Title: Excellent View of Venice, Lousy Plot
Product review: I love books by Pears, Swan, Reverte, and Hill, and wanted to add Dibdin to my list. But somehow this book did not quite live up to those expectations. I thought Dibdin did a fine job of recreating Venice for the reader (although one more reference to Zen having some type of coffee and grappa...). However, I never found myself caring one way or the other about the so-called mystery. At one point he solves the "ghost" story, only to be told to forget it by the offended party. The various plot lines were as various and meandering as the canals of Venice, which were all wound up into what amounts to too neat an ending. I may read another Zen mystery but not for awhile, and not until I'm at a loss for another book.
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