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| Dead Lagoon an Aurelio Zen Mystery by Michael Dibdin |
Google's translation of Goodreads blurb (which is in German for some reason):
A special assignment for Aurelio: he is tasked with investigating the disappearance of a wealthy American resident in his hometown of Venice. The inspector immerses himself in the mysterious city of his past, once again succumbing to its morbid allure. When a skeleton is discovered near the lagoon island owned by the American, Aurelio Zen believes he sees a connection. Yet, in the hazy light of Venice, things only reveal their true nature at second glance.
A well connected old woman in Venice is being harassed by mysterious nighttime visitors. Her complaints reach Rome and Aurelio finds himself assigned to investigate. The old woman's complaints are sketchy at best, so Aurelio looks around and starts wondering about the missing American. The illegal drug trade is alive and well and when a couple of people turn up dead, Aurelio now has something to sink his teeth into. Looking for a missing package of heroin, they discover the body of the missing American, except it turns out he wasn't an American but bona-fide war criminal from the other side of the Adriatic - Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, that mess.
Meanwhile there is a populist political movement underway and Aurelio manages to get crosswise with a couple of players, mostly because of personality. Towards the end of the book we have a long foot chase (15 pages) that goes all over Venice. It's weird because there doesn't seem to be any point to it. It was so weird I made note of all the places they pass and then marked them on map. Now I'm wondering if maybe that was the whole point.
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| Dead Lagoon by Michael Dibdin |
Spreadsheet of place names and page numbers.
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