A Long Finish

Michael Dibdin

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9780571274123
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Crime & Mystery Literature
• Index: Literature

'A maestro of crime writing.' SUNDAY TIMES
'The closest thing he's yet written to an English whodunnit.' LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS

AN AURELIO ZEN MYSTERY

Aurelio Zen has an unorthodox assignment: to release the jailed scion of an important wine-growing family who is accused of a brutal murder.

Zen travels north to the quiet fields, autumnal skies and crumbling farmhouses of Piedmont, Italian wine country, where greed, envy, hatred, and love seethe under the sun. He needs to try to penetrate a traditional culture in which family and soil are inextricably linked. But here secrets can last for generations, and have a finish as long and lingering as that of a good Barbaresco.

'A great addition to the Zen series . . . a great ending too.' 5* reader review
'Brilliant atmosphere with incredible twists in the plot, right up to the last minute.' 5* reader review
'So well-written and atmospheric that it just whizzed by!' 5* reader review

PRAISE FOR MICHAEL DIBDIN AND THE INSPECTOR ZEN SERIES:
'He wrote with real fire.' IAN RANKIN
'A maestro of crime writing.' SUNDAY TIMES
'One of the genre's finest stylists . . . And Zen himself is a masterly creation: he is anti-heroic and pragmatic but obstinate, cunning and positively burdened with integrity.' GUARDIAN
'Dibdin 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.' INDEPENDENT
'One of British crime fiction's most distinguished and distinctive voices.' ANDREW TAYLOR
'Dibdin has a gift for shocking the unshockable reader.' Ruth Rendell
'Zen is one of the greatest creations of contemporary crime fiction.' OBSERVER
'I love the way these books capture the atmosphere and contradictions of Italy.' 5* reader review
'Aurelio Zen novels are a great treat.' 5* reader review
'There is no better writer than Dibdin. His books are a joy to read.' 5* reader review
'Love these books . . . I am sure you will get hooked too!' 5* reader review

Table of contents

• Cover
• Landing Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Later – when word of what had happened got
• ‘Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello. I am a purist, Dottor’
• The meal over, the three men pushed back their chairs
• With trembling fingers, Aurelio Zen unwrapped the
• When the dog first appeared, snuffling and scratching
• He awoke naked and covered in blood. A series of
• With that Tullio Legna walked off and was soon lost in
• The resulting meal was by no means the first time that
• ‘Mombaruzzo, bubbio coazzolo. Sommariva fello fontanile?’
• By the time Aurelio Zen finally reached the Vincenzo
• After Minot had dropped Aurelio Zen in Palazzuole
• ‘While she was alive, my mother did all the cooking’
• ‘Oh, not so bad,’ Minot replied to the brothers’
• It was dark when Aurelio Zen arrived back in Alba in a
• When he emerged from his hotel the next morning
• Afterwards, of course, it was clear to Aurelio Zen that
• Zen got back to his hotel late that afternoon, having
• And so, without warning, it all starts again.
• Minot was under his truck, completing an oil-change
• ‘We want a lawyer,’ said Gianni Faigano.
• The telephone woke him, a salvation as cruel as a harpoon
• When they came for him, he was asleep, if you could
• Aurelio Zen’s next client was at that moment sitting on
• As ten o’clock sounded, at various intervals and pitches
• Aurelio Zen had already entered the revolving door
• ‘It won’t work,’ said Tullio Legna, chopping his right
• Like some children, the following day was born with a
• Minot was the way he liked it: alone. His recent forays
• Acknowledgement
• The Zen Series from Michael Dibdin
• About the Author
• By the Same Author
• Copyright