A Long Finish

'A maestro of crime writing.' SUNDAY TIMES 'The closest thing he's yet written to an English whodunnit.' LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS AN AURELIO ZEN MYSTERY Aurelio Zen has an unorthodox assignment: to release the jailed scion of an important wine-growing family who is accused of a brutal murder. Zen travels north to the quiet fields, autumnal skies and crumbling farmhouses of Piedmont, Italian wine country, where greed, envy, hatred, and love seethe under the sun. He needs to try to penetrate a traditional culture in which family and soil are inextricably linked. But here secrets can last for generations, and have a finish as long and lingering as that of a good Barbaresco. 'A great addition to the Zen series . . . a great ending too.' 5* reader review 'Brilliant atmosphere with incredible twists in the plot, right up to the last minute.' 5* reader review 'So well-written and atmospheric that it just whizzed by!' 5* reader review PRAISE FOR MICHAEL DIBDIN AND THE INSPECTOR ZEN SERIES: 'He wrote with real fire.' IAN RANKIN 'A maestro of crime writing.' SUNDAY TIMES 'One of the genre's finest stylists . . . And Zen himself is a masterly creation: he is anti-heroic and pragmatic but obstinate, cunning and positively burdened with integrity.' GUARDIAN 'Dibdin tells a rollicking good tale that you want both to read fast, because of its gripping storyline, and to linger over, to savour the evocative descriptions of place and mood.' INDEPENDENT 'One of British crime fiction's most distinguished and distinctive voices.' ANDREW TAYLOR 'Dibdin has a gift for shocking the unshockable reader.' Ruth Rendell 'Zen is one of the greatest creations of contemporary crime fiction.' OBSERVER 'I love the way these books capture the atmosphere and contradictions of Italy.' 5* reader review 'Aurelio Zen novels are a great treat.' 5* reader review 'There is no better writer than Dibdin. His books are a joy to read.' 5* reader review 'Love these books . . . I am sure you will get hooked too!' 5* reader review

Michael Dibdin was born in 1947. He went to school in Northern Ireland, and later to Sussex University and the University of Alberta in Canada. He lived in Seattle. After completing his first novel, The Last Sherlock Holmes Story, in 1978, he spent four years in Italy teaching English at the University of Perugia. His second novel, A Rich Full Death, was published in 1986. It was followed by Ratking in 1988, which won the Gold Dagger Award for the Best Crime Novel of the year and introduced us to his Italian detective - Inspector Aurelio Zen. In 1989 The Tryst was published to great acclaim and was followed by Vendetta in 1990, the second story in the Zen series. Dirty Tricks was published in 1991. Inspector Zen made his third appearance in Cabal, which was published in 1992. The Dying of the Light, an Agatha Christie pastiche, was published in 1993. His fourth Zen novel, Dead Lagoon, was published the following year. His next novel, Dark Spectre, was published in 1995. Two more Zen novels followed: Cosi Fan Tutti, set in Naples, was published in 1996 and A Long Finish was published in 1998. Blood Rain, the seventh Zen novel, was published in 1999. Thanksgiving was published in 2000, with the eighth Zen, And Then You Die, appearing in 2002. Aurelio Zen returned in Medusa, in August 2003, and then again in Back to Bologna in 2005. His last novel, End Games, was published posthumously in July 2007.