would and is not the usual read I would go for. It was recommended to me by my husband. The novel centres around the kidnapping and of Ruggerio Milletti and Zen is sent to secure his release almost as an excuse to demote him when the situation seems impossible. The one thing I found a delight was the character of Zen. He's quite a "worn down by life" character and not overly friendly with his contemporaries. He doesn't easily make friends, or trust people because of past and current experiences and that makes the reader really feel for him and I took him to heart. In this first novel the scene is set for future Zen stories when he is pulled into a situation where he is really being used as a scapegoat to cover up the behaviour of a powerful but corrupt family. Ultimately using methods that are not strictly procedural, but trusting to his own instincts and judgement Zen exposes the truth, but it's not without personal cost to him both emotionally and physically. It has made a space in my heart for Aurelio Zen and I'm looking forward to spending more time with him in the forthcoming books.
—Kim
This is the first in the Aurelion Zen series of books, recommended to me by a friend when I was talking about books to read, set in Italy. I thought it was great - a little confusing keeping track of the characters from time to time, but on the whole. well-drawn, well-plotted and authentic feeling (to the point of wanting to throw the book across the room in frustration with the Italy political and legal system). Will definitely read more of this series. [Though a note on the TV adaptation, which I haven't seen - I like Rufus Sewell as much as the next person, but why choose him to portray someone who is explicitly described, early in the book, as being "a distinguished looking man of about fifty with a pale face whose most striking feature was a nose as sharply triangular as the jib of a sailing boat"?]
—Kate North
