A very good mystery writer. His books are set in Italy, and Dibdin does a wonderful job of evoking the setting, the people, the ethos with well-chosen brush strokes. His characters are solid rather than just instruments for the action.
Dibdin's mysteries are also built around Italy, Italian history and Italian political culture - he must know that country very well. Each book is built around some aspect of Italian social culture - kidnapping, fascism, behind the scene machinations of big business, webs of influence between the political class and the business class, family empire infighting, feuds and old village culture. In the end, though, the crime usually comes down to individual foibles - greed, revenge, madness.
Good but completely different from Rankin. In Rankin, the individual comes more to the fore, with the social and political element further in the background. His underlying themes have more to do with social criticism and less to do with social portrayal.
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