A Review By Rev’d David Boulton

 The late Michael Dibdin created a memorable detective in the Italian ‘Inspector’ Aurelio Zen. He has a kind of shop-soiled integrity – where have I come across that description, before? Well, wherever it was, it fits Aurelio Zen, who is definitely not a detective hero in the Philip Marlowe mold, though he does move in some pretty mean streets. He is suave, good-looking, civilized, not above bribery and manipulating evidence. A divorcee, he likes his food (like a good Italian) and keeps an expensive mistress.

In spite of all this, he has built up a reputation for being a good investigator – largely, one feels, by dint of being extrordinarily stubborn and determined not to let ‘them’ grind him down. Cabal displays all Zen’s best and worst character traits in a plot which is labyrinthine enough to be worthy of Marlowe. As with Chandler, I found the twists and turns of the plot almost Byzantine in their complexity, so I just kicked back and enjoyed the ride.

 The sights and scents and sounds of la bella Italia just leap from the pages and assail the senses. Dibdin’t deep love of Italy is manifest in every line.Cabal was his third Zen book. I have read most, though not in sequence. The first I read was Dead Lagoon, set in Venice, and it hooked me straight away. I can’t get enough of Aurelio Zen. Alas, Michael Dibdin passed away in 2007, aged 60. He will be missed by his reading public.