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| Plot Summary of Cabal |
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"A year after the events in Vendetta, detective Aurelio Zen is happily seeing Tania, who separated from the husband who erroneously accused them of having an affair the year before.
Zen is called to conduct an independent investigation of what looks like a suicide in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, which is an independent state inside Rome. A body fell from the dome -- that of Ludovico Ruspanti, an inveterate gambler and playboy from a dying noble family. Zen can tell right away it wasn't suicide, and an anonymous fax to the newspapers several days later claims Ruspanti was connected with a super-secret organization within the Knights of Malta (to whom Ruspanti belonged in an honorary sort of way). The victim also was under investigation for money laundering. The fax adds that Zen has falsified evidence to support the bogus suicide story.
As Zen follows the case, a Vatican security guard who was detailed to keep Ruspanti under surveillance gets electrocuted and a Milanese magistrate interested in prosecuting the case gets pushed under a train. But Zen has a hard time concentrating on the case because Tania, newly free from a constricting marriage, seems to be keeping secrets from her new boyfriend, too: a strange man answers her phone, and she has a lot of money that doesn't gibe with her administrative assistant position at the Ministry. This 1992 detective thriller is the third in Dibdin's Aurelio Zen series."
David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Cabal |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%
Tone of story
- Dry-cynical
How difficult to spot villain?
- Difficult, but some clues given
Time/era of story:
- 1980's-1999
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 80%
Kind of investigator
- police procedural, Foreign
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot?
- feelings towards lover
Crime Thriller
Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown)
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- police/lawman
Age:
- 40's-50's
How much violence does he/she use?
- a little
Ethnicity/Race
- Italian
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist
- kicks
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- Italy
City?
Yes
City:
- Dirty, dangerous (like New York)
Style
Part of a series?
Yes
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths?
- 3-4
Sex
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references
Unusual forms of death
- dropped from large heights
Unusual form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Click here for more information about this book
Michael Dibdin Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 David Loftus
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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