âUnputdownable.â SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
âA complete inversion of the standard detective genre.â GUARDIAN
AN AURELIO ZEN MYSTERY
Inspector Zen is back, but nobody''s supposed to know it.
After months in hospital recovering from a car-bomb attack, he is lying low under a false name at a beach resort on the Tuscan coast, waiting to testify in an imminent anti-Mafia trial. Zen has clear instructions: to sit back and enjoy the classic Italian beach holiday. But when an alarming number of people start dropping dead around him, it seems just a matter of time before the Mafia manages to find their target.
âA top quality thriller.â 5* reader review
âA very entertaining read, sometimes funny sometimes thought provoking and always with a slightly cynical dig at the Italian "establishment"!â 5* reader review
âMy favourite book, bar none.â 5* reader review
PRAISE FOR MICHAEL DIBDIN AND THE INSPECTOR ZEN SERIES:
âHe wrote with real fire.â IAN RANKIN
âA maestro of crime writing.â SUNDAY TIMES
âOne of the genreâs finest stylists . . . And Zen himself is a masterly creation: he is anti-heroic and pragmatic but obstinate, cunning and positively burdened with integrity.â GUARDIAN
âDibdin tells a rollicking good tale that you want both to read fast, because of its gripping storyline, and to linger over, to savour the evocative descriptions of place and mood.â INDEPENDENT
âOne of British crime fictionâs most distinguished and distinctive voices.â ANDREW TAYLOR
âDibdin has a gift for shocking the unshockable reader.â Ruth Rendell
âZen is one of the greatest creations of contemporary crime fiction.â OBSERVER
âI love the way these books capture the atmosphere and contradictions of Italy.â 5* reader review
âAurelio Zen novels are a great treat.â 5* reader review
âThere is no better writer than Dibdin. His books are a joy to read.â 5* reader review
âLove these books . . . I am sure you will get hooked too!â 5* reader review
Industry Reviews
"Beautifully crafted and evocative, with the perfect balance of plot and rueful digression.... Dibdin's Zen novels effortlessly paint a sharper portrait of Italy than any guidebook, cookbook or academic history." -- "The Guardian" "Dibdin has created an interesting alternative to the fast-paced, smart-assed, hard-boiled detective genre. His version is full of hidden half-truths, twisted, smiling, power-hungry authorities, and enough smoke and mirrors to keep you guessing -- a modern take on the medieval mystery." -- "The Irish Times" "There is an initial flurry of deaths among innocent people, in true Agatha Christie style, some Elmore Leonardish humour, a gadget straight out of James Bond, and a romantic subplot. . . . Zen himself is as intriguing as ever." -- "New Statesman" "Dibdin is a highly sophisticated writer who has chosen to stay largely within the crime genre. He brings off its required effects superbly, being especially a master of understated menace and unforeseen plunges into horror." -- "Sunday Times" "Dibdin has created an interesting alternative to the fast-paced, smart-assed, hard-boiled detective genre. His version is full of hidden half-truths, twisted, smiling, power-hungry authorities, and enough smoke and mirrors to keep you guessing--a modern take on the medieval mystery." -- "The" "Irish Times" "Dibdin's Zen novels effortlessly paint a sharper portrait of Italy than any guidebook, cookbook or academic history. . . . And Then You Die is more meditative than the other Zen thrillers, beautifully crafted and evocative, with the perfect balance of plot and rueful digression." -- "The Guardian" "Dibdin knows Italy from the south of Sicily tothe Swiss border. . . . Those who are familiar with things Italian will revel in his accounts and analyses, while those who are not can savour the bubbles and colours which are as inebriating as freshly uncorked Prosecco." -- "Times Literary Supplement"
