Earlier this year, Michael Dibdin died, aged 60. But he left us a final Aurelio Zen novel. I’ve been reading the series about the Italian detective for years, and so it was with a slightly heart that I picked up this latest tome, knowing that it was be my last acquaintance with the man.
If you’ve not read the Zen novels, then you’re in for a treat and should probably head right back to the start of the series – Ratking.
As for this final book? Well, Dibdin liked to always take us to new parts of Italy and so this time we find Zen on temporary assignment in the south in Calabria where an American lawyer, who was supposed to be helping out with a forthcoming film about the Apocalypse, has been murdered in a particularly brutal fashion.
But the locals aren’t giving the police any information. And it seems that all is not quite as it seems with the search for the impending films location scouting. It needs Zen to take control and crack a few heads.
If I’m being honest, this isn’t the greatest Zen novel, but it’s not the worst. There are comic characters like Jake, the millionaire dot-com slacker who’s funding the whole enterprise. And his right hand man seems to have stepped out a Carl Hiaasen novel to a certain extent. But I enjoyed it enough. It’s just a shame that we won’t be getting any more.