- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; New edition edition (5 Aug 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571197191
- ISBN-13: 978-0571197194
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 140,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A Long Finish
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Fresh from the successful investigation of a series of crimes in Naples, that admirably devious and dour Italian police inspector Aurelio Zen returns to his office in Rome to discover that a new set of bureaucrats is in power--with plans to punish him for his success by sending to him Sicily to fight the Mafia. Fate, in the form of a powerful film director, offers a way out: Zen is to go instead to Piedmont, where the murder of a noted winemaker--apparently by his son and heir--threatens the future of one of the film director's favourite vintages. Even though Zen is a Venetian by birth and drinks "fruity, fresh vino sfuso from the Friuli intended to be consumed within the year", as the director sarcastically notes, he can still see how important the case can be to his future--especially if it keeps him away from deadly Sicily. Not only wine but also truffles are involved in a growing series of murders in the area around Alba, and Michael Dibdin (an English writer who lives in Seattle but must spend lots of time in Italy) once again manages to capture the heart, soul and stomach of the region. Zen, whose personal life is gradually revealed and expanded in each book in the series, finds out several surprising things about being a father in this one. Previous Zen titles include Cosi Fan Tutti, Dead Lagoon, Ratking and Vendetta. --Dick Adler
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
After his adventures under sun-drenched Neapolitan skies in Cosi Fan Tutti, Aurelio Zen finds himself back in Rome, sneezing in a damp wine cellar and being given another unorthodox assignment: to release the jailed scion of an important wine-growing family who is accused of a brutal murder. Zen travels north to an Italy as outwardly serene as Naples was manic. Amid the quiet fields, autumnal skies and crumbling farmhouses of Piedmont, Zen must try to penetrate a traditional culture in which family and soil are inextricably linked. Here secrets can last for generations, and have a finish as long and lingering as that of a good Barbaresco. Zen must also face up to mysteries from his own past, as well as grapple with the greed, envy, hatred and love that are the human components of any landscape.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Long Finish, Michael Dibdin,
By
This review is from: A Long Finish (Aurelio Zen Mystery) (Paperback)
Superb. If you've not read Dibdin, yet consider yourself a connoseur of crime fiction, you must rectify the situation: he's one of the greatest alive. No question. A Long Finish is the sixth Zen, but do not start here. Go back to the beginning, to Ratking, and then simply chomp your way through the series, looking forward to this particular little gem (my favourite so far). In it we see Zen sent to Piedmont. He would be posted to Sicily, were it not for the influence of someone who wants a very important matter straightening out: the head of a wine-making family has been murdered, his son arrested and charged with the crime. The person-of-influence wants only one thing: the son released (innocent or not), so that the vines can be harvested and the year's vintage produced. Zen is the man for the job. So, off he goes, glad to escape the prospect of Sicily, a posting he has been dreading. These Zen novels are brilliant. I've only discovered them in the past few months, but Dibdin's already become one of my new favourite authors (Rankin, Connelly, Dibdin, in the male-crime-writing stakes, probably). Zen is such a marvellous character, cunning and cynical, desperately self-serving at times, and yet (as she shows in this book), he has a sometimes-inconvenient (and foolish!) heart. He's witty, charming, sly, a unique creation. Dibdin's writing suits his character perfectly: it too is cynical, sly, cunning, clever, and yet heart-felt. It's also, at times, hilarious (one characters eats in a restaurant and then "proceeded to damn the meal with praise so faint as to be virtually imperceptible"). I raced through this book in a day. The plot moves quickly (and is less convoluted than in his earliest Zen novels), the cahracters are fascinated and hugely entertaining, and the conclusion is, well, a triumph of restrained barbarism. I enjoyed it hugely. Hugely.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An intriguing story, but the reading style was a little hardgoing in places.,
By E. Heckingbottom "elaineheck143" (U.K.) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Aurelio Zen: A Long Finish (Aurelio Zen Mysteries (AudioGo)) (Audio CD)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
Review of the CD version, read by Michael Kitchen Aurelio Zen: A Long Finish (Aurelio Zen Mysteries (AudioGo))
To start with, I wondered if I was ever really going to get into the book. Michael Kitchen's reading style is ... unusual to say the least; however, those who enjoy his performances in Foyle's War will be prepared for this to a certain extent. Pauses are made in unusual places,and words are run together where a pause might have made more sense; however the plot is intriguing and the book did manage to keep me hooked for several hours of my long journey home from Spain. Set in a wine producing area to the North of Italy, Aurelio Zen is sent to discover who murdered a well known wine producer. Further murders follow on, and red herrings intersperse with true clues, leaving you unsure in many places: - Who did it, how and why?
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Vintage with a nice Long Finish if somewhat corked.,
This review is from: Aurelio Zen: A Long Finish (Aurelio Zen Mysteries (AudioGo)) (Audio CD)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Programme (What's this?)
For reasons connected with the Byzantine nature of Italian politics Zen arrives in a Piedmontese town to investigate a murder. The unhelpful 'helpful' locals and the hicktown Carabiniere, who seem more disposed to get him back to Rome post-haste rather than investigate the crime, combine with his unprepossessing accomodation and a cold to disenchant him with the whole business. But, there again, there are few more Byzantine than Aurelio Zen so can all be as it seems? As usual every character appears to have their own agenda, even the rail and bus crews.
Besides attempting to see through the fog of obfuscation, and the farragoes of half-truths, and various lies with which he is amply supplied Zen has to deal with another problem. He is faced with an apparent nebulous presence which taunts him mercilessly at the most inopportune of moments, and who's connection with the case he is at a loss to understand. The resolution of this problem I found a little less than satisfying though not altogether bizarre. Gradually, with the plentiful application of truffles and an almost limitless supply of Barbaresco, some of questionable origin, our stolid hero, who is in no great rush to return to the capital, doggedly ploughs his way through an apparent miasma of rustic gourmandise, filial hatred, ramshackle alliances, aristocratic savoir faire, official ineptitude, and internecine rivalries not quite bordering upon open warfare as the investigation ambles to its conclusion. Michael Dibdin paints a vivid, sometimes garish, picture of the Northern Italian state of Piedmont, it is almost possible to smell the heady scent of ripening grapes vying with the almost imperceptible fragrance of truffles in the damp earth, the pungent aroma of strong coffee mingling with Italian tobacco smoke, and to narrow one's eyes to view the distant morning skyline. Although stretching itself over eight CDs the narrative flows quite well with no great sagging as can be found in the works of less able writers. Another Zen story I am happy to recommend.
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