I started reading Michael Dibdin’s Aurelio Zen series after seeing the mysteries about the hapless Italian detective on Masterpiece Mystery. In And Then You Die, Zen is more hapless than usual. I had some problems reading this book because it is apparently a sequel to a book I had not read, and it requires some knowledge of the previous book. I felt this one boiled down to a series of unfocused mishaps.
At the beginning of the novel, Zen is staying under cover in a beach community waiting to be a witness against the Mafia, who apparently tried to kill him in the previous book. He has been a long time recovering from the murder attempt and has not been home for a year.
At the beach, families have reserved places, and someone has occupied the place that goes with his apartment, so he takes another and proceeds to carry on a flirtation with the woman across from him, Gemma. Later on, he finds out the man in his place is dead.
His minders move him, saying that the dead man was killed in mistake for him. Then the plan changes and they put him on a plane to the U.S. to testify there. But the plane has to force land in Iceland after he changes seats and the man who takes his seat dies.
It’s obvious that someone is trying to kill Zen throughout the book, but he doesn’t even seem to notice. I don’t know whether this is Dibdin’s idea of humor or not, but generally Zen is a little sharper than this. Moreover, the episode in Iceland is decidedly odd. In all, the plot seemed very unfocused, with Zen wandering all over the place. I honestly felt as if Dibdin was not putting much effort into this novel.
What? Me Read? 