Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Blood Rain by Michael Dibdin Blood Rain by Michael Dibdin. If "Blood Rain" had been the first Aurelio Zen mystery that I'd read, it would also have been my last. I finished the book but it was with more of a sigh of relief than enjoyment. Aurelio Zen is the Italian detective who stars in a long-running series of novels by Michael Dibdin. They're set in various parts of Italy and I've enjoyed every one - until now. Zen has been given the posting that's he's always dreaded - to Sicily - where's he's been sidelined into a meaningless liaison job. To complicate matters, the woman who might, or might not, be his daughter is responsible for the installation of a computer network in the building where he's working. A decomposed and unidentifiable body is found in a locked railway carriage. Is it the son of one of the local Mafia families? Zen is not officially on the case, but he can't help becoming involved. I'd better begin by admitting to a bias. I'm not too keen on fiction about organised crime, even if it's written by one of my favourite writers, Ian Rankin. In order for there to be some balance the criminals are shown to have a more sympathetic side. Personally I prefer to remember the murder, prostitution and drug dealing that produces their income. In Blood Rain the Mafiosi are two-dimensional: they're stupid, bumbling idiots. Some of it could be written for comedy. Even their violence doesn't seem quite real and none of it rang true. It was more like farce. I was put off too by the hint of lesbianism, only this time it's not because of the subject matter but because of the way that it's handled. Zen's daughter, Carla Arduini, strikes up a friendship with Corinna Nunziatella, the judge handling the railway murder. There's a hint that Corinna has fallen in love with Carla, but I had no feeling of any chemistry between them. The possibility of a lesbian affair seemed to have been included for effect rather than because it moved the plot forward. The situations brought about by this supposed passion could have been worked with a simpler explanation. The plot is good in parts. It starts reasonably well, but then meanders for three-quarters of the book. It doesn't even meander very interestingly. On the other hand the last forty or so pages are good and the finish is surprising, even shocking. I certainly didn't expect it. Dibdin is the master of the ambiguous ending and this is better than most. It sounds odd to say that if three-quarters of the book could have been better-plotted it would have been a good book, but I'm afraid it's true. In contrast to the plot, the writing is excellent and a pleasure to read. Dibdin has a keen ear for dialogue and the delivery is sharp and incisive. Sometimes he's laugh-out-loud funny and a keen observer of people. Characters (other than those dreadful Mafiosi) are well-developed. I warmed to Zen himself - sharper than he would wish to seem and not too certain of which side of the law he operates on. Carla and Corinna came across surprisingly well, as in the Zen books the women usually have poorer characterisation. Computers play a part in the story, but somehow it wasn't a convincing part and I suspect that anyone with an in-depth knowledge of the installation of a network would not be particularly impressed. It just passed muster for an innocent like me. In the Aurelio Zen books Dibdin is excellent at evoking place. When I read Dead Lagoon, set in Venice, it was a detective story and a travel book rolled into one. In this book Zen is based in the three-thousand-year-old city of Catania on the east coast of Sicily and in the shadow of Mount Etna. There are some wonderful word pictures of the city and the island, but I think the one that will stay with me the longest is of Zen sitting outside in the dark, looking at a blood-red slash across the sky and realising that it was the lava streaming down the side of the erupting volcano. I liked too the descriptions of the stretches of motorway unconnected to any road which had been built in the south of the island - and of the dubious land deals which led to their construction. There's dramatic landscape and human poverty and corruption all rolled into one. If I had to be picky I'd have liked a map, but Google Earth came up trumps. Each of the Zen books can be read as a stand-alone novel but there is a benefit to reading the series. I'd recommend this book if you feel that you must read it for completeness, otherwise I probably wouldn't bother. If you've never read a Zen book this isn't the place to start - virtually any of the others would be better. If you like this type of book, you might like to read this review of Donna Leon's Fatal Remedies. Blood Rain. JACKET NOTES: Aurelio Zen--cynical and tough, yet worn down from years of law enforcement--has just been given the worst assignment he could imagine. He has been sent to the heart of hostile territory: Sicily, the ancient, beautiful island where blood has been known to flow like wine, and the distinction between the police and the criminals is a fine one. Even worse, he has been sent to spy on the elite anti-Mafia squad. The only thing that makes the job palatable--and takes his mind off routine details like the ratting body found in a remote train car--is that Zen's adopted daughter, Carla, is also in town. But life becomes precarious for Carla when she stumbles upon some information she'd be better off not knowing and befriends a local magistrate on the Mafia's most wanted list. What ensues is a breakneck plot of amazing complexity that culminates in a stunning finale. Blood Rain, emotionally gripping and defiantly original, is surely one of Dibdin's finest works. (©Vintage Crime) Blood Rain. Inspector Zen receives the order he has been dreading all his professional life: his next posting is to Sicily. Against the backdrop of the 3000-year- old city of Catania, Aurelio Zen is at his most desperate and driven. He will need all his cunning and skill just to survive. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. Dibdin's diffidently honest Italian policeman Aurelio Zen has got the posting he always dreaded--he has been sent to Sicily, home of the Mafia, in a nondescript liaison job. The woman who might be his daughter is there too, fixing police computers and worried that someone has a backdoor into data; she is enjoying a flirtation with a woman magistrate whose pursuit of the Mafia is based on quite personal agendas. Someone died nastily of heatstroke and starvation in a railway van on a siding--the Limoni family deny, as local Mafia chieftains anxious to retain prestige would, that it was their missing son; and someone will end up paying in blood for this murder that never happened. Dibdin's picture of a Sicily full of death and confusion is evocative and plausible; Zen's reluctant pursuit of at least some part of the truth, some vestige of honour, is moving and powerful. This is an emotionally complex thriller in which the starkest of tragedy is counterpointed by outbreaks of bizarre comedy Zen finds himself allies in unlikely places and the internal squabblings of the Mafia clans would be hilarious if they were not so blood- curdling .-- Roz Kaveney. " Spellbinding . superb." -- "The Washington Post" " As bracing as grappa. Michael Dibdin is a fine novelist and an excellent mystery writer." -- "USA Today" " Dibdin, whose prose is as startlingly clever as his plot, stretches the existential suspense through to the final page. One marvels at Blood Rain' s melancholy and beguiling vision." -- "The Wall Street Journal" " Exquisitely written. Dibdin's Zen books are essential reading for lovers of mysteries, and of Italy." -- "Chicago Sun-Times" "Spellbinding . superb." --"The Washington Post" "As bracing as grappa. Michael Dibdin is a fine novelist and an excellent mystery writer." - -"USA Today" "Dibdin, whose prose is as startlingly clever as his plot, stretches the existential suspense through to the final page. One marvels at Blood Rain's melancholy and beguiling vision." --"The Wall Street Journal" "Exquisitely written. Dibdin's Zen books are essential reading for lovers of mysteries, and of Italy." --"Chicago Sun-Times" ?As bracing as grappa. Michael Dibdin is a fine novelist and an excellent mystery writer. USA Today. Blood Rain by Michael Dibdin. After the news of Donald Hamilton�s death late last year was confirmed two days ago, the world of mystery fiction has been rocked a second time this week. Michael Dibdin, creator of the deeply idiosyncratic Venetian police detective Aurelio Zen, passed away last Friday, March 30th, only eight days after his 60th birthday. Rather than duplicate the effort, I strongly recommend you visit The Rap Sheet , where J. Kingston Pierce has done his usual excellent job of putting together a series of links and quotes about Mr. Dibdin, who certainly left us far too young. While his first book was a well-regarded Sherlock Holmes pastiche, one in which the master detective confronted Jack the Ripper, Aurelio Zen is the character Mr.