Back to Bologna - Hardcover

Dibdin, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0571227759 ISBN 13: 9780571227754

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2005

Synopsis

When the corpse of the shady industrialist who owns the local football team is found both shot and stabbed with a Parmesan knife, Italian police inspector Aurelio Zen is called to Bologna to oversee the investigation. Recovering slowly from surgery, and fleeing an equally painful crisis in his personal life, Zen is only too happy to take on what at first appears to be a routine and relatively undemanding assignment. But soon a world-famous university professor is shot with the same gun, immediately after publicly humiliating Italy's leading celebrity television chef, the case - intertwined with the fates of an earnest student of semiotics and a mysterious young immigrant who claims to be from Ruritania - spins out of control, and Zen is in no condition to rise to the challenge. There's also a wild card in the pack - Tony Speranza, Bologna's most flamboyant private detective. Back to Bologna is dazzlingly plotted, features a cast of vivid and idiosyncratic characters, and along the way delivers both comic and serious insights into the realities of today's Italy.

About this title

Review:

Every so often--and his new novel Back to Bolognais a good example of this--Michael Dibdin stretches the form of the detective novel to involve his often glum detective Aurelio Zen in situations of wild, bloody farce. Dragged back to work in spite of ill health that may be hypochondria, and faced with the breakdown of his long-term relationship, Zen finds himself caught up in the murder of a football club owner, a cooking duel between a celebrity chef and a post-modern professor and the amorous adventures of a beautiful immigrant from Ruritania. Back to Bologna combines some sharp satirical comments with a dim view of unreasonable behaviour, whether by spoiled brat football hooligans or blundering private eyes. Dibdin combines sharply-phrased misanthropy with a capacity ultimately to forgive human weakness. Many of his books are classics of modern crime writing; Back to Bologna is perhaps less ambitious, but it is a technically accomplished delight. ---Roz Kaveney

Review:

" Clever. . . . It has wit, subtlety, a sense of mischief and exquisite cameos of Italy and Italians." - "The Times" (London) " "Back to Bologna" is the sprightliest entry in the Zen oeuvre for a good few years...Barely a page goes by without a big laugh. . . . I can' t wait until Dibdin takes us [to Italy] again." - "Daily Telegraph" " A clever mystery. . . . Pure pleasure from the first to the last." - "The Evening Standard"

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0571227759
• ISBN 13: 9780571227754
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 240