Dead Lagoon (1996) by Michael Dibdin

Dead Lagoon (1996) by Michael Dibdin

GoodReads meta-data is 320 pages, rated 3.90 by 1801 litizens.

Genre: krimi

Verdict: superb (again).

Aurelio Zen is on the job again, returning to his home town, Venice, to do a lucrative favour for an old friend.  He conceals his true purpose in a several tissues of lies.  

The favour is to investigate the disappearance of a wealthy American several months earlier.  Zen’s cover is that he has been sent from distant Rome to investigate the Contessa’s complaints about intruders in her decaying mansion. He calls in some favours to assure himself that there is nothing to find about the American.  He simply left.  Now all he has to do is go through some motions and then collect his fee. Contessa is an honourary title for an elderly widow who complains of nocturnal visitations, which the local police put down to her dementia. 

Knowing well the slipshod ways of the Questura, Zen has no trouble with his masquerade.  His task is made easier by a national political crisis upsetting the usual ways of (not) doing things.  In this context, other officers mind their own business, and leave him alone with the orders he forged for himself.  As usual he trusts no one and uses the fax machine of a family friend rather the one at the Questura.

The atmosphere of Venice in February is cold and wet. The fog obscures reality while it penetrates stone and flesh.  In this world, nothing is as it seems.  And even when Zen peels aways the last layer the mystery remains.  Nothing ever changes.  

This title is fourth in the series and it is compelling.  The more so since I read it while in Venice, though the weather was much better at the time.  I recognised many of the streetscapes through which Zen walked, many of floating vaporetto stages (San Marco) on which he waited, some of the Venetian cuisine (nero pasta) he ate, and some of the museums (Accadamia) he passed.  I first read this title and all the others in the series many years ago, after returning from a semester in Firenze.  

Each title in the series is set in a different region of Italy, and each offers something of a travelogue in the rich details of the setting which combine to explain some of what happens.  However, the picture it presents of Italy is tainted to say the least. Incompetence, corruption, and indifference are the hallmarks.  Senior police officers are mainly interested in tailoring.  Politicians are uniformly corrupt. Citizens learned long ago to use the blind eye. The cynicism is pervasive. Yet Zen is a Sisyphus who does the best he can in this distorted world.     

Although we liked the 2011 three-part television series, it makes Zen a much younger man, than he is on the page.   Zen does not contact Inspector Brunetti when in Venice. Too bad.