Michael Dibdin

It was with great regret that I learned this evening of the death of the crime writer Michael Dibdin. Dibdin wrote eleven novels featuring his wonderful detective Aurelio Zen, as well as several other novels not in the Zen series. I've read all of his work, and it is extremely good. The last Zen novel, Back to Bologna (2005) was particularly enjoyable for me because it was set in my favourite city in the world and it was full of oddball types, including what has to be a parody of il professore himself, Umberto Eco. Apparently there is another novel, End Games, to be published posthumously. Dibdin's work is some of the best crime fiction around, and it constantly challenges preconceptions about the genre. Read him.