If you know the plot of Mozart's opera, Cosi Fan Tutti, you will ADORE this book! It is a parody of that hysterical opera. And Dibdin isn't afraid to have a hero who is one in spite of himself. Very funny. ( )

A fun takeoff of Mozart's opera, with additional twists worthy of the same.

The weakest of the Zen books, in my opinion. A ridiculous farce with vague overtones of being a crime novel.

Zen is a Crimialpol operative from Rome who is banished to the hinterland of Naples because of political manoeuvring at home. He becomes head of a customs police squad, much unwelcomed by the locals who fear that he is coming to upset their cosy lifestyle of craft and laziness, but he soon wins them over by making it clear that he intends to have minimal contact with the office, and as long as things go along smoothly and quietly, he will not interfere, not even with the brothel run regularly on the top floor of the police station! Alas all does not run smoothly and quietly as some important people start to disappear (in well described abductions), and this is mixed up with Zen's private life wherein he tries to help the mother of two respectable girls who are in love with a couple of hoods, by arranging for the girls to take a surprise visit to London while he sets up the hoods with a couple of prostitutes, pretending to be Albanian refugees, and waits for nature to take its course, which it does and does not, but he doesn't know that the hoods are, in fact, secret police operatives who think that Zen (because that is not the name he is using), may be part of a larger criminal conspiracy. Actually it's not as confusing as it sounds, but there is too much coincidence at the end to pull all the threads together into a happy ending. Nevertheless, some good writing, good descriptions of life in Naples, and some good characters. Zen definitely worth reading again; maybe at the lake in summer.