Blood Rain: An Aurelio Zen Mystery

by Michael Dibdin

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375708308
• ISBN13: 9780375708305
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Cosi e la Vita in Italia

"Blood Rain" is the seventh in Michael Dibdin's incredibly literate Aurelio Zen series (following "Ratking", "Cabal", "Vendetta", "Dead Lagoon", "Cosi Fan Tutti" and "A Long Finish"). Dibdin, an Englishman transplanted to Seattle, has obviously lived in Italy (which makes him an Anglo-Seatitalian, I suppose). Through the genre of detective novels, he is giving us a virtual travelogue of the "spirit" of Italy. In Venice ("Dead Lagoon"), it was a novel of ghosts and of psyches haunted by history. In Naples ("Cosi Fan Tutti"), it was opera buffa. In Piedmont ("A Long Finish"), it was a novel of custom and tradition. "Cabal" split between the spiritual (the Vatican) and the secular (Milan). Now "Blood Rain" takes us to Sicily where Zen encounters conundrums, elaborate and secretive games played out to the death, with no possible solution save the irony of time and circumstance. Here, Dibdin juxtapositions the death of Zen's mother, whom Zen loves, with the death of his daughter, whom he barely knows but is blood, with the death of a stranger, whom he must investigate in the name of justice. Zen tries to make sense of these by threading them into his investigation, but in the end they are simply too cloaked in secrets, be they political, Mafia or metaphysical. Through all of these novels, Aurelio Zen is the quintessential Italiano, going with the flow, nonchalant and unchagrined, solving mystery after mystery with seemingly no effort at all. Each one of these novels is an invitation to sip a Campari by a fountain on some piazza in some village or town and to watch the comings and goings of those utterly fascinating Italians. I have traveled there many times, and Dibdin transports me back with each new novel. This is a series well worth hopping aboard.

The Very Best

Mr. Dibdin and his Aurelio Zen books are the finest suspense fiction around. These are rare books. You read very word. It is the same with this latest one. May they continue.

Best of the Best

"Blood Rain" is crime fiction raised to the level of fine art by a brilliant British author whose work must be making Wilkie Collins and A. Conan Doyle smile in their graves. "Blood Rain" is richly textured, lyrical, poetic, quirky, scary as hell and as redolent of Dibdin's beloved Italy as though each page had been sprayed with a fine mist of Gocce di Tartufo Bianco. What a shame that such powerful work must be marketed as genre fiction. Nothing on the bestseller lists exceeds this fine book in mystery, finesse and narrative power. Five stars are not enough.

Another Winner

I discovered Michael Dibdin only recently and have eagerly devoured all his books. I especially like the Aurelio Zens. These books are so much more than mysteries--they're about politics, culture, human nature, and that student of same, Zen himself. This latest does not disappoint. From Rome, to Venice, to Naples, Zen has worried about being sent to Sicily. Once he gets there, his worst fears are confirmed. Zen tries to stay out of the way, but fate has other things in mind for him.The mood and tone in Blood Rain is intense, personal and sad. Some of the scenes are distinctly dreamlike, a quality that persists right to the end.An excellent read.