Cosi Fan Tutti : An Aurelio Zen Mystery

Rating:
Summary: I can't believe this got good reviews.
Review: Maybe it's just Dibdin I hate. His style is arch and becomes boring after a few chapters, there is no attempt at realism, and his detective is unintelligent and unlikable. I had never read any Dibdin before, but the premise sounded like fun. It wasn't. The plot is stupid and simplistic and Dibdin doesn't prepare the ground for the double and triple revelations that would have made it worthwhile. If you haven't read Dibdin before and aren't a fan, don't waste your time and money

Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful crime novel with style!
Review: Michael Dibdin has created a wonderfully clever, witty and suspenseful crime novel. He weaves the characters together seamlessly amidst the perplexing chaos and rhythm of Naples. Anyone looking for a stylish novel with deft touches of humor need look no further.

Rating:
Summary: Aurelio Zen is on a par with the best mystery characters
Review: Michael Dibdin's character Aurelio Zen is complex, richly drawn and utterly sympathetic. In each Zen mystery the reader gets both a tour of a specific part of Italy, and a dose of office politics not to be believed. And this is in addition to a wonderful crime story. There is never a clear line between good and evil, and the outcomes are never simple. Readers who like Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson, Robert Van Gulick and Elmore Leonard should love Michael Dibdin.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Mystery fans will be disappointed. Dibdin writes in an artsy rather than tensely suspenseful style, yielding self-consciously amusing ironies and operatic coincidences. For example, he blatantly repeats one gory scene verbatim. The frivolous confections and literary stylings quite canceled the mysteries for me. Throughout the author is clearly "playing with" his characters (and you) in three parallel, increasingly coincident, story lines. There is some amusing word play, but if you want that then Mozart's operatic version sounds better. Dibdin's characters are more interesting than the plot, but not much. I imagine committed PC people will really hate the stereotypes, and the impolitic disparagement of Naples (a stand-in for humanity). The conclusion is too much of a rush (but with wonderful inversions of character). This is quite an amusing book, but not the involving mystery I expected.

Rating:
Summary: Infused with a high form of wit and Mozartean musicality
Review: Rather different than Dibdin's previous (and outstanding) Zen mysteries, Cosi is the closest thing to Mozartean opera buffa you can find in book form. Dibdin captures the spirit of the great Italian comic opera tradition so fully that you can hardly avoid hearing your own subliminal Mozart soundtrack. Arch yes, but fully carried off with a consistent and glittering wit. The sense of ennui and indigenous corruption that pervades prior Zen adventures still runs through the work. But something very nice must have happened in Dibdin's life to prompt the sense of joy and wonder that is here added to mystery. A work of true wit and homage to (as we would expect) an important Italian tradition---a more positive aspect of Italian culture than Zen's usual metier.

Rating:
Summary: What you always expected about Italy's cops, with a twist
Review: Reading Aurelio Zen out of sequence is as sensible as the mystery in this book. And figuring out which of the several plot lines represents the mystery is half the fun. Picaresque is the only description for Zen. And the other characters! You get to meet every Italian you've ever known, with a couple of true-to-life foreigners thrown in. Truly delightful if you have a sense of humor and a taste for the absurd. A disaster if you like a lot of senseless violence and macho language in your mysteries. Aurelio Zen has a new fan in me.

Rating:
Summary: A true image of Naples
Review: This is the best of the Aurelio Zen mysteries. Zen is not your normal literary detective. He frequently has no more idea what is going on than the reader, and that is his charm. In Cosi Fan Tutti, Dibdin manages to write an excellent mystery, be funny and describe the normally hidden side of Naples all in one. This is a wonderful book.

Rating:
Summary: If you're an opera fan who's a parody fan who likes mystery
Review: Zen's debacle in Venice ("Dead Lagoon") places him in bit of a pickle: he's succeeded in alienating a powerful political party that now controls the Ministry of the Interior. Unwilling to wait calmly for the bottom to fall out, Zen hides himself in Naples as head of the harbor police. What follows entertains well; as Zen is well adapted to the under-the-table corruptness of Italy's bureaucracy, the openly criminal aspects of Naples imbues him with a relieved wrinkle-free lightness. Dibdin's portrayal of Naples infects the reader with a vibrancy that could only be qualified as operatic for indeed, he uses Mozart's opera as an outline for this foray replete with colorful, passionate characters: thieves, gangsters, prostitues, lovers, Zen's formidable mother and present/ex-girlfriends. The tone shines with a freshness that is missing from the first four works of the series, leading me to recommend that the books be read in sequence so that this one is fully appreciated.

Rating:
Summary: Zen's Aria: Fun, Fresh and Full of Life's Zest
Review: Zen's debacle in Venice ("Dead Lagoon") places him in bit of a pickle: he's succeeded in alienating a powerful political party that now controls the Ministry of the Interior. Unwilling to wait calmly for the bottom to fall out, Zen hides himself in Naples as head of the harbor police. What follows entertains well; as Zen is well adapted to the under-the-table corruptness of Italy's bureaucracy, the openly criminal aspects of Naples imbues him with a relieved wrinkle-free lightness. Dibdin's portrayal of Naples infects the reader with a vibrancy that could only be qualified as operatic for indeed, he uses Mozart's opera as an outline for this foray replete with colorful, passionate characters: thieves, gangsters, prostitues, lovers, Zen's formidable mother and present/ex-girlfriends. The tone shines with a freshness that is missing from the first four works of the series, leading me to recommend that the books be read in sequence so that this one is fully appreciated.