Synopses & Reviews
Aurelio Zen of Rome’s elite Criminalpol is back—but nobody’s supposed to know it. After months in the hospital healing from wounds sustained in a bomb attack on his car in Sicily, he is lying low under a false name at a beach resort on the Tuscan coast, waiting to testify in an imminent anti-Mafia trial. In the meantime, he has nothing to do but enjoy the orderly and undemanding world of a classic Italian beach holiday: spending his days in his assigned chair on a well-managed strip of pale sand, eating splendid seafood, and engaging in a mild flirtation with the attractive woman sitting under the next umbrella. Until he notices that an inordinate number of people—each of whom might have been mistaken for Zen himself—have been dropping dead around him. Now it seems to be just a matter of time before the Mafia manage to finish the job they bungled months before on a lonely Sicilian road.
But though Zen has been out of commission for months, he hasn’t lost any of his highly developed, legendary abilities to navigate treacherous waters. When he finds himself suddenly back in action, he begins to feel more alive than he has since the moments before he was almost dead, which might help keep him from being almost dead—or worse—yet again.
In And Then You Die, Michael Dibdin has given us a suspenseful, sharply funny new chapter in the always unexpected and uncommonly entertaining saga of Aurelio Zen.
Review
"One of the best things about Dibdins plotting is that even while solving the whodunit aspect, he doesnt provide a conclusive, neat ending." Robert Croan, Post-Gazette Senior Editor
Review
"Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen books are steeped in Italy's suspicion. The paranoia drips from every page, as his arch detective, a Venetian carabiniere, cleans up bizarre crimes across the country." The Guardian
Review
"Dibdins Zen novels effortlessly paint a sharper portrait of Italy than any guidebook, cookbook or academic history....And Then You Die is more meditative than the other Zen thrillers, beautifully crafted and evocative, with the perfect balance of plot and rueful digression."
The Guardian
Review
"Dibdin knows Italy from the south of Sicily to the Swiss border....Those who are familiar with things Italian will revel in his accounts and analyses, while those who are not can savour the bubbles and colours which are as inebriating as freshly uncorked Prosecco."
Times Literary Supplement
Synopsis
Aurelio Zen of Rome's elite Criminalpol is back, but nobody's supposed to know it. Following a bomb attack on his car, Zen tries to relax at a beach resort on the Tuscan coast, waiting to testify in an anti-Mafia trial. Soon he must rely on his survival skills as people start dropping dead.
About the Author
Michael Dibdin is the author of fourteen previous novels, including Dead Lagoon, Così Fan Tutti, A Long Finish, and Blood Rain. A native of England, he now lives in Seattle, Washington.