Ratking (1997)

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Product Description 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. 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