Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} by 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 , 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. Dibdin�s career has been centered around ever since. And from what critics around the world have said, his reputation, were it to depend on only this one creation, is secure for a long time to come. I�ll quote only one section of the obituary in the Telegraph , as posted by Jeff at The Rap Sheet : Michael Dibdin was born in England but lived in the Seattle area in the US since his marriage in 1995 to fellow mystery writer K. K. Beck. The following bibliography of his crime fiction, as expanded from Crime Fiction IV , by Allen J. Hubin, lists only the British editions: # The Last Sherlock Holmes Story (n.) Cape 1978 [Sherlock Holmes; London; 1888] # A Rich Full Death (n.) Cape 1986 [Florence; 1855] # (n.) Faber 1988 [Insp. Aurelio Zen; Italy] # The Tryst (n.) Faber 1989 [England] # (n.) Faber 1990 [Insp. Aurelio Zen; Italy] # Dirty Tricks (n.) Faber 1991 [Oxford; Academia] # (n.) Faber 1992 [Insp. Aurelio Zen; Rome] # The Dying of the Light (n.) Faber 1993 [England] # Dead Lagoon (n.) Faber 1994 [Insp. Aurelio Zen; Venice] # Dark Spectre (n.) Faber 1995 [U.S. Northwest] # (n.) Faber 1996 [Insp. Aurelio Zen; Naples] # (n.) Faber 1998 [Insp. Aurelio Zen; Italy] # Blood Rain (n.) Faber 1999 [Insp. Aurelio Zen; Sicily] # (n.) Faber 2000 [Nevada] # (n.) Faber 2003 [Insp. Aurelio Zen; Italian Alps] # Back to Bologna (n.) Faber 2005 [Insp. Aurelio Zen; Bologna] Again according to the Telegraph : � Back to Bologna was Dibdin�s most recent title, but he has an 11th (and probably last) Zen novel, , due out in the UK in July and in the States in November.� 5 Responses to “Obituary: MICHAEL DIBDIN (1947-2007)” Peter Says: April 5th, 2007 at 12:01 am. Surely a sad death because it came so early. The name Aurelio Zen may provide a clue in addition to the one Jeff cites. Here’s part of what I wrote about Dibdin on my blog’s very first post, in September: “‘Zen’ is a name characteristic of the protagonist’s native Venice, but it also has overtones of the detachment with which this Zen moves through the sometimes deadly worlds of Italian officialdom and gangsterdom. Of course, the character’s other name, Aurelio, is another clue that he is wise and given to occasional musing, if not outright meditation.” (Aurelio is the Italian form of Aurelius — as in Marcus Aurelius.) ======Detectives Beyond Borders “Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home” http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/ >> Peter, as usual you are right on target with your observations, beginning with your very first post! –Steve. Sad. I’ve not read much by Mr. Dibdin. But I do remember The Last Sherlock Holmes Story from years ago. I’ve read Dirty Tricks in addition to a number of the Zen novels. Dibdin was clever in the best sense. […] Aurelio Zen series, about which you can read more in an obituary for the author which I posted here on the blog early in […] Blood Rain by Michael Dibdin. A Sophisticated Spy. Reviewed by Susanna Yager. Michael Dibdin 's urbane and intelligent police detective Aurelio Zen has remained a rather enigmatic figure throughout half a dozen books, in which his investigations have taken him from his base in Rome to various other parts of Italy. He rarely displays his feelings, concealing them behind a slightly detached air and, I imagine, often wearing a very faint quizzical smile. He has little in common with the sort of fictional cop most frequently encountered today: the tough, tactless loner, mistrusting and mistrusted by authority figures. He's a bit of a slob, lives on junk food and would rather batter down obstacles than go around them. On the other hand, Zen displays the qualities of a true Venetian. He's a skilled manipulator and adept at maneuvering through the labyrinthine politics that affect the Italian police just as they do all other elements of the country's regime. He has principles, but he's been prepared to bend them in order to survive to the senior rank of Vice-Questore. Though his previous investigations have tested Zen's deductive (and political) skills, and have sometimes involved him in hazardous situations, none has presented him with the challenges he is about to encounter . After his last case ( A Long Finish , 1998), it was clear that his next posting would be the one he has long been dreading: an attachment to the anti-Mafia organization in Sicily. In Blood Rain , Zen faces his most dangerous ordeal and at last reveals how he will react to extreme emotional pressure. Foreigners tend to forget that Italy has been unified for less than 150 years. When you're there, though, you can still see in many cities the active remains of their independent status. In their food, for instance, their language and their customs. And as for their football. Some Italian cities even have two football teams, each with its own aggressively partisan squad of supporters ready to do battle -- literally -- on its behalf. As a Roman taxi driver in Dibdin's new book makes clear, if you don't support Lazio then you must be a Roma fan, and that means you're scum and he won't have you in his cab. Now, instead of football teams and their supporters, substitute clans. And set the action in Sicily -- an island south of the Italian mainland that has been casually conquered over the centuries by whichever invaders happened across it, and which still seems like a foreign country to other Italians. Each clan jealously guards its own territory against the others, while continuing to resist the influence of outsiders. These clans are known as the Mafia. An important bit of history: In 1995 an elite corps, the Direzione Investigative Anti-Mafia (DIA), was set up in Sicily by a pioneering judge, Giovanni Falcone, with the collaboration of the then-Minister of Justice. Manned by members of all three of Italy's separate police forces, it set out to defeat the Mafia. Several of the DIA's leading figures, including Falcone, were assassinated in the attempt, but today most of the Mafia bosses are in prison and their families are in disarray, fighting each other. This is the real-life background to Blood Rain . As this new book begins, Zen has recently arrived in Catania, Sicily's second city, which, behind its trappings of modern economics and technology, is socially still very rooted in its past. Zen's role there is ambiguous. The scene in which he is given his instructions is a masterly demonstration of the smoothly successful bureaucrat in action: 'Essentially, you're to act as a facilitator,' Zen's immediate superior had told him before his departure from Rome. 'Needless to say, the DIA are doing admirable work, on the whole. Nevertheless, there is a growing feeling abroad that, like every elite division, they sometimes exhibit a regrettable and perhaps potentially perilous tendency towards. how shall I put it? A degree of professional myopia. There have been instances when they have regretfully been perceived to be acting without due consultation, and in apparent ignorance of the wider issues involved.' The official paused, awaiting Zen's response. At length, realizing that it would not be forthcoming, he continued. 'With the aforesaid factors in mind, a decision has been made at ministerial level to deploy a pool of mature and experienced officials such as yourself to liaise directly with members of the Polizia Statale seconded to the DIA. Your role will be firstly to report to us here at the Viminale on the nature and scope of DIA initiatives, both current and planned, secondly to monitor the response of all local personnel to ensuing governmental directives, and thirdly to communicate these in turn to Rome, all with a view to expediting an efficient and unproblematic implementation of official policy. Do you understand?' Zen understood only too well: he was being asked to act as a spy. The situation Zen finds himself in is tricky. Some people in Rome may feel that the moment has come to rein in the too-independent DIA, but there are powerful forces within that organization keen for it to continue. And behind them all lurks the sinister and rarely mentioned Third Level, the Mafia's presumed patrons and protectors in the government. Zen's posting is made more congenial by the presence of his adopted daughter Carla, who is in Catania to install a new computer network for the local branch of the DIA. But Carla is facing difficulties of her own. She has spotted that someone is hacking into the still-uncompleted network and suspects that this unknown intruder is preparing to access secret files once the system is up and running. On top of that, Carla regrets her lack of any sort of social life in this city where a young, single woman is at a disadvantage. When the personable Corinna Nunziatella, the judge who is now conducting the Mafia investigations , suggests dinner, Carla is happy to accept her invitation -- not realizing that this budding friendship will have a dramatic effect on both of them. The discovery of a decomposed body in an abandoned railway carriage is the catalyst that sets off a train -- if you'll pardon the expression -- of catastrophic events. Is the body that of the son of a once-dominant Mafia family, now threatened by others jostling for power? Since this appears to be a Mafia-related crime, the case should come under Nunziatella's jurisdiction . She is surprised and disturbed, therefore, when her investigation is blocked and she is forced to hand over the case file to two newly arrived carabinieri (police), who are suspiciously reluctant to show identification and who, under Nunziatella's insistent questioning, tell her only that they work in Internal Security and report to the director of the anti-Mafia pool. Zen himself spends much of the first part of the book on the sidelines. He is, as his superiors required, an observer, and most of the action involves Nunziatella and Carla. It's not until an event occurs -- which I'm not going to reveal, as it would be a major spoiler -- that we see Zen step forward to take an active role. Dibdin has drawn a frightening and probably accurate picture of a society in which nothing much has changed for centuries. His narrative is, as always, elegant and polished. It is also dispassionate, rarely getting personally involved, like Zen himself, and the pace doesn't vary much, even at moments of high drama. Of course, there's violence -- this is a book about the Mafia, after all. But nothing that Dibdin does is in your face; he chooses the oblique approach, the delicate cut rather than the full-frontal stabbing. We don't get much more than sketches of most of the supporting characters, apart from the clever and ambitious Nunziatella, a Sicilian woman who has fought her way from a traditional background to achieve her high office. Zen's daughter, flattered by the older judge's friendship, is an innocent in this dangerous world. The policemen here are a mixed bunch and several of them are suspiciously hard to distinguish from the crooks they are supposed to be hunting. As for the remaining Mafiosi, what Dibdin shows us are not suave, Armani-suited businessmen, but crude, vicious, foul-mouthed and profoundly stupid thugs. This is all serious stuff. Dibdin is, after all, dealing with one of Italy's most serious problems: not just Mafia-controlled crime, but corruption in the heart of government. There is just one amusing scene. In this, Zen, running for his life, takes refuge among a group of drunken, but uncharacteristically well-behaved English football fans. Otherwise, there's not much humor, unless you count the judge's satirical approach to the dangers of her job. That's not to say that Blood Rain is heavy going. I was deeply involved from the outset and followed with real fascination the intricacies of the various conspiracies, though never sure, even at the end, exactly who was responsible for what. This is a book for the connoisseur of sophisticated crime fiction, a book to think about long after you've turned the last page. | October 1999. SUSANNA YAGER is crime reviewer for The Sunday Telegraph in London. She has several times been a judge for the Gold Dagger Award and is currently chairing the judging panel for the 1999 CWA/Ellis Peters Historical Dagger.