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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780307275882
ISBN number: 0307275884
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 240
Printing Date: September 19, 2006
Publishing house: Vintage
Release Date: September 19, 2006
Sale Popularity Level: 130250
Studio: Vintage
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Product Description:
In the latest installment in his critically acclaimed Italian mystery series, Michael Didbin sends Aurelio Zen to Italy’s culinary capital, Bologna, where he discovers that some cases are not quite what they appear to be.
When the corpse of the shady Bologna industrialist who owns the local football team is found both shot and stabbed with a Parmesan knife, Aurelio Zen is summoned to oversee the investigation. Anxious for a break from his girlfriend, who attributes Zen’s slow recovery from routine surgery to hypochondria, he is only too happy to take on what very first appears to be an undemanding assignment. The case quickly spins out of control, becoming entangled with the fates of a student semiotics, a mysterious immigrant claiming to be royalty, and Bologna’s most incompetent private detective. Meanwhile a prominent postmodern academic accuses Italy’s leading celebrity chef of being a fraud. Back to Bologna is dazzlingly plotted and delivers both comic and serious insights into the realities of today’s Italy.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I previously read RATKING, DEAD LAGOON, A LONG FINISH, and END GAMES by Dibdin, and can say I rate each at least 4 stars -- good reading. But it took me until half-way through BACK TO BOLOGNA and constant referral to previous chapters to figure out what seemed to be happening. I like a complex, imperfect character in a complex story. But I was sorely disappointed by BOLOGNA. Zen is absurdly hypochondriac in recovering from a prior injury, and, unlike the other books mentioned, his intelligence and insight have nothing to do with resolution of this smoking-gun mystery. He merely observes its accidental resolution. And, as interesting as the thought might appear in the abstract, the concept of seemingly un-related but ultimately intersecting stories unfortunately falls flat in this book. I recommended this book to my bookclub before reading it: big mistake!!
Rated by buyers -
Many characters, many plots but not a single thread to the core Zen character -career, friends or couple- is in the book, suddenly just finishes and then bye- bye, you need to guess the rest. Disappointing really.
Rated by buyers -
For anyone who enjoyed Michael Dibdin's earlier Aurelio Zen mysteries, this one is a major disappointment. The edifice is constructed with unidimmensional bricks and thin mortar. The result is profoundly uninteresting. I forced myself to continue even when, about a third of the way through, I found myself asking, "What is the bloody point?" My guess is, there isn't one. I'm not surprised to see that Dibdin's latest book is "The Last Aurelio Zen Mystery." There is nothing in the least bit mysterious about this book and Zen---always an intriguing character---has finally morphed into a listless shadow of his former self. And even he clearly doesn't care what happens. Obviously Dibdin doesn't, either. I don't know if Dibdin's written out, or now fancies himself an oh so "serious" wordsmith, but I will not wait to latch onto a copy of the succeeding Zen mysteris. This one finished off what had been a pleasurable experience and left a sour taste. Che un peccato!
Rated by buyers -
This was not my favorite Aurelio Zen. The characters were so broadly drawn - including Zen - that I could hardly keep straight who was who. In the end it all got wrapped up, but it took a long time getting there.
Rated by buyers 
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Even if you actually read and (even less likely) loved "Name of the Rose," you'll still enjoy Dibdin's farcical sendup of Umberto Eco in the latest adventure of Vice Questore Aurelio Zen, whose love life is in the dumpster as usual. The operatic plot--the collision of a egotistical television cooking star, a soccer team, an academician of semiotics, a romantic young couple direct from "The Prisoner of Zenda," and a witless private investigator in love with the American PIs of the 40s, with the more than usually self-destructive Zen and his soon-to-be former girl friend--is breathtaking. No one captures the dark side of Italy with more gusto and humour than Michael Dibdin.
Mr. Dibdin's recent passing is a real sorrow to those who love his writing--I'm hoping that there might be a novel or two more yet to come.
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