My Weekly Book

Dead Lagoon by Michael Dibdin

This is the fourth in the series of romans policiers by the author Michael Dibdin featuring the dysfunctional Italian detective Aurelio Zen. And it’s a big moment for Zen’s fans as he finally returns to his native city of Venice. Attempts to live in the past never go well, do they? So it’s fair to assume Dibdin does not have plans to give his hero an easy ride. Following the not-very-easy ride he got towards the end of Cabal.

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For those that enjoy the impressionistic, dreamlike and intensely sensuous moments that are a fundamental quality of Dibdin’s writing this novel will come as a treat. It’s got a well-woven and multilayered plot and enough suspense to keep you turning the pages as investigations of various crimes, of varying degrees of seriousness are tied in with a little personal project that Zen just happens to have on the go and his experiences in meeting old friends, neighbours and acquaintances. It has its moments of humour too, as you would expect. As a firm fan of these books already I found nothing here to disappoint and the ending includes a kicker which I didn’t see coming and which represents a really major piece of character development. I am now looking forward to read Cosi Fan Tutte partly because I’m enjoying the series greatly but also to see how on earth the author can move his hero on from the place he has got him into.

Watch this space.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 2nd, 2006 at 8:01 pm and is filed under 2006 reading challenge, Reads I recommend. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.