Michael Dibdin (21 March 1947 – 30 March 2007)[1] was a British crime fiction writer, best known for inventing Aurelio Zen, the principal character in 11 crime novels set in Italy.
After publishing his first novel, a Sherlock Holmespastiche, he lived for four years in Italy, teaching at the university in Perugia.
Dibdin is best known for his Aurelio Zen mysteries, set in Italy.[2] The first of these, Ratking, won the Gold Dagger award of 1988. This series of detective novels provide a penetrating insight into the less visible aspects of Italian society over the last 20 years. The earlier books have a lightness of touch that gradually becomes much darker. The character of Zen himself is anti-heroic, which adds much to the books' irony and black humour. A final Zen book, End Games, appeared posthumously in July 2007.
He also wrote other detective works set in America and in the UK.