A Long Finish: An Aurelio Zen Mystery

by Michael Dibdin

Book Overview

From the award-winning author of Ratking and Dead Lagoon comes a delicious new Aurelio Zen mystery in which wine and truffles figure as prominently as greed and vengence. When the son of a Piedmontese wine-making family is jailed for killing his father, Aurelio Zen is ordered to secure his release. The reason: A certain well-connected wine connoisseur wants to make sure that this year's vintage goes to harvest. In the hill town of Alba, Zen finds...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375704019
• ISBN13: 9780375704017
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

All Dibdin's Zen books are great!

Michael Dibdin, who unfortunately died last year, has written a series of Aurelio Zen mysteries, all of which are excellent. Well-written, great main character, interesting plots and supporting players. "A Long Finish" is a great suspense story involving parallel pursuits. Zen in pursuing a killer, and a killer is pursuing Zen. To complicate it, a jealous husband has hired an inept detective to follow Zen, too. Throughout Zen fantasizes about an intriguing female detective who has caught his romantic/sexual attention and worries about his apparently senile mother. Zen is a deep character who keeps us interested in everything he does and thinks.

One of the Series Best

After partially digesting some extremely personal revelations revealed during his stay in Naples, Aurelio Zen still finds himself reeling. To top it off, he finds that after his headlining success in exposing the menacing presence behind the 'Clean Streets' campaiagn in Naples, he is to be shuffled down to Sicily as part of a new Anti-Mafia squad. Only the influence of a rich film director who after hearing of the murder of his favorite vintner cannot bear the thought of the famous wine not being produced that year simply because the only man who can accomplish this feat is being held for his father's murder. Zen's task then takes him to Asti in the Piedmont where as he attempts to accomplish his assignment--the release of the vintner's son--he stumbles upon a sequence of murders with roots in the past which he must ferret out with the tenacity of the region's truffle dogs. As usual Zen's methods are not always ethical; his determination to get the job done does not always insure that the guilty person is punished by the proper channels--although serendipitiously Zen manages to justify his means with a noble ending. Nevertheless, his exploits in this installment are so far the most satisfying of the series. Zen's sonambulism in the beginning of the novel emphasizes his distraught over the goings-on in Naples--think Al Pacino sleeplessly squinting in 'Insomnia'---which are compounded by equally stressful information imparted by a mysterious young lady. Dibdin's portrayal of Mignot, one of the truffle hunters, utterly stuns with a skin-crawling realism. Dibdin expertly mixes a lethal cocktail of greed and madness to create a wonderful melange of men whose livings thrive on the bounty of the earth, one way or another. Highly recommended.

The Well-Fed Detective

Aurelio Zen, Italian detective, is pleased to accept an assignment to the Piedmont region in Italy - after all, it will keep him out of Sicily, where the mafia awaits him. He is directed to investigate the murder of a well-known vinter, or winemaker. However, the motives of the well-placed film director who has him sent to Alba are not entirely clear - he is not concerned in the least with who killed the man, rather that his son is cleared of the murder so that he can produce that year's vintage of wine.When Zen arrives, however, more mysteries await him. He begins to get menacing telephone calls in his hotel rooms, and wakes up with a mysterious gash on his forehead. Then, two more members of the formerly sleepy community turn up dead. Zen must contend with these murders, all the while getting his fill of the region's delicious wine and white truffles. The clues lead to a logical ending - but the mysterious residents of Alba might know more than the famous detective in the end.Telling any more would reveal too much of this fantastic story! The twists and turns of this mystery are great fun, and the writing is superb. All in all, very entertaining.

Which wine best compliments a Murder?

In addition to all the wonderful reasons that make Michael Dibdin a pleasure to read, "A Long Finish", adds content for the gourmet. The wines of Alba and the "white diamonds" as the local whites truffles are reverently called, are components of a mystery that exposes another of the unconventional Italian priorities that Aurelio Zen constantly confronts.The question of whether a Father was murdered by his Son is of little concern to those who pull the strings that bring Aurelio to Alba. The Son must be released, as only he can bring in the grapes that create the wine so desperately desired by a prominent Italian and many others. To devotees of wine I mean no offense, but the descriptions offered at a wine tasting often make for great humor. "Nice bouquet, great legs, fingers and thighs a bit weak, but they are buttressed by a boisterous bosom. A fruity opening, a woody polyester transition, and finally a finish that is crisp yet smooth with a suggestion of cinnamon, the barest hint of the citric, and finally dishwater".Why has a top crime investigator from Rome been brought, because "he appears to be intelligent, devious and effective, compromised by only a regrettable tendency to insist on a conventional conception of morality at certain crucial moments". So with that career making resume material in hand, "Dottore" is off to get the grapes bottled.This really is one of the best in the series, the only installment I have yet to read is "Cabal" and if it meets this performance the collection of writing is nearly perfect. The story has all the murders so unique, the guilty, the innocent, the guilty that wish they were, and all the rest of the maze that Mr. Dibdin is rightfully noted for.He also can really describe wine unlike my feeble attempt. "Barolo is the Bach of wine, strong, supremely structured, a little forbidding, but absolutely fundamental. Barbaresco is the Beethoven, taking those qualities and lifting them to heights of subjective passion and pain that have never been surpassed. And Brunello is its Brahms. The softer, fuller, romantic afterglow of so much strenuous excess".That bit of prose is offered up in the earliest of pages of this work, and Dibdin's pen does not fail or even skip throughout the tale. This story also has a dry satire, and a certain outrageousness that might be comical if placed within a less dire context.Again a great body of work that I hope will continue for many more years.

Another masterful mystery from Dibdin

Since Michael Dibdin is one of my favorite writers, I expected excellence and was not disappointed. Combines with dark humor, a twisted story and facinating background on Italy's wine industry. Dibdin's writing style is beautiful; his descriptive narrative is the essence of every writing teachers' favorite saying: "Don't tell us - SHOW us". Two warnings: as he often does, Dibdin starts the book with a purposely opaque and confusing first chapter which is clarified as the story unfolds. Also, I found the book to be far more violent than his past works. Still eagerly awaiting Zen's next assignment.