Regular marked price: $13.00Discount Price: $10.40
Cost Savings: $2.60 (20%)Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780375708305
ISBN number: 0375708308
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: May 08, 2001
Publishing house: Vintage
Release Date: May 08, 2001
Sale Popularity Level: 245651
Studio: Vintage
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Tough, philosophical, and world-weary detective Aurelio Zen returns in Michael Dibdin's latest foray into the maze of Italian criminal and political entanglements.
This time Zen finds himself with an assignment he'd rather have avoided. After years of, shall we say, flirting with the enemy, he finds himself in the heart of hostile territory: Sicily, the ancient, beautiful island where blood has been known to flow like wine, if not water, and the distinction between the police and the criminals is a fine one. And when Zen's adopted daughter, Carla, comes across some information that certain people wish to remain secret and develops a friendship with a magistrate on the Mafia's most wanted list, the plot develops into one of Dibdin's most enthralling inventions.
Amazon.com Review:
Penzler Pick, May 2000: Dibdin's six Aurelio Zen novels (beginning with Ratking, which won the 1988 Golden Dagger Award) are as vividly Italian as if this English writer had never strayed far from the Via Veneto, despite the fact that he has, in fact, been expatriated for several years now to the Pacific Northwest. His hero, a battle-weary but still morally engaged Roman police investigator, is one of the more elegantly vulnerable characters in the genre, a figure who resembles Nicolas Freeling's Inspector Van der Valk in his ability to bring triumph to situations and yet never have them seem like victories. Moreover, like Van der Valk, Zen's greatest talent seems to be for making new enemies among his colleagues.
In Blood Rain, Zen has been exiled to Sicily under the guise of acting as a sort of watchdog, observing a recently reestablished anti-Mafia taskforce. By the nature of the locale--Sicily makes its own rules--the fact that the work of this commission will inevitably be compromised seems clear. But where the cracks in the system will reveal themselves is harder to figure out until, of course, it's too late. Distracted by his dying mother back in Rome and by the island's perverse feuds and even stranger loyalties, and paying not quite enough attention to the professional travails of his beautiful adopted daughter, Carla, a computer specialist, Zen travels his usual idiosyncratic route to a crime's resolution. As always, he is most intrigued by the ambiguities of the situation--and is doomed to be the sacrificial scapegoat.
Dibdin seems to be incapable of writing a bad book, and the Zen novels are his best work. Blood Rain causes the reader to gasp frequently in genuine surprise, as well as in admiration for the way Dibdin accomplishes his effects. The intensity of these sensations is something to be grateful for, since most books these days, even with their ability to shock, make us feel so little. --Otto Penzler
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
"Blood Rain" is a well crafted and beautifully written mystery, as far off the well-beaten path of police thrillers as its rugged and sinister Sicily setting. Back for another run at the bad guys is Michael Dibdin's embattled hero, detective Aurelio Zen. Zen finds himself exiled in Sicily's coastal city of Catania, ostensibly as a liaison to an elite investigative unit bent on crushing the backbone of the legendary Sicilian mafia. Dibdin wastes no time, starting off with a decaying corpse, allegedly the son of one of the island's mob bosses, found in an abandoned railway car. The deliciously complex plot is thickened with Carla Arduini, who shows up unexpectedly in Zen's life as his forgotten daughter, the product of a long-ago lover. While Carla flirts with a relationship promising more intimacy than friendship with a female judge on the mafia's hit list, Zen, out of his element, stumbles around inconsistencies and hints of corruption crossing lines of authority and trust.
While at times obscure and hard to follow, Dibdin's writing is special - an elegant prose often incongruous with the crime, treachery, and brutality which roll from the pages matter-of-factly - writing that builds a tension as palpable as Aetna's smoldering malevolence is ever present in Sicily's daily affairs. Dibdin's mafia is gritty and deadly serious; Puzo's Godfather reads more like an episode of "The Soprano's" by comparison. Dibdin keeps our hero lurching at an intentionally uneven, and at times incomprehensible pace, which despite the slow spots kept me glued to the pages right up to the unexpected, and jarring, if somewhat ambiguous, climax.
In short, an intelligent and cleverly conceived novel that while not for everyone was a refreshing detour from standard contemporary fiction. Fortunately, Michael Dibdin is a prolific writer - I'm looking forward to more of him and the enigmatic Aurelio Zen.
Rated by buyers 
-
A train leaves Palermo on 23 July for a long slow trip along the single-track line through the interior of Sicily and then disappears from official view for the best part of a week until 29 July.
One wagon is found in a station called Passo Martino, south of Catania, and when people report to the police that a dreadful smell emanates from the wagon, Carmen Consuela is sent to investigate the matter. The results of the examination show that a corpse has been rotting inside the wagon for at least a week. Apparently the victim was riding inside the wagon when the door closed thus locking the intruder inside. In the sealed metal freight wagon standing for days at a time on isolated sidings in the glare of the sun, a hypothetical thermometer might well have shown temperatures in the mid-forties.
In the absence of any information it would be almost impossible to identify the victim except for a mysterious scribble in the contents box on the wagon's way bill which is eventually deciphered as being not limoni - lemons - but Liminia. Could this refer to the Liminia family in Catania who run one of the principal Mafia clans in that city and in Torino? Is the victim the eldest son and presumptive heir who has been rumoured to be missing for over a week?
Set against the backdrop of the 3000-year-old city of Catania and in the shadow of the smouldering volcano of Etna, Mr Dibdin's book reveals Aurelio Zen in one of his toughest and most dangerous case.
Rated by buyers 
-
I have read the books in order and liked them all. However this one I did not like. I couldn't find enough plot. Too much filler with Sicely etc. I skimmed much of the book.
Rated by buyers 
-
Well. I'll confess. I missed Michael Dibdin. This is why reading is so much fun. You can have your starting lineup, say Parker, George, Ambrose, Bevor, Pelecanos, and then you literally stumble onto a Child, a Lethem, and a Dibdin.
I felt I was reading a travelogue of a place I had never been to and simultaneously meeting this quiet, unassuming detective, Aurelio Zen (what a great name), all too or very human, with all the frailties of a real human even down to the cigarettes, all along and on a canvas of murder most foul.
I can't wait for the rest. But this time, I'm going to read them from the beginning. Too confusing the other way. 5 stars. Larry Scantlebury
Rated by buyers -
I tried Michael Dibdin years ago and didn't like writing or his Aurelio Zen character one little bit. What could I have been thinking? I must have been going through a fairly impatient period in life ... that might explain it. Because these small books are not to be read lightly. They are very literary and beautifully plotted and Aurelio Zen is one of the most unique characters you'll find in the genre. Not only does Dibdin give us a horrific look into local Sicilian politics (and very believably so), but he gives us a clear-eyed view of Italian culture as a whole and how it contributes to the crimes at hand. And yet it is a loving, very eloquent portrayal. And the murders are almost secondary to the trip, at least until the very end. Note the inclusion of computers and networks as the vehicles for danger and intrigue. This has a little of the flavor of Mankell's "Firewall". You'll want to read "Blood Rain" as a set piece with "And Then You Die".
Find other books like this one:
