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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780679753117
ISBN number: 0679753117
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: January 03, 1996
Publishing house: Vintage
Release Date: January 03, 1996
Sale Popularity Level: 111332
Studio: Vintage
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Among the emerging generation of crime writers, none is as stylish and intelligent as Michael Dibdin, who, in Dead Lagoon, gives us a deliciously creepy new novel featuring the urbane and skeptical Aurelio Zen, a detective whose unenviable task it is to combat crime in a country where today's superiors may be tomorrow's defendants.
Zen returns to his native Venice. He is searching for the ghostly tormentors of a half-demented contessa and a vanished American millionaire whose family is paying Zen under the table to determine his whereabouts-dead or alive. But he keeps stumbling over corpses that are distressingly concrete: from the crooked cop found drowned in one of the city's noisome 'black wells' to a brand-new skeleton that surfaces on the Isle of the Dead. The result is a mystery rich in character and deduction, and intensely informed about the history, politics, and manners of its Venetian setting.
Amazon.com Review:
In this, the latest in the Aurelio Zen series, Zen is in Venice under false pretenses. He's ostensibly there to investigate the 'haunting' of an old family friend, but actually, and illegally, in town to find the body--dead or alive--of the missing patriarch of a wealthy American family.
'Zen is as sharp as ever in dealing with sneering Venetian lowlifes and bent Venetian cops. This masterfully atmospheric tale...will make most readers wish he could have stayed on the case forever.' --Kirkus Reviews
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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This procedural features the gloomy Italian detective Aurelio Zen returning to his home town of Venice. The strength of the book is the atmosphere with misty rain falling on the canals and the pungent smell of the city acting as a metaphor for the story the author tells. Venice itself becomes the most convincing character in the book -- mysterious, slippery, elusive, worldly, never quite what it seems and rotten to the core.
Zen himself chain-smokes his way through the book. Call me small-minded and prejudiced but I can never quite respect the intelligence of a protagonist determined to kill himself with cigarettes. We never quite see in these series the hero ending up in the cancer ward -- but that's where he's going. Before he gets there though, he will repeatedly make a fool of himself and make himself and everyone around him quite unhappy.
The one sex scene he indulges in is a serious embarrassment.
The plot is another weakness of this book. There are actually many different sub-plots, tied a little awkwardly together, but I never got very involved in any of them. There didn't seem very much at stake in this gloomy walk around the city. I quite enjoyed the scenery but ultimately didn't really understand what had happened or why I should care very much.
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Rated by buyers 
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This is the very first Dibdin/Zen book I've tried and I found it wanting. I didn't feel I got to know Zen like I got to know Brunetti in Donna Leon's supberb Venice books. Maybe he's just not as likeable as Brunetti. And I found the plot someone artificial. And, as another reviewer noted, Dibdin's Venice must be awfully small because Zen keeps running into people he knows. I guess, in a nutshell, the plot didn't reach out and grab me. All in all, a disappointment.
Rated by buyers -
A crime novel for those who may not think they enjoy crime novels. Deeply atmospheric and creepy, protagonist and cynical police detective Aureilo Zen returns to his native Venice to find a vanished American millionaire. The character of Zen is a beaten-down yet resilient revelation-and a character that consistently amuses and entertains. Italy is a morally ambiguous landscape full of unsavory characters where it's hard to discern the criminals from the crime fighters. The good news is that if you enjoy this Zen crime mystery, there's plenty more enjoyment in store for you since Dibdin has written several in the series.
Rated by buyers 
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Misty, mysterious Venice is always a favourite "character", whether it be in fiction or biography. Venice does not give up its secrets easily, and Dibdin is a master at ensuring the tension builds and the plot is assisted through location. He is equally adept at characterisation - the restless, driven Zen, who confronts several ethical dilemmas along the way, and several of the supporting "cast" , all of whom come to life and populate the setting magnificently.
The story itself is intriguing, with enough revelations along the way. There is no great finale denouement, more a piecing together of the jigsaw, and one great personal revelation about Zen's family background.
I thought Dibdin was at his very best when the action moves to the Questura (police headquarters). I half expected Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti to come strollign along the corridor!
The "chase" sequence - on foot and boat through wintry night time Venice was also excellent.
Thoroughly recommended for anyone who enjoys top quality crime fiction. No formulaic writing here!
Rated by buyers -
In this installment of the Aurelio Zen series, the protagonist's visit to his native city of Venice is fraught with desire. Zen's dreams include moving away from the detestable Rome and installing himself with his mother and girlfriend Tania into a the Zen villa off the Cannaregio canal. His fantasy lacks substance only because the money he has isn't nearly what he needs to refurbish the decaying house. With his hachet-sharp mind, Zen figures out a way to subsidize his scanty paycheck; he will discover the whereabouts, alive or dead, of a wealthy missing American whose family is willing to pay him plenty to end the legal quagmire his estate is in. In order to stay in Venice in an offical capacity, he attaches himself to a seemingly simple case involving one of his mother's acquaintances, a batty old countess who swears she is being terrorized by intruders in her own stately palazzo. But, Aurelio's best laid machinations fall, so-to-speak, in the grey wells known as the pozzi neri or septic tanks over which all the houses of Venice are built. As Zen attempts to solve his investigative puzzles and family problems with his best intentions, he is sidetracked by meeting old friends, one of which is immersed in a political movement meant to eventually restore Venice to it former strategic position as a great trading nation---the other the attractive wife of the movement's leader. With the addition of these new factors, Zen's intital dreams shift and change like the waters in the canals.
Being lucky enough to have visited Venice myself, I found Dibdin's audio, visual and olifactory portrait of the city remarkable. The labyrinth of small bridges, canals and walkways are expertly rendered and a joy to read. As always with this series, Zen's ability to bend the law to his own advantage and pull in favors embues the novel with a gritty realism. His thoughts of his mother, his girlfriends, past and present are priceless, adding just the right comedic touch to lighten his otherwise cynical existence.
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