dibdin writes a great character driven mystery series. This is a good example. I take Dibdin books with me when I travel becuase they are meaty enough to be entertaining but not so involving that I can't put them down and enjoy the sceanery. Good easy read for a plane or train ride. ( )

Michael Dibdin's Cabal takes Aurelio Zen into the Vatican, as he investigates the suspicious death of a minor member of Italy's faded aristocracy. Was he really a nobody -- or was he an integral part of a powerful secret society?

Great stuff, this one -- Dibdin's work is subtle, provocative and entertaining. How he manages to remain well-known-but-certainly-not-famous, while a hack like Donna Leon (who runs a similar murder-mysteries-set-in-Italy franchise) prospers is indeed a mystery to me. ( )

http://kenficara.net/books/2007/06/ca... ( )

The fact that this book begins with someone plunging to his death from the Dome of St. Peter's had me hooked. What a completely poetic way to kill someone. I have also always liked Dibdin's hero, the Italian detective Aurelio Zen, he's just tragically flawed enough to make him seem human and also be empathetic.

As the third installment of the Aurelio Zen series opens, a man plunges to his death in a Vatican chapel. Considering that the Vatican is off limits to Italian authorities, Aurelio finds it odd that he is called in to investigate. But soon he learns that he is supposed to substantiate the fact that the man's death was a suicide, so he plays along. However, things get dicey when another man is electrocuted in his shower, because he was a security officer in charge of watching the man who died in the Vatican. Since this murder took place outside of the Vatican, Aurelio goes to investigate and discovers a high-level conspiracy linking back to an organization linking to the Vatican in the form of a group known as Cabal. Some pretty good plot twists & turns, and Aurelio's character is much more developed.

This one was the best of the three; but you will want to start with the first of the series or you won't understand a lot of the references. Also...you should know that if you expect a tidy ending you won't find it here; personally, I don't mind when this happens, but a lot of readers may object to the abruptness of the end. ( )