The final installment in this award-winning series brings Italian police detective Aurelio Zen to remote Calabria, where the Venice-born-and-bred detective feels uncomfortably like a foreigner. It's a routine assignment, and Aurelio Zen is biding his time in Calabria while the locals go about their mysterious business. Routine, that is, until an advance scout for an American film company suddenly vanishes. Beneath the surface of a tight-knit traditional community—with secrets and loyalties that go back centuries—violent forces are at work. Zen is determined to find a way to penetrate the code of silence and uncover the truth behind a brutal murder. However, his mission is complicated by another secret that has drawn strangers from the other side of the world on a hunt for buried treasure-a search that has been launched by a single-minded player with millions to spend pursuing a bizarre and deadly obsession. It's a devilishly suspenseful and entertaining adventure that only Aurelio Zen could stumble into—and only Michael Dibdin could serve up. In "End Games," the award-winning author has crafted a suspenseful, action-packed thriller full of unexpected twists and turns—a story that takes us deep into a proud and ancient culture and into the darkest corners of the human heart.
"From the Hardcover edition."
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
The final installment in this award-winning series brings Italian police detective Aurelio Zen to remote Calabria, where the Venice-born-and-bred detective feels uncomfortably like a foreigner. It's a routine assignment, and Aurelio Zen is biding his time in Calabria while the locals go about their mysterious business. Routine, that is, until an advance scout for an American film company suddenly vanishes. Beneath the surface of a tight-knit traditional community—with secrets and loyalties that go back centuries—violent forces are at work. Zen is determined to find a way to penetrate the code of silence and uncover the truth behind a brutal murder. However, his mission is complicated by another secret that has drawn strangers from the other side of the world on a hunt for buried treasure-a search that has been launched by a single-minded player with millions to spend pursuing a bizarre and deadly obsession. It's a devilishly suspenseful and entertaining adventure that only Aurelio Zen could stumble into—and only Michael Dibdin could serve up. In "End Games," the award-winning author has crafted a suspenseful, action-packed thriller full of unexpected twists and turns—a story that takes us deep into a proud and ancient culture and into the darkest corners of the human heart.
"From the Hardcover edition."
Description
When an advance scout for an American film company disappears, Aurelio Zen's most recent assignment in remote Calabria becomes anything but routine. Despite a savage attack that has scared the locals silent, Zen is determined to expose the truth. To make matters more complicated, a group of dangerous strangers, led by a rich, single-minded American have arrived to uncover another local mystery—buried treasure—and they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal. What ensues is a fiendishly suspenseful case that only Aurelio Zen could stumble into and only Michael Dibdin could have created: a wild thriller that takes us deep into a remote region of Italy and the darkest corners of human nature.
Critic Reviews
“"Didbin's Italy-based Aurelio Zen tales are among the best in the mystery genre." --The Boston Globe "Didbin has an abundance of gifts: bracing wit, the ability to wring unexpected poignance out of dark comedy, and a gift for striking imagery." --The Wall Street Journal "Didbin belongs to that hierarchy of innovative stylists who make it a point of honor never to repeat a singal trick." --The New York Times Book Review "Didbin's work deserves comparison with such...giants as Raymond Chandler." --The Oregonian "Didbin is esential reading for those who love mysteries and Italy without illusions." --The Washington Post From the Hardcover edition.”
“Brims with clever reveals, elegant imagery, elaborate word play, violent shocks, refined and ribald jokes. . . . Something different from the ordinary detective story.”—The Wall Street Journal “A sterling example of why both Dibdin and Zen will be sorely missed on the crime fiction front.”—The Boston Globe “Clever and exuberantly witty. . . . Captures . . . the Italian national character in all its unruly glory.”—The New York Times “A terrific stylist, prolific and protean. . . . The story is a fitting conclusion to a career that ended too soon.”—The Seattle Times
About the Author
Michael Dibdin was born in England and raised in Northern Ireland. He attended Sussex University and the University of Alberta in Canada. He spent five years in Perugia, Italy, where he taught English at the local university. He went on to live in Oxford, England and Seattle, Washington. He was the author of eighteen novels, eleven of them in the popular Aurelio Zen series, including Ratking, which won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger, and Cabal, which was awarded the French Grand Prix du Roman Policier. His work has been translated into eighteen languages. He died in 2007.
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