by Michael Dibdin
A good start to the series. After seeing the BBC Zen on Masterpiece Mysteries, this, as is usual with something done in both media, is richer, fuller, more complicated, as is the protagonist, A. Zen. Wonderful sense of place, nuanced character, and delicious prose.
The book started out being interesting. Rich head of family kidnapped before the start of the book. Old family friend calls up his high level contacts with the government to get them to send a high ranking Roman police officer to take over the case. It has been many months since the old man was kid...
I am now Dibdin-ed out.
I have no idea why anybody would compare Dibdin with Chandler: he is wordy where Chandler is minimalist, verging on sentimental where Chandler is cynical. Could two characters be more different than Zen and Marlowe? Zen who lives with his mother and isn't going to give that up for all the sex in Chi...
This was a very "Italian" thriller. Set in Perugia, the story is centered on the kidnapping of a wealthy industrialist and his not so quite loving family. We are introduced to Aurelio Zen, a disgraced police investigator who was years back somewhat of a star at the kidnapping unit in Rome (Kidnappin...
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