Medusa is the first Aurelio Zen mystery I read after seeing the series on Masterpiece Mystery!, and I found it to be well written and entertaining.
Aurelio Zen is sent north to the Italian Alps, an area on the far reaches of the known universe as far as he is concerned, because a decomposed body of a man was found in a disused military tunnel. The body has a mysterious tattoo, which could be important, but the corpse disappears from the morgue overnight.
Once the body is identified, it turns out to belong to a soldier who supposedly died in a plane crash 30 years ago. It gradually becomes clear that this mystery has to do with events during or just after World War II. To his dismay, the dapper Zen finds himself clambering around in the cave with the Austrian spelunker who discovered the body.
The narrative alternates between Zen’s attempts to unravel a tangle of clues and the thoughts of some older men who know more about what is going on. It appears that someone is trying to protect a secret, and the secret may have to do with a clandestine group that exists within the army.
As always, Zen’s cynicism about the powers that be in the government and the police force (and in this case, the army) is amusing, and Dibdin seems to get a special pleasure from subjecting the finely dressed detective to scenes where he has to climb around in wet, dirty places.
What? Me Read? 