Rating: 
Summary: Cosi e la Vita in Italia
Review: "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.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the Best
Review: "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.
Rating:
Summary: Cosi e la Vita in Italia
Review: "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.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Characterization but What About the Story
Review: Blood Rain is a dark and melancholy book that, sadly, only captures a part of the essence of Sicily. However, the part it captures is perfect. In this book, Aurelio Zen is...Aurelio Zen, and he's even more human and fallible than in the six books preceding.Michael Dibdin is certainly a prose master and Blood Rain is a wonderful showcase of that prose. The writing is as smooth as silk and every word and nuance seems to be perfectly placed. While Blood Rain is a wonderful character study of Aurelio Zen, I didn't find it a very suspenseful mystery. In fact, the central mystery in the book seemed to take a definite backseat to the study of Zen. I kept asking myself, "Okay, so when is Dibdin going to write about that body found in the railroad car? And what's it got to do with anything?" I found I had to deduct one star for the thin and not very suspenseful plot, but Blood Rain is still a wonderful book that is also highly atmospheric and one that lovers of Italy will adore.
Rating:
Summary: Read the series!
Review: Dibdin is a genius. What else can you say? This is detecting as literature -- to my mind far more genuine than anything the New York literati drool over. Otherwise, 1) I pray the series continues. 2) Why can't somebody do the same for an American police procedural, or Federal procedural, since, after all, the psychology of government in the U.S. is not so different from Italy? Read and rejoice!
Rating:
Summary: Zen lives....
Review: Didbin writes in a very dreamily descriptive way, a style uncommon to most detective novels. After reading this book, I want to hop on a plane for Sicily (Mafia apprehensions and all), just to see first hand what the author writes about. The pace is tense, and, as should be the case with all good novels, is impossible to put down until the very end. The end, by the way, is the most dramatic aspect. The twist ending is not of the usual far fetched detective fare, where you find out so and so is still alive, or the best friend is the real killer, etc.. but of eerie realism-- (and reading through some of the other reviews, I don't think I'm spoiling this for anyone) the hero of six previous novels, Detective Aurelio Zen, is killed. The somewhat somber ending in no part takes away, (if anything it enhances) the power and valueness of the story. Brilliant read.
Rating:
Summary: Not Your Usual Crime Fiction
Review: Didbin writes in a very dreamily descriptive way, a style uncommon to most detective novels. After reading this book, I want to hop on a plane for Sicily (Mafia apprehensions and all), just to see first hand what the author writes about. The pace is tense, and, as should be the case with all good novels, is impossible to put down until the very end. The end, by the way, is the most dramatic aspect. The twist ending is not of the usual far fetched detective fare, where you find out so and so is still alive, or the best friend is the real killer, etc.. but of eerie realism-- (and reading through some of the other reviews, I don't think I'm spoiling this for anyone) the hero of six previous novels, Detective Aurelio Zen, is killed. The somewhat somber ending in no part takes away, (if anything it enhances) the power and valueness of the story. Brilliant read.
Rating:
Summary: Bleak, powerful and affecting
Review: Eschewing the humor of his last few outings for the darker cynicism of earlier books, Michael Dibdin's latest politically driven Aurelio Zen mystery finds the Italian police detective exiled to Sicily, assigned as liaison between Rome and the independent Mafia investigation team - a spy, in other words. His adopted daughter, Carla, has also been assigned to Catania to install a new computer system for the Mafia investigators. Haltingly forging a relationship with Carla, Zen is drawn into a case involving a decomposed body found in a sealed railroad car, which may or may not be the scion of a once-powerful Mafia family, while Carla discovers some intriguing anomalies in the new computer system and strikes up a relationship with a judge surrounded by bodyguards. Zen, trying as always to duck the notice of the political powers, attempts to protect Carla and keep both of them out of the loop. To no avail. Dibden's ("Vendetta," "A Long Finish") atmospheric writing, enigmatic characters and a plot filled with ghastly surprises and murky, dangerous undercurrents make this an affecting, powerful novel.
Rating:
Summary: Don't forget the authentic background detail
Review: Great read.Don't internationalize it too much. For example, Corinna Nunziatella's mother came from some, apparently obscure place called Manchester. Yet, she joked to Carla Arduini that the only time her mother had been abroad was to the Isle of Man. Michael Dibdin sometimes forgets which audience he is addressing -you'd have to be British to appreciate the Isle of Man joke but the reference to Manchester probably appeals to an American audience. I found B. Jones Diary (the film) confused at times. The language, clothes and setting were aimed at the American market at times. Nevertheless,Mr Dibdin's books are wonderful. You can even forgive him for the earth tremor which allows Zen to appear in the May new release. Don't kill him off yet - who knows, Zen could end up in an old people's home eventually and solving mysteries such as who's hogging the Umberto Echo.
Rating:
Summary: Let Zen Live!
Review: I am ready to sacrifice many things in this life. But I am not prepared to accept Michael Dibden's dispatching Aurelio Zen to the afterlife at the end of BLOOD RAIN. As much as I love Freeling, Leon, Simenon, or even Le Carre, I am not prepared to live without another Zen. I can live with Holmes going over the falls with Morriarity, or Clarice going off to Jamaica with Dr. Lecter, but I can't live without another Zen novel. My copies get worn from rereading. Please, Mr. Dibden, tell us it ain't so.
Dibden writes as evocatively about Italy as Barzini or Leon Battista Alberti or.... He and Zen should go forward. Avanti! Sempre!
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