Back to Bologna - Michael Dibdon

...different as the author kept back and showed some of these characters personalities.

However, I really struggled with the motive for the crime as I had thought it would be a clever reason for it but I was really disappointed with the one given. I found it weak and it almost suggested to me that murder and harming was something of second nature to some people, almost in their make up as humans. This I found strange and alarming!!
...regular chapters and I felt the books length was about right. I would have liked a concluding chapter just so we would know what had happened to some of the more interesting characters in the piece. But maybe by not doing this the author was letting his reader decide what happened to them next in their lives.


Conclusion:

I would not recommend this book as a good crime/mystery novel. I'm sure this is a must however ... more

Background:

This author was recommended to me again by my well read boss. Originally she introduced me to Donna Leon and she said she thought I would like this author too. As he also writes crime fiction with a Detective Aurelio Zen also based in Italy.

About the Author:

Michael Dibdin was born in Wolverhampton in March 1947. He qualified as a teacher in Alberta, before moving to Italy in 1979. This was when his writing career took of. Indeed in 1988 he won the Crime Writers Association Maccallan Gold Award for fiction and was shortlisted again in 1991. He wrote in total 18 highly acclaimed novels before his premature death in March 2007.

A synopsis of the book:

This book features the Inspector Aurelio Zen as the investigating officer. He is summoned with immediate effect to Bologna to oversee the Police investigation following the murder of a high profile industrialist. Who was found both shot and stabbed with a Parmesan knife in his own car.

Zen is at the time trying to recover from surgery himself, while he is dealing with poor health and relationship problems. Can he really help support the investigation in this state with his Personal life and health in tatters?

Meanwhile Professor Ugo has been writing some articles that have inflamed the wrath of the local Singing Celebrity Chef Rinaldi, by stating he could not cook. Rather than sue him Rinaldi's agent arranges a publicity stunt, by arranging a cook off between the two men. But where do these two men fit into the murder of the industrialist?

My thoughts on the book:

This was my first time I had read a Michael Dibdin novel and to be honest I thought it was a very average book. I think I really need to read another one from this author before I can fully access his writing style and story telling ability.

I will start with the story itself, which I found a bit confusing. There were many characters and initially I got confused about who was who. At the same time I couldn't see how the story could possible tie in all these seemingly unrelated mini stories. But to give the author credit he did bring everything together really well at the conclusion to the story.

Maybe it was because this was my first experience of this author's work. But I struggled to remember all the characters and what had previously happened to them and whether or not I liked them or not and what they had been up to previously in the piece. Maybe I should have written it down so I remembered but I don't think you should have to in a good book. So my mind there must have been something wrong either I was embracing the story or the author was not making the plot clear enough.

That said I did find the author's writing style to be quite descriptive. He has a very in-depth knowledge of Bologna which he happily and interestingly shared with the reader. Making for me the place he described so well come alive and added to my interest and enjoyment in the book.

I did in many ways find the book quite amusing. I think the author sculptured his book in this way by producing some farcical scenes and ridiculous conversations. While I found this entertaining I do think it subtracted from the story itself. As I found it difficult to take some of the characters seriously as some of the situations they found themselves in frankly unbelievable.

I guess my initial approach was all wrong. As I thought this would be a serious crime novel and as such a methodical and complete investigation. Had I realised that at the outset it was more of a spoof crime novel, I would probably have understood more of his undoubted humour and taken the book far less seriously.

As a result of this, I was concentrating on looking for clues in what the author was telling me and not on enjoying his wit and the comical characters he had created within the story itself.

As I have said previously, I thought there were too many characters in this novel. However that said I did find I could in some ways relate and understand Aurelio Zen in his uncertain and changing life with all his personal doubts about his health and personal life. Particularly the way he used or tried to use humour to ease the tension with his girlfriend with funny and disastrous consequences for them both.

Of the other characters they were well developed and very diverse. And because of some excellent writing about a few of these I was certainly surprised about the murderer. As I had expected some to act different as the author kept back and showed some of these characters personalities.

However, I really struggled with the motive for the crime as I had thought it would be a clever reason for it but I was really disappointed with the one given. I found it weak and it almost suggested to me that murder and harming was something of second nature to some people, almost in their make up as humans. This I found strange and alarming!!

The book was well broken up with regular chapters and I felt the books length was about right. I would have liked a concluding chapter just so we would know what had happened to some of the more interesting characters in the piece. But maybe by not doing this the author was letting his reader decide what happened to them next in their lives.

Conclusion:

I would not recommend this book as a good crime/mystery novel. I'm sure this is a must however for fans of Michael Dibdin but it was not for me. The only bits I really liked were the descriptions of Bologna and some of the hilarious situations within the book that some of the characters found themselves in.

Pages: 223
Price for the Paperback: £5.49 Amazon
Publisher: Faber and Faber Ltd
ISBN: 0-571-22775-9
About the Author: ttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/books/06dibdin.html

Thanks as always fro reading and rating my work.

@CPTDANIELS July 2008 

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