Ratking - Softcover

Michael Dibdin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571154212 ISBN 13: 9780571154210

Publisher: Faber & Faber, Limited, 1989

Synopsis

In this masterpiece of psychological suspense, Italian Police Commissioner Aurelio Zen is dispatched to investigate the kidnapping of Ruggiero Miletti, a powerful Perugian industrialist. But nobody much wants Zen to succeed: not the local authorities, who view him as an interloper, and certainly not Miletti's children, who seem content to let the head of the family languish in the hands of his abductors -- if he's still alive.Was Miletti truly the victim of professionals? Or might his kidnapper be someone closer to home: his preening son Daniele, with his million-lire wardrobe and his profitable drug business? His daughter, Cinzia, whose vapid beauty conceals a devastating secret? The perverse Silvio, or the eldest son Pietro, the unscrupulous fixer who manipulates the plots of others for his own ends? As Zen tries to unravel this rat's nest of family intrigue and official complicity, Michael Dibdin gives us one of his most accomplished thrillers, a chilling masterpiece of police procedure and psychological suspense.

About this title

From the Publisher

Ruth Rendell wrote of Ratking:

"Tremendously exciting ... This is a novel both subtle and horrific."

And the praise doesn't stop there. Here's what people are saying about Michael Dibdin's work:

"Dibdin's work deserves comparison with such ... giants as Raymond Chandler."
-- Portland Oregonian

"Dibdin has an ear for prose that is rare in the crime genre ... His soaring imagination ... makes his books well worth the read."
-- Washington Times

"Dibdin has a gift for shocking the unshockable reader. He writes the unmentionable, calmly and with devastating effect."
-- Ruth Rendell

About the Author

Michael Dibdin was born in 1947. He went to school in Northern Ireland, and later to Sussex University and the University of Alberta in Canada. He lives in Seattle.After completing his first novel, The Last Sherlock Holmes Story, in 1978, he spent four years in Italy teaching English at the University of Perugia. His second novel, A Rich Full Death, was published in 1986. It was followed by Ratking in 1988, which won the Gold Dagger Award for the Best Crime Novel of the year and introduced us to his Italian detective - Inspector Aurelio Zen. In 1989 The Tryst was published to great acclaim and was followed by Vendetta in 1990, the second story in the Zen series. Dirty Tricks was published in 1991. Inspector Zen made his third appearance in Cabal, which was published in 1992. The Dying of the Light, an Agatha Christie pastiche, was published in 1993. His fourth Zen novel, Dead Lagoon, was published the follow

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber, Limited
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0571154212
• ISBN 13: 9780571154210
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 282