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Rating: 
Summary: Quick Read of Immense Images
Review: Michael Dibdin's 'The Dying of the Light' is a short, contrived, sometimes brutal little mystery, but it shines beautifully within all the aforementioned characteristics. It is just the write length, the contrived plot is what makes it tick, and the brutality, though shocking and disdainful, sticks in your mind long after the book has been closed, leaving an indelible mark. The novel starts out with Rosemary and Dorothy, two old ladies who are friends at what we believe to be something of a manor house, or possibly an old-fashioned hotel? At any rate, the story begins with a list of stock murder mystery suspects reminiscent of the golden-age crime capers. They are all gathered in a cozy lounge, and we believe Rosemary and Dorothy to be our sleuths. Soon, however, events unfold, and we discover that we have been tricked by the sly author, Dibdin. The awful, creeping realization of where exactly our two old ladies are, and what is transpiring there, is the first of many chilling plot twists that take place. Many mysterious and even horrible things begin to happen once the book gets going, and our two elderly heroins *do* become sleuths (sort of), and some of the other characters peppering the book make for good adversaries. As I said earlier, it is all somewhat contrived, but as long as you just go along with it, you should have a bracing read. Some parts of novel are intense, some parts slightly comical, but *every* part is of interest. If you have a nice, solitary evening free, draw the curtains, dim the lights, and settle-in for 'The Dying of the Light'. It is a mystery of a different kind.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprise, shock, but don?t degrade
Review: The solution to this mystery, "The Dying Of The Light", is as clever as any of Mr. Dibdin's work. The matching of wits, the misdirection, and words so carefully chosen, create a wonderful adversary for the inspector. That his adversary is at least an octogenarian, creates a duel that is just that more interesting. This story is a bit like the board game that requires the players to solve, who did what to whom, where was it done, and what was the weapon of choice. The setting is a home for the aged, and the environment is which they live could be described as one created by a satanic Dickens. This atmosphere is what I did not care for. A good mystery does not require the degradation of a character, humiliation does not shock as much as it makes the reader uncomfortable, and for me it does nothing but detract from the tale. I have commented on many other of this Author's work, so I will not repeat the thoughts here. The resolution was excellent, the action leading to it however, barely made the book a worthy read.
Rating:
Summary: Surprise, shock, but don¿t degrade
Review: The solution to this mystery, "The Dying Of The Light", is as clever as any of Mr. Dibdin's work. The matching of wits, the misdirection, and words so carefully chosen, create a wonderful adversary for the inspector. That his adversary is at least an octogenarian, creates a duel that is just that more interesting. This story is a bit like the board game that requires the players to solve, who did what to whom, where was it done, and what was the weapon of choice. The setting is a home for the aged, and the environment is which they live could be described as one created by a satanic Dickens. This atmosphere is what I did not care for. A good mystery does not require the degradation of a character, humiliation does not shock as much as it makes the reader uncomfortable, and for me it does nothing but detract from the tale. I have commented on many other of this Author's work, so I will not repeat the thoughts here. The resolution was excellent, the action leading to it however, barely made the book a worthy read.
Rating: 
Summary: Delicious
Review: This is a relatively minor work from Dibdin, more a long short story than a novel. It's set in Eventide Lodge, an appalling old people's home lost in some obscure corner of England where cheap crook Anderson assisted by the sadistic, foulmouthed Miss Davis operate a regime of systematic neglect and abuse, an environment which inmates Dorothy and Rosemary make bearable by a make-believe game in which they are both intrepid amateur sleuths. But Dorothy's planned removal to hospital threatens to strip them of even this comfort. Thus the stage is set for a characteristically delicious mystery story in which things fail with admirable persistence to be at all what they seem. Simultaneously bleak and witty, it isn't Dibdin at his finest but it is certainly fine.
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