Customer Reviews

And Then You Die: An Aurelio Zen Mystery

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

After we've been literally to hell and back with Aurelio Zen in "Blood Rain", this book is positively languid by comparison. But looks can be deceiving. Zen is supposed to be spending time healing anonymously after the last book, but someone is killing people all around him, possibly in tragic cases of mistaken identity. As with "Blood Rain", this book is a loving look at Italy with unsentimental descriptions of the corruption and political problems that baffle other Westerners while Italians take them for granted. It isn't as good as "Blood Rain" but deserves to be read with it as a set piece.

At last Aurelio is back, and better than ever! Aurelio Zen is one of my favorite characters and I heartily recommend ANY books in Michael Dibdin's series about this wonderful Italian "just a common policeman." Locales and backgrounds, as the stories move him around the country, are so richly drawn it's like traveling in Italy while having a great adventure. Plots are never simply black & white, but many layered, and the characters are complex. The previous entry (Blood Rain)caused tremendous consternation among my friends who are also fans: "How could Michael Dibdin do it; do you think he really killed off Aurelio? Trust yourself to Mr. Dibdin's writing skill and climb aboard for great ride. We were so excited when the new book came out we didn't even plan to share copies; we each went out and bought our own--it was worth it. We hope Michael Dibdin is well-started on the next one.

I am an ardent fan of Michael Dibdin and our good friend, Aurelio Zen, and incredibly excited to find another book in the series. Zen lives!

Having said that, I guess I just don't feel this one was quite up to standard (and a very high standard that is). In this book, Zen's adventures seem tongue in cheek. Diverted to Iceland? Criminalpol taken over by a guru of new management practices? Zen being put out to the pasture of "working from home"?

Although the book has elements of farce, now that we know Zen is alive, well and in love again, Dibdin is duty bound to keep 'em coming!

i have read all the previous Aurelio Zen novels and found them well written with interesting plots that always contained at least a few clever twists. I was looking forward to this latest in the series, but I regret to say that I found it a great disappointment. There is a world of difference between a plot with twists and the wholesale substitution of improbable coincidences and bizarre characters for a plot. In the course of reading the book, I was tempted to put it down for good a half dozen times, but persevered because of my high opinion of the earlier books. I kept on hoping that somehow Dibdin would redeem himself, but the absurd coincidences and characters persisted until the end. It will be quite a while before I read another Dibdin novel.

Fans will be pleased to know that Italian detective Aurelio Zen survived the bombing that ended the last book in the series, "Blood Rain," though his life is still at risk as he waits, incognito, to testify at an American Mafia trial. Forced to enjoy a traditional Italian beach holiday, Zen occupies the same beach chair on the same strip of sand each day, conducting a mild flirtation with his beach neighbor, until the people around him - those who take his beach chair, for instance, begin to die.

Dibdin's trademark humor and dark wit is in good form as Zen parries a flirtation and worries about traveling to America, a place the Roman Empire never occupied (so why would anyone else want to?), endures an exile on a prison island and a bizarre side trip to Iceland, "the end of the earth." This book winds up an ongoing plot line in an ingenious, over-the-top twist that sets the scene for the next chapter in Zen's eventful life.

After reading two previous books in the Arelio Zen series I was looking forward to bringing this one along on vacation. What a large disappointment this was. The author seems to just cruising along, there is no character development, and no real mystery, and no compelling reason to read it. The book is extremely short - less than 200 pages. Has the author given up, or does he really intend the series to continue? For a mystery series which just seems to get better with each book, read the Ancient Roman series by Steven Saylor.

I read it and it was not great actually. Actually it was a long way from the ...unputdownable.... on its cover blurb.

The hero is a Italian Detective Aurelio Zen who is hiding from the mafia who want to kill him. People about him start to die and the plot thickens.

Anyway I waited and waited for the revelation but it didn't come. What happened was 174 pages of tripe. I waited for the humour, the paranoia that drips from each page but it never happened.

This is one of a series, about number seven I believe and perhaps if I had been along from the beginning I might have got this but I don't think so.

The feeling I got was that it was written to fulfill a contractual obligation because otherwise it is a waste of trees.

If I read another one of this series it will be because it was a gift.