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Amazon.co.uk Review
Dibdin's diffidently honest Italian policeman Aurelio Zen has got the posting he always dreaded--he has been sent to Sicily, home of the Mafia, in a nondescript liaison job. The woman who might be his daughter is there too, fixing police computers and worried that someone has a backdoor into data; she is enjoying a flirtation with a woman magistrate whose pursuit of the Mafia is based on quite personal agendas. Someone died nastily of heatstroke and starvation in a railway van on a siding--the Limoni family deny, as local Mafia chieftains anxious to retain prestige would, that it was their missing son; and someone will end up paying in blood for this murder that never happened. Dibdin's picture of a Sicily full of death and confusion is evocative and plausible; Zen's reluctant pursuit of at least some part of the truth, some vestige of honour, is moving and powerful. This is an emotionally complex thriller in which the starkest of tragedy is counterpointed by outbreaks of bizarre comedy Zen finds himself allies in unlikely places and the internal squabblings of the Mafia clans would be hilarious if they were not so blood- curdling .--Roz Kaveney
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
?As bracing as grappa.... Michael Dibdin is a fine novelist and an excellent mystery writer. "USA Today"
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The latest in the Aurelio Zen mysteries is a welcome addition to Dibdin's genre of 'whodunnit' Italian travel writing, and as usual the sense of place and atmosphere is richly evocative. It is predominantly set in Sicily, and, as one would expect, it is filled with the intricacies of local mafia politics, although these are refreshingly unglamourized.
Dibdin moves with great flair between the humourously mundane and the starkly horrifying. In this regard I was particularly taken with the crime that initiates the story, in which the the remains of a man who has been slowly baked to death after being shut in an abandoned railway truck cannot be identified because of the undecipherable accompanying note, which could either indicate a member of the "Limina" clan, or that the carriage's decomposed goods were once lemons.
The book's plotting is intricate and devious, but the glimpses into the character of the enignmatic Inspector are just as facinating. In this sense "Blood Rain" is one of the darkest of the "Zen" novels, being far removed from the light comedy of "Cosi Fan Tutti". Zen is at his most haunted and anxious here, as he is confronted by a series of disasters in his increasingly barren personal life.
This novel does have some weaknesses. Dibdin's commentaries on Italian history can be annoyingly pedagogic, and his explanatations of regional characteristics could easily seem patronising to those described. Furthermore, Zen's encounter with some drunken English football fans later on in the novel struck me as a rather contrived insertion into an otherwise fluent narrative. These flaws are quickly forgotten, however, in the enjoyment of Dibdin's prose and the development of his endearingly quirky and fallible protagonist.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Right - it was the TV adaptation that brought Zen to my attention. The Kindle sample chapter of Ratking was readable enough, and before I had a chance to do anything else, I was lent this audio version of a book part way through the series. I'm not sure if I'd happened upon this as my first experience that I would go any further. I just can't take Michael Kitchen's style (although he is totally amiable as an actor). Its-----too----precise. Like someone confidently making a speech on a boat that suddenly gets hit by the waves, his voice is prone to rolling --in--precisely--counted----intervals-which-suddenly-change-in--length--but--stay--in--control. The Italian pronunciation is "correct" (as far as I can judge), it just lacks passion or deliberate careful lack of passion (as per Rufus Sewell's characterisation). I just feel I want to read the books and discover my own interpretation- I just can't get used to Mr Kitchen's.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Vine™ Review
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I listened to "Blood Rain" on audio CD (8 to be precise), read by Michael Kitchen. It felt like Michael Kitchen took the first CD to warm up, his clipped English and occasional sighs being very off-putting and very out of place in that first CD. He seems a strange choice to read Aurelio Zen stories. However, after the first CD, his reading style felt better and the story flowed well. In fact, I would say that the story was very good - well written and interesting, with an unexpected turning point in the midst of the story. I found this intelligent but easy listening, and it had me gripped. And then ... the ending. What can I say? Well, after eight CDs, the last few seconds were hopeless - completely predictable (to the point of semaphored beforehand), disappointing after the good writing earlier on, not well read, and to cap it all for audio listeners - there was no silence at the end of CD 8 to digest the story before (in my car's CD player at least) the CD looped back to the beginning again and carried on playing. That last point may seem very minor, but it was annoying - I barely had time to think "was that it?" before my thought was interrupted by the start of the CD again. Twenty seconds of silence at the end is not a lot to ask for...
So, to summarise, eight CDs, first one not brilliantly read, but after that well read and with a good story, all capped off by a disappointing ending. I'd still recommend it (with caveats), but think it might be better in printed form than read by Michael Kitchen.
So, to summarise, eight CDs, first one not brilliantly read, but after that well read and with a good story, all capped off by a disappointing ending. I'd still recommend it (with caveats), but think it might be better in printed form than read by Michael Kitchen.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Long but most enjoyable
Like many I only knew about Zen from the most enjoyable TV series - shame on you BBC for not making anymore more!!! Read more
Published 8 months ago by M. A. Dunnington
Interesting and Enjoyable
This is my first audio book, I thought it would make a change listening to a book rather than reading it. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mrs. A. M. Chadwick
Aurelio Zen story
This Aurelio Zen - recently brought to British attention through a TV drama- is based in Sicily and obviously Aurelio is facing the Mafia. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Kevin Roche
Not in the same league as the book or TV adaptation
I came to this cover-to-cover narration of Blood Rain, having seen the excellent BBC Zen adaptions earlier this year. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Dulwich Guy
Michael Kitchen
Michael Kitchen turns a decent book into an absolute classic. His style of narration complements perfectly Dibden's darkly ironic undertones which I think some of the other... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mrs Turtle
I'd rather read the book
We love listening to spoken CDs on long car journeys and BBC Radio 4 plays are especially good at making an hour or so flick forward in an instant. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Eric Baker
Good audio title
I was somewhat underwhelmed by the television adaptations of the Aurelio Zen mysteries but that is not a problem with this superb reading of Blood Rain. Read more
Published 13 months ago by IWFIcon
Difficult
I found this a very difficult audio book to follow. It is not so much the plot which is at fault as it is the fact that it is read by Michael Kitchen whose voice is very... Read more
Published 14 months ago by A. Gothorp
Excellent story , pleassure to listen
I really enjoyed this - the reader for this is Michael Kitchen and the crisp diction he has is perfect for the audio book - its really easy to make this out even in the car... Read more
Published 15 months ago by A. J. Sudworth
A Challenging Listen
Spread over 8 CDs and running to roughly 8 hours listening, Blood Rain is the seventh outing for Michael Dibdin's detective, Aurelio Zen, but this is my first encounter with the... Read more
Published 15 months ago by S. Porter
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