Ratking Kindle Edition

Dibdin's fifty year old Aurelio Zen is trapped like a rat within the law enforcement tunnel of the labyrinth that is the Italian bureaucracy. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time has resulted in a forgotten desk job in Rome where Venetian Zen stares at a phone that never rings. When he is suddenly summonsed to Perugia in the lush Umbrian countryside and placed as lead inspector in a notable electronics magnate's kidnapping, he gets the sense, as we do, that something other than his immediate involvement in the investigation is at work here. Nevertheless, Zen does his job and as he gathers his information, we observe Zen's world of family, friends and Italy from Zen's cynical eyes. After playing the scapegoat once, Zen is wary; he has learned his lesson and has learned it well. Understanding the system as painfully and personally as he has, Zen adapts, manipulates and manages to sever the rat tails of the investigation's ratking while simultaneouly reconnecting himself to the tangle of tails which form the ratking of the Italian Law Enforcement machine.The mystery here, is secondary to Zen's tainted vision of the world. It acts a conduit to expose Zen's feelings about the present and the past. His mantra, if he has one, could be paraphrased: A man must compromise in order to survive. Dibdin's humorous portrayals of the Italian populace of Umbria, most notably, the Miletti siblings and the Naopolitan driver, are priceless. The reader gets a real sense of the city state mentality of Italy, where there are definite prejudices between Northerners and Southerners. Dibdin's countless behind-the-scenes suggestions of corruption, wire-tapping and self-sustaining acts of betrayal seem too farfetched to be thought solely fictional.The tone of the story is cynical and dark which makes for some tedious reading. The reader finds himself in his own rat tail tangle of misunderstanding. Zen, a reluctant realist, must deal with an American girlfriend who does not understand his need to keep the details of his relationship with her a secret from his live-in mother. He's got some issues with his father that come to light while he ponders the ties between the Miletti patriarch and his children. Along with the bungled career, there is an ex-wife, an abandoned home in Venice and a lifetime of smaller regrets. In short, he is no designer detective in an Armani suit with wise-guy retorts; he is real and has real problems.As the first in a series of Zen mysteries, I think this one a worthy introduction and I look forward to seeing how the character manages to survive in the murky environment of real life.

Zen is the ultimate outsider, a man for whom nothing seems to go right even before it goes wrong. In this first book of the Zen series we can see a pattern emerge which will be developed and elaborated upon in this book and those that follow. Zen is assigned a case concerning the kidnapping of a very unsavory but powerful business tycoon. Perhaps what is more unsavory than Signore Miletti is his family and his retainers.The "ratking" refers to a tangle of rats bound by their tails through circumstance that operates in a symbiotic manner in order to survive. Mr. Dibdin uses this analogy to explore not only the Miletti famly but Zen's entire world, his mother, girlfriend, fellow detectives, the political system, indeed the entire society in which he must live. If not for the worldly resignation of Zen and his lack of interest in his career this would be truly a rather too bleak world to bear or read about.But it is Zen's perceptions and realism that keep driving him on and his own self-preservation. The psychological dimensions of the story are immense and yet do not get in the way a a tautly written murder mystery. The cast of characters is lush with villains, neurotics, freebooters, venal degenerates, incompetents, all living in a world of lush luxury.While Zen himself is not total anti-hero and is truly misanthropic, he is an admirable realist or as Wycherley wrote, a "plain dealer. This is a thinking man's mystery.

Aurelio Zen is in disgrace – demoted to an administrative job because of a high-profile kidnapping case that went bad bad. But when a very rich businessman is kidnapped in Perugia, Zen is the only man available to send to help the local cops.But the local cops do everything they can to undermine him. The. Investigating magistrate wants to use Zen for his own political ends. Even the children of the victim refuse to cooperate with Zen or any other policeman. They're behaving so strangely, Zen wonders if they really want the old man back alive.What I found interesting was how ineffectual Zen seemed through most of the book. Others get the better of him at every turn. He's anything but a superhero. Only when it seems too late does Zen show us he can be as crafty and tricky as his enemies.I'm curious to see what Zen will be like in the next book, so I’ll be continuing with the series.In this book, Perugia with its medieval walls and houses, ancient Etruscan and Roman stonework, climbing stairways and uphill roads makes an exotic setting.

I had heard that Didbin's Zen series was top-notch, and as a fan of Donna Leon's Venetian Commissario Brunetti and of Andrea Camilleri's Sicilian Inspector Montalbano, as well as of David Hewson's Roman Nick Costa, I was eager to add another Venetian working out of Rome to my reading list. After reading the first volume, Ratking, I'm struggling to figure out what the big deal is. Aurelio Zen is a troubled depressed man who has little going for him, other than the fact that he destroyed his career in confronting a corrupt system. His mother is a selfish old witch, his girlfriend is hardly sketched in before she decamps back to America. The plot is muddy - yes, it's complex and keeps you guessing, but it's a bad sort of guessing -- sort of like, 'get on with it, damn it!' If it weren't for the cover art showing Rufus Sewell (who will be playing Zen on a new BBC series sometime in 2011 or 2012) I wouldn't have any strong impression of Zen himself.All that said, I'm going to risk getting the next book in the series to see if the characters and plotting get any better. But my favorite Italian detective will continue to be Camilleri's Montalbano, a character who knows about corruption but who doesn't let the reality of life get in the way of enjoying it. The Shape of Water (Inspector Montalbano, Book 1)Death at La Fenice: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery

Aurelio Zen is an appealing character around which to base a series of crime novels. Slightly out of kilter with the world around him, plagued by domestic and family concerns, and with a career on the skids, he instantly engages the reader with his frailties and considerable skills. "Ratking" sees Zen brought out of obscurity to deal with a kidnapping case in Perugia. It's well-done and beautifully written, but the plot rambles on way too long, and towards the end of the book it feels like Dibdin had to unpick some of the complexities by adopting a different tone in the final chapters. All a bit overloaded with plot and counter-plot. Not unbelievable, against the background of Italian politics, corruption and behind-the-scenes posturing, but Dibdin went on to write better Zen titles than this. The biggest mystery perhaps is why this book won the coverted CWA Gold Dagger in 1988 - it's really not that good. Slightly disappointing first re-visit of the Zen series, it has to be said.

Obviously these books have been around for a long time. I fondly remember the TV series starring Rufus Sewell. A friend started reading the novels and recommended them. Can’t say I was disappointed. The atmosphere of Italy from long ago - in essence before the EU - is evoked very well. The plot may not win any prizes for originality but I liked the style of writing and the characters were well drawn. I’ll certainly read a few more.

Absolutely loved the TV episodes of these books, but that might have been the main actor, but decided to try the 1st book, to see what it was like & whether a good idea to follow this character, as was bitterly disappointed that more episodes weren't made, still haven't quite decided, as this one was in a very different setting, but have decided to try more to see what I think then!

On the strength of the enjoyable TV series I bought three of his novels on Kindle, however I soon discovered why the TV series had been compiled from three of the novels, the books are very WORDY! taking ages to move the plot along. Apart from that, the plots are engrossing.

If you are new to the Aurelio Zen series of books, start at the beginning with Ratking. Here, you will see every facet of Dibdin's fascinating creation, Aurelio Zen. One thing I always want from my fictional policemen / detectives is from them to be human. That means being fallible, vulnerable, erratic and every emotion in between. You get that is spades with Ratking. Zen is roped back into active service from the sidelines having stepped on the wrong toes and blotted his copybook with his paymasters. You will see from an early stage that Zen has a formidable intellect but that he is also not above taking short cuts to achieve his ends and that he has very clear ideas as to how to play both ends against the middle. Ratking, more than any other Zen book, shows our hero being played by multiple parties. The fact that he manages to achieve his own objectives regardless, is testament to the quality of Dibdin's writing and an early sign that Zen is nobody's fool.