Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Medusa by Michael Dibdin Intrigue in the Alto Adige. Yes, a thriller. Or a detective story, if that sounds more dignified. This column does not write about the genre on the grounds that it has not read one since 1987, and that there is a far more experienced critic of this type of book elsewhere in these pages. But Dibdin writes the kind of policiers that get reviewed in the TLS, and the latest one had just dropped through the letterbox, and I was going on holiday, and this is the kind of thing you're meant to read on holiday. I now begin to understand the attraction. Like a pensioner discovering crack cocaine and liking it, I wonder at the wasted years I have spent not reading thrillers. I could have been having so much more fun. The books I tend to read and approve of do not have quite so many dead bodies, nail-biting chases, sinister conspiracies, or world-weary exposés of the cynical corruption at the heart of the body politic. All these, Dibdin has. I had already, through skimming the reviews, learned that he had a hero called Aurelio Zen, a Venetian detective who is, in his quiet way, a bit of an epicure (fussy about his food and fags, likes a spot of grappa), something of a lone wolf, wholly moral, but not above annoying his superiors or bending the rules to achieve results. Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean. From what I recall of the genre, this applies, mutatis mutandis, to every detective since Sherlock Holmes. One wonders if there is a market for stories about cheerful, gregarious detectives with happy home lives who eat and drink any old crap and do everything by the book. So Zen may be a cliché - but he's a very refined version of one. Dibdin has been both clever and brave to make him not just Italian but Venetian - he has to negotiate the fantastically complex networks of corruption and regional and political rivalry that make up the central nervous system of Italy. Moreover, Italy has conspiracies the way dogs have fleas, so the idea of a moral Italian policeman is almost funny - and Dibdin knows this. Recent developments make the comedy both richer and darker. At one point, asking whether an old pal isn't doing something illegal, Zen receives a reply giving concise details of Silvio Berlusconi's breathtaking response to the crimes he has been accused of. (Basically, making them no longer crimes.) "And you're asking me if what I'm doing is illegal?" Medusa begins with the discovery of a body in an abandoned military tunnel - only it has been lying there for 30 years or so. Pretty soon people are being bumped off in sinister fashions, and Zen starts poking his nose in and annoying people at the highest level. At which point I realise that not only does the plot summary sound unavoidably like a string of non-surprises, it does a disservice to the book as well as spoiling the pleasure of finding out for yourself what happens next. Further research into Dibdin's Zen - I asked Faber to send me the rest, and have now inhaled five of them - indicates that the books are, basically, like going on holiday in Italy but without being bitten by mosquitoes, while at the same time learning about the seamy side of Italian politics and institutions. Not that there is any other side, it seems, even if sometimes the corruption or conspiracy happens by sheer accident. Zen travels all over the place, allowing him to annoy superiors in a variety of atmospheric locations. The ultimate punishment, it would appear, is a posting to Sicily. In Medusa he is at the other end of the country, in the Alto Adige, the mountainous region next to Austria, inhabited by resentful Germanophones. But this is really a sideline to the book's real interest: the fallout from the battles between the military and the Italian left in the 60s. Even without the murder element, it is a useful look at history, and so knowledgeable that you could be fooled for thinking it had been expertly translated from the Italian. I suspect that this is a deliberate policy. I wonder: how well does Zen go down in Italy? Medusa. JACKET NOTES: When a group of Austrian cavers exploring a network of abandoned military tunnels in the Italian Alps come across human remains at the bottom of a deep shaft, everyone as sumes the death was accidental--until the still unidentified body is stolen from the morgue and the Defence Ministry puts a news blackout on the case. And is the recent car bombing in Campione D'Italia, a tiny tax haven surrounded on all sides by Switzerland, somehow related? The whole affair has the whiff of political intrigue. That's enough to interest Aurelio Zen's boss at the Interior Ministry, who wants to know who is hiding what from whom and why. The search for the truth leads Zen back into the murky history of post-war Italy and obscure corners of modern-day society to uncover the truth about a crime that everyone thought was as dead and buried as the victim. (©Faber and Faber) Medusa. 348 393 9028: MEDUSA. After the heated pool, the air was distinctly cool, even down here in the sheltered terraces above lake Lugano. He keyed in the number, then turned to face the hillside behind the villa. The land rose precipitously, the contours marked by the looping line of Via Totone and its accompanying homes and gardens. There was no one in sight. When a group of Austrian cavers in the Italian Alps come across human remains at the bottom of a deep shaft, everyone assumes the death was accidental - until the still . Read More. 348 393 9028: MEDUSA. After the heated pool, the air was distinctly cool, even down here in the sheltered terraces above lake Lugano. He keyed in the number, then turned to face the hillside behind the villa. The land rose precipitously, the contours marked by the looping line of Via Totone and its accompanying homes and gardens. There was no one in sight. When a group of Austrian cavers in the Italian Alps come across human remains at the bottom of a deep shaft, everyone assumes the death was accidental - until the still unidentified body is stolen from the morgue and the Defence Ministry puts a news blackout on the case. The whole affair has the whiff of political intrigue. The search for the truth leads Zen back into the murky history of post-war Italy and obscure corners of modern-day society to uncover the truth about a crime that everyone thought was as dead and buried as the victim. If you enjoyed the Inspector Zen Mystery series you may also like The Last Sherlock Holmes Story, another crime novel by Michael Dibdin. Read Less. All Copies ( 96 ) Softcover ( 75 ) Hardcover ( 21 ) Alternate Editions ( 1 ) Choose Edition ( 5 ) Book Details Seller Sort. 2004, Faber & Faber. Edition: 2004, Faber & Faber Mass-market paperback, Good Details: ISBN: 0571219853 ISBN-13: 9780571219858 Pages: 288 Edition: Main Publisher: Faber & Faber Published: 01/2003 Alibris ID: 16603182004 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. All pages and cover are intact. Possible slightly loose binding, minor highlighting and marginalia, cocked spine or torn dust jacket. Maybe an ex-library copy and not include the accompanying CDs, access codes or other supplemental materials. ► Contact This Seller. 2004, Faber & Faber. Edition: 2004, Faber & Faber Mass-market paperback, Good Details: ISBN: 1400076080 ISBN-13: 9781400076086 Pages: 288 Publisher: Faber & Faber Published: 02/2005 Language: English Alibris ID: 16678907663 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. All pages and cover are intact. Possible slightly loose binding, minor highlighting and marginalia, cocked spine or torn dust jacket. Maybe an ex-library copy and not include the accompanying CDs, access codes or other supplemental materials. ► Contact This Seller. 2004, Faber & Faber. Edition: 2004, Faber & Faber Hardcover, Good Details: ISBN: 0571216587 ISBN-13: 9780571216581 Pages: 288 Publisher: Faber & Faber Published: 08/2003 Alibris ID: 16638621972 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. All pages and cover are intact. Possible slightly loose binding, minor highlighting and marginalia, cocked spine or torn dust jacket. Maybe an ex-library copy and not include the accompanying CDs, access codes or other supplemental materials. ► Contact This Seller. 2004, Faber & Faber. Edition: 2004, Faber & Faber Hardcover, Good Details: ISBN: 0571216587 ISBN-13: 9780571216581 Pages: 288 Publisher: Faber & Faber Published: 08/2003 Alibris ID: 16624173667 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. All pages and cover are intact. Possible slightly loose binding, minor highlighting and marginalia, cocked spine or torn dust jacket. Maybe an ex-library copy and not include the accompanying CDs, access codes or other supplemental materials. ► Contact This Seller. 2004, Faber & Faber. Edition: 2004, Faber & Faber Mass-market paperback, Very Good Details: ISBN: 0571219853 ISBN-13: 9780571219858 Pages: 288 Edition: Main Publisher: Faber & Faber Published: 01/2003 Alibris ID: 16545226098 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.