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A review by darwin8u
Cabal by Michael Dibdin
3.0
"Nothing had changed. Nothing ever would. In sheer frustration he fired his pistol again and again, blasting away as though to punch new stars in the sky."
-- Michael Dibdin, Cabal
Dibdin writes tight little Italian mysteries that are blessed with one huge plus -- Aurelio Zen. He seems to be a direct descendent of both Father Brown and Inspector Montalbano (or Philip Marlowe).
Zen is an Italian anti-hero detective. A skilled and savvy investigator with a morality that seems at times to be just a bit fluid. He would prefer to be left alone but is often thrust into cases that require him to walk the delicate wire between the treachery of Italian bureaucracy and the mendacity of the Italian criminals and conspiracies he is tasked with solving (the detective trying to solve crimes while also dealing with an inept bureaucracy is also found and fascinatingly explore by [a:James Church|9548|James Church|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] in his North Korean "Inspector O" novels).
Zen is a kind and likable weasel, a jaded fox, a middle-aged divorcee living with his mother. He is easy to identify and feel sympathetic with. Quite often he kind of deserves our sympathy.
This just isn't the strongest book I've read so far in the series (I've now read the first four). It ends too quick, and seems to fall too hard at both ends. There are moments of genius and movements of boredom, yet like Zen, the reader seems left at the end with very little payoff for all his/her efforts.
-- Michael Dibdin, Cabal
Dibdin writes tight little Italian mysteries that are blessed with one huge plus -- Aurelio Zen. He seems to be a direct descendent of both Father Brown and Inspector Montalbano (or Philip Marlowe).
Zen is an Italian anti-hero detective. A skilled and savvy investigator with a morality that seems at times to be just a bit fluid. He would prefer to be left alone but is often thrust into cases that require him to walk the delicate wire between the treachery of Italian bureaucracy and the mendacity of the Italian criminals and conspiracies he is tasked with solving (the detective trying to solve crimes while also dealing with an inept bureaucracy is also found and fascinatingly explore by [a:James Church|9548|James Church|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] in his North Korean "Inspector O" novels).
Zen is a kind and likable weasel, a jaded fox, a middle-aged divorcee living with his mother. He is easy to identify and feel sympathetic with. Quite often he kind of deserves our sympathy.
This just isn't the strongest book I've read so far in the series (I've now read the first four). It ends too quick, and seems to fall too hard at both ends. There are moments of genius and movements of boredom, yet like Zen, the reader seems left at the end with very little payoff for all his/her efforts.