Aurelio Zen’s assignment in A Long Finish reflects the corruption in the Italian police force and government that is always being pointed out in these books. Zen is assigned to go to Alba not by his superiors but by a famous movie producer. The producer wants him to investigate the murder of Aldo Vincenzo, a noted winemaker–more importantly, to free Vincenzo’s son Manlio so he can get the grape harvest in and oversee the production of the wine. Vincenzo was found stabbed in his own vineyards with his genitals removed. The producer is a wine connoisseur who wants to make sure this year’s vintage isn’t wasted.
Zen finds himself in a dreamy, unfocused state, having nightmares because of several successive personal losses. Unfortunately, I’ve read the Aurelio Zen novels in an entirely random order, so I was confused about the sequence of the events in his personal life. Zen also has a severe cold, and someone is leaving him anonymous phone messages.
The first scene in the book, however, was of the murder, so the readers know that just before his death, Vincenzo encountered a trespassing truffle hunter. But which person was it? The truth may lie 40 years in the past, as indicated by the method of Vincenzo’s death, with echoes of partisan fighting during World War II, or maybe that is just a ruse.
I may be tiring a little of Aurelio Zen. I couldn’t put my finger on anything definite, but throughout this novel I got the impression that Dibdin is just trifling with his readers.
What? Me Read? 