Synopses & Reviews
From the award-winning author of
Ratking and Dead Lagoon comes a delicious new Aurelio Zen mystery in which wine and truffles figure as prominently as greed and vengence.
When the son of a Piedmontese wine-making family is jailed for killing his father, Aurelio Zen is ordered to secure his release. The reason: A certain well-connected wine connoisseur wants to make sure that this year's vintage goes to harvest.
In the hill town of Alba, Zen finds himself in the midst of a traditional culture in which family and soil are inextricablt linked, bombarded with gossip, and stalked by a mysterious telephone caller with tantalizing clues to his past. He also discovers that certain meals may really be to die for. A Long Finish is Michael Dibdin at his most elegant and surprising.
Review
"Dibdin belongs to that hierarchy of innovative stylists who make it a point of honor never to repeat a single trick." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Dibdin has an ear for prose that is rare in the crime genre....[a] soaring imagination." Washington Times
Review
"[Dibdin's] work deserves comparison with such...giants as Raymond Chandler." Oregonian
About the Author
Michael Dibdin was born in England and moved extensively around the British Isles until his parents reluctantly agreed to his ultimatum, aged seven, that he for one intended to stay put in Northern Ireland, where they were then living. He later spent five years in Canada, working as a painting contractor, and another five in Perugia, Italy, where he taught English at the local university. In 1995 he officially achieved the status which has defined his entire life, that of Resident Alien, and now lives with his wife, the writer Kathrine Beck, and a varying selection of their five children in two turn-of-the-century houses in Seattle, Washington. Dibdin has written thirteen novels, eight of them in the popular Aurelio Zen series, including Ratking, which won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger, and Cabal, which was awarded the French Grand Prix du Roman Policier. His work has been translated into eighteen languages.