And Then You Die (Aurelio Zen Mystery) [Kindle Edition]

Michael Dibdin (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Dibdin's eighth diverting mystery to feature Aurelio Zen of Rome's elite Criminalpol unit, the hard-to-kill detective is still recuperating from his last adventure, Blood Rain (2000), which left him with a collapsed lung, broken ribs and various minor injuries. Zen has been given a new identity and use of a beachfront home in Versilia, a Tuscan coast resort town, while he awaits the beginning of a Mafia trial in America¢a trial where he's supposed to be a surprise, and key, witness. Dibdin's wry humor is perfect for Zen's diffident approach as he stirs himself to rejoin the living, even attempting a casual beach flirtation. Zen's enforced idleness chafes, then evaporates as people too near him begin to die and the new strategies developed to conceal him seem to have (almost) fatal flaws. Dislocations and relocations send Zen to a prison island and then on an abortive journey to America with an unexpected and comical detour. More than one terrible fate may be in store for Zen even if he survives the repeated attempts on his life: being forced to retire or shunted off into some harmless bureaucratic niche to molder away. This is a slight, but enjoyable morsel of a book¢easily devoured but with subtle flavorings that linger pleasurably. Zen's casual demeanor masks a shrewd mind, one that readers should enjoy seeing return to action.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

There is an obvious difference between the way we read a mystery series and the way we read a stand-alone novel. The series novel is really a new chapter in an ongoing story, and if we admire a series, we read each installment with the same sort of anticipation that Dickens' original readers brought to each new chapter of one of his serialized novels. It would never have occurred to nineteenth-century Dickens fans to evaluate each chapter on its own rather than as part of the whole, but that's exactly how we usually review mysteries. "It doesn't stand on its own," we say of the latest novel in an ongoing series, but at the same time, we prefer that mystery series evolve over time. And yet, if we insist that each novel in a series tell a completely independent story in which the hero engages us as if it were our first meeting, we inhibit growth by forcing series authors to repeat themselves.

What brought these issues to mind was my recent reading of Michael Dibdin's And Then You Die, the latest installment in his Aurelio Zen series. Zen, who takes the world-weary European cop to a new level of no-holds-barred cynicism, is one of my favorite characters in mystery fiction. For anyone who has ever contended with the absurdities of organizational life, or has been trapped in a bureaucratic quagmire from which there is no escape, Zen's daily struggles with Italian officialdom will strike a deep and resonant chord. Unlike most American anti-establishment heroes, who are really just idealists in contrarian drag, Zen is perfectly comfortable with corruption. He believes firmly that a policeman must never "think you have any hope of ever achieving anything," but at the same time, he can't resist the lure of an undiscovered fact. He is the perfect existential hero for a world run by petty bureaucrats on both sides of the law.

Given my attachment to Zen (and, yes, I'll admit it, my identification with him), you can imagine how shattered I was at the end of the previous installment, Blood Rain, when it appeared that the much-beleaguered cynic's luck had finally run out. The critic in me, however, recognized that Dibdin had picked the ideal moment to kill off his hero. Blood Rain finds Zen in Sicily, caught in a lethal crossfire of power-hungry politicians and crime bosses. As the bodies pile up, Zen is forced to recognize that his obsession with finding the truth is only making matters worse. In a final stroke of bitter irony, he utters the words, "At least we're alive" just before being blown up and, presumably, killed--the perfect exit line for a cynical detective who wasn't quite cynical enough to survive.

But he did survive, we discover in the opening pages of the even more ironically titled And Then You Die. Zen is hiding out in Tuscany, waiting to testify against the Mafia chiefs who tried to kill him in Sicily. He meets a woman and is attracted to her just as the bodies start dropping again. Is the Mob on his trail? It takes a while to sort it all out, but remarkably, the story ends on a happy note, with love in the air rather than exploding flesh.

A slight entry in the series, I find myself thinking, a small story with little real punch of its own. And, yet, I loved reading it, first because I was thrilled that Zen survived and then because, damn it, the guy deserves a nice meal and some great sex in the arms of a fascinating woman. Whoa! I'm supposed to be a reviewer here, not a soap-opera addict rooting for my TV friends. But if we read the Zen stories as parts of a serial novel rather than as succeeding stand-alones, my response becomes more legitimate. Like Dickens, Dibdin is telling a complex, multifaceted story, thematically coherent but full of emotional highs and lows. And Then You Die works superbly in the context of what went before; like a perfectly placed small course in an elaborate degustation, it accents the heartier fare that preceded it while preparing us for what is to come.

Authors manage series in different ways. Some, like John D. MacDonald and Robert B. Parker, serve the same entree over and over again. Each book stands alone just fine because each repeats the same formula in the same way. There is nothing wrong with this approach; the pleasures of formula require repetition. But MacDonald and Parker don't write serial novels in the Dickensian sense that Dibdin does. First-time readers of the Zen series shouldn't start with And Then You Die, just as first-time Dickens readers shouldn't start with the death of Little Nell. As reviewers, we need to recognize that the way an author manages a series dictates much about the kind of books he or she writes. Don't criticize Parker because Spenser is the same smart-ass he was 30 years ago, and don't criticize Dibdin because it takes more than a single book to hear the sound of one of Zen's hands clapping. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 347 KB
• Publisher: Vintage (December 18, 2007)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0012SMGLA
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,949 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Zen Takes a Breather, December 14, 2002

By 

Diana F. Von Behren "reneofc" (Kenner, LA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: And Then You Die: An Aurelio Zen Mystery (Hardcover)

Zen is back, recuperating on one of the rent-a-chair beaches between the resort towns of La Spezia and Viareggio where he awaits word that his surprise and critical anti-mafia testimony is needed in Los Angeles. Of course, as with the other Zen installmenets, murder and mayham pursue him, even as he sits idle, in mid-flirtation with Gemma, the saucy potentially new lady in his life.

Fans of Zen's will be thrilled that he has weathered the storm of the previous novel and uses this one to pull himself physically and mentally back together.

Dibdin's portrayal of the Italian resort town is pricelessly on-the-money amusing. His detour to Iceland with its Clousseau undertones would probably be a lot funnier on film. Best of all, prepare yourself for an extremely absurd end scene where Gemma, whose cynic approach to life is even more down to the nitty-gritty than his own, proves to have as amoral a mind as his.

The story barely stretches to 200 pages and is more farce than the other novels except perhaps for 'Cosi Fan Tutti'. Likewise, the mystery is comparably slim when matched against "A Long Finish" or "Dead Lagoon" Instead, the concentration focuses on Zen's reawakening into the world rather than the intrigues of a criminal mastermind. Nevertheless the whole experience comes across as bright and funny and should segue into an even more delightful new installment with the worldly designer-clad Gemma as sidekick.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And Then You Almost Die, May 21, 2002

By 

taking a rest - See all my reviews
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This review is from: And Then You Die: An Aurelio Zen Mystery (Hardcover)

The last installment in this series by Michael Dibdin gave fans of this Aurelio Zen series a reason to pause. Zen however is most certainly back, using a variety of names other than his own, as he mends from the bomb that nearly ended his run as one of the better detectives that exist only on paper. The folks that wanted Zen dead have not changed their mind, and in this surprisingly humorous book, a series of bodies fall within a few feet of Zen, victims of occupying the wrong spot on a beach or seat in a plane.

I have read all the books in the series and this newest addition is easily among the best. Zen has shared his life in a hopelessly corrupt and bureaucratic Italy, the occasional girlfriend and his colorful mother. This time we learn more about Aurelio, as he is required to travel to The United States. It is here we learn of Aurelio's classical view of where travel is appropriate; specifically, reasonable places to go are limited to those areas once in control of The Roman Empire. If the Romans never bothered with America, why should he? And to fly across an ocean is simply madness.

His destination is Los Angeles an area he becomes comfortable with seeing because he imagines it as rather a bucolic locale with a great number of Catholics. His rationale for Catholics versus Protestants has less to do with which is better and more to do with the devil you know.

As he has with the other installments of this series Michael Dibdin spins a great tale, maintains the tension and suspense, and essentially misdirects the reader through much of the book. Happily for Aurelio he finds a companion, and they become bound together by a combination of love and bizarre events. I hope this new female character appears again for she is a match for Aurelio, and adds a great new personality to the series.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A coda, June 7, 2004

By 

saliero (NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: And Then You Die (Paperback)

This is the eighth in the Aurelio Zen series.

It is really a coda - a "what happened afterwards" - to Blood Rain (my favourite in the series). I don't belive it stands alone at all, and would not suggest this as an entry point to the Zen series.

However, if you HAVE read Blood Rain, then I suggest you do read it. Despite the initially sunny and carefree setting, Zen's demons are REALLY dark, and his sanity in question, as a result of events in Blood Rain.

Fortunately, things are looking up for Zen by the end, but I have to say I was very disappointed in the plotting in the final section especially. Whereas Zen has previously used guile, subterfuge and some dubious, even 'shady' techniques for getting himself out of trouble, I felt the actions here were too crude and simplistic, and then more closely resembled farce than displaying any plot ingenuity.

This was by far the most disappointing in the series for me, but I am glad that Zen is back!