| A Long Finish: An Aurelio Zen Mystery | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Dibdin
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy Used: $0.60
You Save: $27.35 (98%)
Used (11) from $0.60
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 3193761
Format: Large Print
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Largeprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 408
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.9
ISBN: 0786217626
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780786217625
ASIN: 0786217626
Publication Date: April 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: GOOD CONDITION COVERS HAVE SOME WEAR, NO WRITINGS. EX-LIBRARY. (STOCK#: NOENN-GF1)
|
| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 11 | | NEXT » |
 All Dibdin's Zen books are great! September 10, 2008
Michael Dibdin, who unfortunately died last year, has written a series of Aurelio Zen mysteries, all of which are excellent. Well-written, great main character, interesting plots and supporting players. "A Long Finish" is a great suspense story involving parallel pursuits. Zen in pursuing a killer, and a killer is pursuing Zen. To complicate it, a jealous husband has hired an inept detective to follow Zen, too. Throughout Zen fantasizes about an intriguing female detective who has caught his romantic/sexual attention and worries about his apparently senile mother. Zen is a deep character who keeps us interested in everything he does and thinks.
 The continuing trials of Aurelio Zen February 22, 2007
Michael Dibdin has written several Aurelio Zen mysteries, and this one is yet another encounter with strange situations and even stranger characters. An Italian police detective, Zen is generally at odds with his superiors and suffering some kind of punishment for it, but he always gets the job done.
In this offering, there's an especially nasty murder of a renowned vintner in the Piedmont area of Italy, and Zen accepts a private contract to solve it. The reasons behind that are bizarre enough, but the investigation takes several interesting turns, including two more murders. Everyone else is convinced that the crimes were committed by the same person, but there doesn't seem to be a motive that connects them.
When Aurelio arrives in the village of Alba, he's not at his best by any means. Adding to the misery of his personal life, he's being stalked by someone and appears to have been attacked in his sleep. Everyone he interviews about the initial murder tells him a great deal about everything but the murder, and it becomes clear that the villagers know who did it, but aren't going to say.
Dibdin is fun to read, and it's interesting to see Italy de-romanticized. The Italian beauty is there, but the point of view in this book is that of working class people who make their living from the wine and truffles. And of course, of Zen, who will soon be doomed to a "promotion" that takes him to Sicily. Sounds like there's another Zen novel on the way.
the comic detective June 25, 2006
This was my first encounter with Aurelio Zen. I'm not sure if this is comic writing with a mystery touch, or a crime mystery with a large dose of humour. Either way, the combination works very well. There is one laugh-out-loud scene where Zen is briefing his colleagues and no one has the slghtest idea what he is banging on about. If you enjoy detective novels but need a break from world-weary noir types or omnicompetent pathologists/historians/ computer geeks, then Zen will provide a refreshing change. Like the film Sideways, this is a work that wine fans will get more out of.
Dottor Aurelio Zen entangled in a web of deceit among the winemakers of the Piedmont! November 11, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In 1944 Beppe Gallizio, aged 15, was stationed on the road from Alba to Acqui in the Piedmont with a simple-minded soldier called Angelin to watch for any passing fascisti. Just before dying in an ambush, Angelin dug up a truffle in a nearby field.
After the war, Beppe returned to the place and his secret hoard of white truffles allowed him to make a good living until Aldo Vincenzo decided to put up a barbed wire around his property to protect his vineyard since his wine was slowly acquiring a reputation.
Then the prices for la trifola went through the roof and the truffle became to be known as the "white diamond" so Beppe had to take extra precaution in order that his annual harvesting remained secret. But one night a man saw Beppe in the dark and his dog Anna barked at him...
When Dottor Aurelio Zen is summoned to the Palazzo Torozzo, house of a famous director called "Giulio", Aldo Vincenzo is dead and his son Manlio is in prison, accused of having murdered his father. Since Giulio is an eager wine collector and this year's harvest at the Vincenzo estate is likely to be one of the greatest of the century, Giulio has arranged with the Ministry of the Interior for Zen to be sent to the gloomy city of Alba in order to release Manlio Vincenzo from prison in time to make the wine this year! And that is going to be far less easy than Zen had anticipated...
Another sympathetic glance at Italy by Michael Dibdin, this time allowing the reader to cast a glance at the secrets of winemaking.
I'll drink to it! June 8, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A glass of nice Cabernet Merlot would go well with this, the sixth Aurelio Zen novel, set in a wine-growing region of Piedmont in northern Italy. Dibdin creates interesting characters. Zan's psychology is getting darker and more brooding as his relationships with others become more brittle. As with all the Zen series, I recommend reading them in order. Previous cases are discussed, and the supporting cast of characters, as well as Zen, change and develop.
|
|
|
