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Literary Review
CRIME
New improved Zen
VIJAY NAIR
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Despite an unremarkable plot, Aurelio Zen continues to woo readers.
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End Games; Michael Dibdin, Faber & Faber, £4.99.
Michael Dibdin died just three months before the publication of this book and we can assume End Games is also the last book in which Aurelio Zen would make an appearance.
That’s a pity because, unlike a Wexford or a Dalgleish, Zen has remained an enigma to the readers all through his 11 novels.
The only thing predictable about this sleuth is his quaint sense of humour that plays out in this last outing as his ruminations on Italian dishes doused liberally with all forms of tomatoes.
Unusual phrases
That at least is gratifying just as the author’s propensity to come up with unusual turn of phrases that makes his books compelling reading not just for mystery aficionados but also lovers of good literature. In End Games, a character awakes from a “plump” untroubled sleep; Zen compliments an old woman for having a voice like that of a “fish.”
“Fish?”
“Succulent, but with a strong backbone. I am Venetian and it was intended as a compliment.”
The plot is unremarkable though. Zen is stationed in the remote Calabria, filling in for a Police Chief who accidentally shot himself on his foot while cleaning his gun. He is having serious bouts of insomnia until a visiting American lawyer is kidnapped.
When his mutilated corpse is discovered, he has more compelling reasons to stay awake. Further drama is in store when a helicopter makes repeated flights over the area. It supposedly belongs to a film crew in search of new locations where the film can be shot.
Modern twist
However, in a modern tongue-in-cheek twist, a wealthy west coast computer-games company is funding the production of the film. And if that is not enough the film is merely an elaborate cover for a plot to plunder a treasure that was buried many centuries ago. So past meets the future and Zen is around to take care of the murders and kidnappings that are the by products of such sinister backdrops.
This is certainly not the best Aurelio Zen, Michael Didbin has written. The plot is more police procedural than a compelling mystery waiting to be unravelled.
Only the hard core lovers of the Italian detective and his creator are likely to want this one as a collector’s item. But then over the 11 books, fans of the inscrutable Zen have also multiplied.
Dibdin tries to make him more human in this one. He is more amenable to his superior officer. He misses his wife. He thinks about his mother. An old woman wonders where he was when she could still have lovers. It is clear that his creator wanted him to have an image makeover.
Objectivity
It is also commendable that Dibdin’s objectivity about Italy remained unchanged all through the 11 books. The country we meet in his novels is that not the one guide books would recommend. Zen was always an outsider in the locations he found himself. That gave him the liberty to comment on his surroundings without getting involved. He never got into an activist mode. He never wanted to improve things. He took them for what they are.
Fortunately, a new improved Zen in End Games is not the same as a more politically correct Zen. For that, we should be grateful to his late creator.
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