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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780679768531
ISBN number: 067976853X
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: September 01, 1998
Publishing house: Vintage
Release Date: September 01, 1998
Sale Popularity Level: 190021
Studio: Vintage
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In Italian police inspector Aurelio Zen, Michael Dibdin has given the mystery one of its most complex and compelling protagonists: a man wearily trying to enforce the law in a society where the law is constantly being bent. In this, the very first novel he appears in, Zen himself has been assigned to do some law bending. Officials in a high government ministry want him to finger someone--anyone--for the murder of an eccentric billionaire, whose corrupt dealings enriched some of the most exalted figures in Italian politics.
But Oscar Burolo's murder would seem to be not just unsolvable but impossible. The magnate was killed on a heavily fortified Sardinian estate, where every room was monitored by video cameras. Those cameras captured Burolo's grisly death, but not the face of his killer. And that same killer, elusive, implacable, and deranged, may now be stalking Zen. Inexorable in its suspense, superbly atmospheric, Vendetta is further proof of Dibdin's mastery of the crime novel.
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Rated by buyers 
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In the second installment of the Aurelio Zen series, Dibdin sends police detective Zen off to Sardinia to solve the seemingly impossible murder of a wealthy Oscar Burulo, his wife and two dinner companions in his ultra-secure mansion in the mountains of Sardinia. As it turns out, Burulo liked to videotape his dinner parties, so the shooting of the victims is recorded, but the assailant stays out of view. Burulo had recently run over and killed a young member of a Sardinian crime family to get out of an attempted kidnapping. But rich men collect enemies and maybe the killer is one of the guests who departed immediately before the shootings. Or could it be one of the grounds crew at the billionaire's complex?
Meanwhile, Zen is working on a new love interest and enjoying his new found status after his `success' related in Ratking, the very first book in the Zen story. This being Italy, however, his colleagues assume, with some justification, that his promotion is a payoff for his cooperation with a seriously bent family scion in that tale. Zen did not really do what his benefactor thinks he did to earn this reward, but Zen is not going to correct that misimpression.
As a result of his new reputation, another leader of a criminal enterprise dispatches Zen to Sardinia to `solve' the murder, i.e. frame their chosen victim. Zen travels to the island under the guise of being a Swiss real estate agent looking to buy a large mansion. Zen is trying to figure out a way to avoid framing an innocent man while putting in enough effort to satisfy the crime boss. The action starts there.
Vendetta continues the development of Zen as a fully dimensional character with satisfying intrigue and action and a full dose of cynicism. A significant fault, however, is the unexplained motivation for one of the key actor's in the book's climax. (Perhaps I missed it.)
Rated by buyers 
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A very gripping, somewhat dark, mystery. Thankfully, Aurelio Zen has a cat's nine lives. It's a very atmospheric novel, and I plan to read all the Michael Dibdin books I can get my hands on.
Rated by buyers -
Vice-Questore Aurelio Zen, officer of the Criminalpol section of the Ministry of Interior in Rome, is entrusted with a video cassette connected to the sensational "Burolo Affair" about which Zen has to write a report summarising the case to date. Since Oscar Burolo had a mania of recording the highpoints of his life, the video tape shows a dinner party at his extravagant villa in Sardinia, when suddenly Oscar and his party reel away from shotgun blasts apparently coming from nowhere, the murderer having passed through the elaborate electronic defences of the property as if they didn't exist.
But when, sometime later, a pickpocket manages to steal the video cassette while Zen is boarding a bus and when Zen is summoned to the Palazzo Sisti and asked by "l'onorevole" to go to Sardinia and fake some evidence in order to withdraw the charges against the main suspect Renato Favelloni, the inspector is about to start one of the most dangerous investigation in his career.
Very good action-packed thriller with breathtaking scenes in Sardinia and an Aurelio Zen in full swing!
Michael Tudor Barnes delivers a stunning performance reading "Vendetta".
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The very first three books of the Aurelio Zen series (of which this is the second) read as a trilogy.
Whilst enjoyable, and as engaging as its predecessor, Ratking, and successor, Cabal, I thought there were some MINOR plotting weaknesses (eg a luxury car whose steering didn't lock when being driven without the engine running).
The Sardinian setting was well-evoked.
I do recommend reading the Zen series in order, especially the very first three, where character development builds.
Rated by buyers 
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In this second installment of Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen series, we re-encounter the Weltshmerz detective as he wades through an onion skin layering of vendettas that almost cost him his life. Firstly, we glimpse the case of the brutal murder of Oscar Burolo and his guests in his supposed-fortress-like luxury complex on the Italian island of Sardinia. Then, we are again made painfully aware of the infernally clogged(but precisely groomed and clothed) machinery of the Italian bureaucracy with its syncophants, favor mongers, payoffs, good old boy's club and nefarious double dealings with the less-than-desirable underworld. We realize that wealthy and powerful higher-ups in the Italian Ministry have a vendetta of their own---they hotly desire Burolo's murder avenged as Burolo's corrupt dealings lined their purses with the an ever-pleasant flow of cash. Dissatisfied with the currently held murder suspect,and pleased with little-known Zen's written conclusion that exonerates the said suspect, the Italian Ministry moves Zen to Sardinia to drum up a case against ANYONE who will fit the scapegoat bill. Before he leaves, Zen encounters yet another vendetta, one that may be directed solely at himself. Perturbed, but not scathed, Zen ferries off to the island in what he thinks is a sufficient undercover disguise. When he bungles his dealings with police-shy locals,he finds himself stalked by a killer who serendipidiously aids him in discovering the real murderer as he runs for his life over Sardinia's bleak interior. The luck that held for him in "Ratking" sticks with him during this foray; he returns to Rome in disheveled glory.
As in the very first Zen mystery, the actual crime and its solution act as a compelling backdrop and springboard to Zen's real problems. In this case, his mother, his love life and his inability to fare well in the midst of the male society of the Criminalpol provide ample insight to an already enjoyable character of immense depth. The settings of Rome and Sardinia add glamour to the well-heeled image-conscious Italian populace which Dibdin allows us to view through Zen's accomplished and somewhat jaded eyes as he further immerses himself within the complex inner workings of Italian law enforcement.
Even thoughI read 'Cabal' and 'Dead Lagoon' before reading 'Ratking' and 'Vendetta', I would recommend reading the books in sequence so that the entire panorama of Zen's difficult life is laid out in front of you as it is intended. Zen's motivation become more understandable. When reading the books out of sequence,the reader has little information about Zen on which to fall back on and there is nothing but the mystery itself to fully engage the reader. Get the whole experience and start from number 1.
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