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Dirty Tricks
A comedy of manners, a mystery thriller, and a sardonic satire whose deliciously unscrupulous narrator claims that everything he did regarding his victims was “market-led,” Dirty Tricks is pure entertainment from one of the most inventive writers around.
When the nameless narrator embarks upon an affair with Karen, a seemingly vapid P.E. teacher married to a boring accountant, he does not know her fetish is for adultery while her husband is in the room or loitering nearby. But once he finds out, he doesn’t care. He has been abroad for twenty years, and since his return to merry old England he’s been startlingly uninhibited by morals or a conscience. Which is not only why he eventually gets involved with blackmail, a kidnapping, and two murders, but also how, with hilariously syllogistic logic, he’s able to justify his role in all of it.
When the nameless narrator embarks upon an affair with Karen, a seemingly vapid P.E. teacher married to a boring accountant, he does not know her fetish is for adultery while her husband is in the room or loitering nearby. But once he finds out, he doesn’t care. He has been abroad for twenty years, and since his return to merry old England he’s been startlingly uninhibited by morals or a conscience. Which is not only why he eventually gets involved with blackmail, a kidnapping, and two murders, but also how, with hilariously syllogistic logic, he’s able to justify his role in all of it.
258 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1991
27 people are currently reading
665 people want to read
About the author
Michael Dibdin
128 books176 followersMichael Dibdin was born in 1947. He went to school in Northern Ireland, and later to Sussex University and the University of Alberta in Canada. He lived in Seattle. After completing his first novel, The Last Sherlock Holmes Story, in 1978, he spent four years in Italy teaching English at the University of Perugia. His second novel, A Rich Full Death, was published in 1986. It was followed by Ratking in 1988, which won the Gold Dagger Award for the Best Crime Novel of the year and introduced us to his Italian detective - Inspector Aurelio Zen.
Dibdin was married three times, most recently to the novelist K. K. Beck. His death in 2007 followed a short illness.
Series:
* Aurelio Zen
Dibdin was married three times, most recently to the novelist K. K. Beck. His death in 2007 followed a short illness.
Series:
* Aurelio Zen
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
March 29, 2009
Clever stuff, very funny. The book takes the form of a long statement to the court as a polished, well-educated cad explains how through no fault of his own he came to be accused of two murders and assorted mayhem. Set in and around Oxford, there's a lot of close observation of class and climbing, which would be entertaining enough on its own, but the book is both tightly plotted and well-wrought on a sentence level, and the ongoing revelation of the narrator's self-serving nature is as delightful as it is nasty.
First book I've read by Dibden; I will surely read more.
First book I've read by Dibden; I will surely read more.
April 1, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in January 1999.
I'm in two minds about Dirty Tricks. On the one hand, it is excellently written and occasionally very funny. On the other, the character of the narrator and the events he describes are so convincingly unpleasant that I found it difficult to bring myself to read more than a few pages at a time, and am distinctly dubious about whether I would want to read other books by Dibdin.
The scenario is that the book is basically a transcription of an address made to a court in South America opposing an attempt by the British to have the speaker extradited to stand trial for a double murder. The narrator begins by claiming that he is going to tell the truth throughout - but then he would, of course. He admits to a variety of other crimes, but his aim is to persuade the court that he may not have committed the murder, as that is the only crime covered by the extradition treaty.
He started out as a teacher of English in a seedy language school in Oxford, one basically set up to make as much money as possible without regarding the standard of the education passed on to its students. There he is ground down by Clive, his employer and owner of the language school, his aspirations and ideals engendered by being a student in Oxford in the hippie era gradually abandoned in the realities of life in Thatcherite Britain. Then he meets a couple from north Oxford, Dennis and Karen, and is seduced by Karen at a dinner party.
Dennis and Karen have something the narrator does not - money - and he has something they do not - culture - and so their acquaintance ripens, along with his affair with Karen. Then Dennis dies, apparently in a boating accident - or rather, say the police later, a carefully pre-meditated plot by the narrator, who marries Karen after a barely decent interval. It is not until Karen herself dies, with evidence pointing at her new lover, Clive, that the police become interested. (The interrogation carried out by Chief Inspector Moss, a parody of Morse, infuriatingly more interested in the crossword than the crime, is another funny touch.)
The whole account raises an issue, which has been of importance to several influential twentieth century writers - the question, of how trustworthy a first person narrative is. It is abundantly clear from the way that the narrator here expresses himself (and the circumstances in which the story is set) that he would have no qualms in falsifying events if it would make him look better and save himself from a return to England and prison, and the reader certainly has no way to know whether or not he has done so. Gide is the master at casting doubt on a narrative, particularly in The Counterfeiters, but his doubts are aimed at overturning the traditional omniscience of a third person narrator rather than at deliberate falsification. The way in which people colour their perception of a scene even in their own mind is of course a major concern in stream-of-consciousness narratives. Dirty Tricks is using a technique which is closely allied to that of the epistolary novel, where a variety of correspondents give their own viewpoint on events, or novels like Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being or Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost, where the same events are told from different points of view, so different in the first case that it takes the reader some time to realise that they are the same events. These comparisons to other literary experiments in narrative give an idea of the quality of Dibdin's writing; nevertheless, the narrator's character is so repulsive as to be distinctly off-putting.
I'm in two minds about Dirty Tricks. On the one hand, it is excellently written and occasionally very funny. On the other, the character of the narrator and the events he describes are so convincingly unpleasant that I found it difficult to bring myself to read more than a few pages at a time, and am distinctly dubious about whether I would want to read other books by Dibdin.
The scenario is that the book is basically a transcription of an address made to a court in South America opposing an attempt by the British to have the speaker extradited to stand trial for a double murder. The narrator begins by claiming that he is going to tell the truth throughout - but then he would, of course. He admits to a variety of other crimes, but his aim is to persuade the court that he may not have committed the murder, as that is the only crime covered by the extradition treaty.
He started out as a teacher of English in a seedy language school in Oxford, one basically set up to make as much money as possible without regarding the standard of the education passed on to its students. There he is ground down by Clive, his employer and owner of the language school, his aspirations and ideals engendered by being a student in Oxford in the hippie era gradually abandoned in the realities of life in Thatcherite Britain. Then he meets a couple from north Oxford, Dennis and Karen, and is seduced by Karen at a dinner party.
Dennis and Karen have something the narrator does not - money - and he has something they do not - culture - and so their acquaintance ripens, along with his affair with Karen. Then Dennis dies, apparently in a boating accident - or rather, say the police later, a carefully pre-meditated plot by the narrator, who marries Karen after a barely decent interval. It is not until Karen herself dies, with evidence pointing at her new lover, Clive, that the police become interested. (The interrogation carried out by Chief Inspector Moss, a parody of Morse, infuriatingly more interested in the crossword than the crime, is another funny touch.)
The whole account raises an issue, which has been of importance to several influential twentieth century writers - the question, of how trustworthy a first person narrative is. It is abundantly clear from the way that the narrator here expresses himself (and the circumstances in which the story is set) that he would have no qualms in falsifying events if it would make him look better and save himself from a return to England and prison, and the reader certainly has no way to know whether or not he has done so. Gide is the master at casting doubt on a narrative, particularly in The Counterfeiters, but his doubts are aimed at overturning the traditional omniscience of a third person narrator rather than at deliberate falsification. The way in which people colour their perception of a scene even in their own mind is of course a major concern in stream-of-consciousness narratives. Dirty Tricks is using a technique which is closely allied to that of the epistolary novel, where a variety of correspondents give their own viewpoint on events, or novels like Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being or Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost, where the same events are told from different points of view, so different in the first case that it takes the reader some time to realise that they are the same events. These comparisons to other literary experiments in narrative give an idea of the quality of Dibdin's writing; nevertheless, the narrator's character is so repulsive as to be distinctly off-putting.
March 27, 2015
This book has some clever attributes and some overly bawdy parts. The story line is different and clever.
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February 14, 2014This was my first Dibden novel (I chose a stand-alone, not the first Aurelio Zen, since I didn't want to commit to another series right now), but it certainly won't be my last. DIRTY TRICKS comes across like some bizarre combination of Graham Greene and Roald Dahl, with a few splashes of mid-'80's Martin Amis (brutal class satire) and Vladimir Nabokov (delightful verbal play--of course, that's Amis too) thrown in for extra zest. Fans of traditional "pulp fiction" may not like this novel, because it's so well-written (or, the damning descriptor, "literary")--in fact, it's so well-written the prose almost embarrasses the subject matter, and at times made me wonder why Dibdin is writing this kind of stuff and not Booker Prize candidates. (The novel is a fairly archetypical adultery-becomes-murder tale, the kind Cain nailed nearly a century ago, but redeemed by a dazzlingly deranged unreliable narrator.) I think this novel will also be more appreciated by readers who have some understanding of late 20th Century British society--e.g., the failed, snarky Oxford don; the overachieving management consultant who has lots of money but no real taste; the vapid but self-improving upper middle class trophy wife. BUT, all that said, DIRTY TRICKS is a roaringly entertaining read: surprising, funny, intelligently mean, and (as the title suggests) both tricky AND so dirty I found myself at times almost uncomfortable reading it. But in a good way.
January 9, 2025
“How simple life would be, if it was as simple as we think!”
“The attitudes and assumptions I'd grown up with had been razed to the ground, and a bold new society had risen in their place, a free-enterprise, demand-driven, flaunt-it-and-fuck-you society, dedicated to excellence and achievement.”
“The author of these words clearly had his pen in one hand and his dick in the other, and had forgotten which was which.”
“Not only can't you always get what you want, half the time you get what you don't need either.”
“That's why people invent gods, even vicious, vengeful ones, to account for all the awful things that happen.”
“What makes the world go round is not love or kindness, they'd learn, but greed and envy.”
“The beauty of the dead, I was beginning to realize, is that you cannot just speak ill of them, you can say what the hell you like without the slightest fear of contradiction.”
“It's astonishing how much damage you can do once you put your mind to it.”
“There is no such thing as society, only individuals engaged in a constant unremitting struggle for personal advantage.”
-Michael Dibdin
“The attitudes and assumptions I'd grown up with had been razed to the ground, and a bold new society had risen in their place, a free-enterprise, demand-driven, flaunt-it-and-fuck-you society, dedicated to excellence and achievement.”
“The author of these words clearly had his pen in one hand and his dick in the other, and had forgotten which was which.”
“Not only can't you always get what you want, half the time you get what you don't need either.”
“That's why people invent gods, even vicious, vengeful ones, to account for all the awful things that happen.”
“What makes the world go round is not love or kindness, they'd learn, but greed and envy.”
“The beauty of the dead, I was beginning to realize, is that you cannot just speak ill of them, you can say what the hell you like without the slightest fear of contradiction.”
“It's astonishing how much damage you can do once you put your mind to it.”
“There is no such thing as society, only individuals engaged in a constant unremitting struggle for personal advantage.”
-Michael Dibdin
January 30, 2013
This novel reminded me very much of Nabokov's "Lolita," not because there's any pedophilia in Dibdin's "Dirty Tricks" (there isn't), but because its narrator, like Nabokov's Humbert Humbert, is so cruel and humorous, simultaneously witty and sadistic. In other words, this novel, much like "Lolita," starts out pleasantly enough, a social satire, on the lines of the Way We Live Now, as told by a man on trial for murder (which may or may not be justifiable homicide), and quickly turns into a nightmare, in which the reader finds him/herself complicit in the very worst crimes imaginable, if only for the reason that we started out sympathizing with this seemingly very likable person, the narrator, who instead has turned out to be the most appalling person imaginable. The shock of recognition -- evil made flesh -- is horrific, when it comes. So I'm not surprised that many people found this book unreadable in the end. I find "Lolita" unreadable, too, now that I know what it's really about.
September 9, 2025
2.5. Some parts acutely observed and funny but not caring about the protagonist is, for me, a problem. On the plus side it was a quick read.
April 15, 2013
Hilarious and sad and, yes, very, very clever. RIP Margaret Thatcher.
did-not-finish
December 16, 2019Clearing out my to-read list 2020 (starting early).
Read about half. Interesting at first – not least as a time capsule of early-90s British sociocultural references and humour, most of which now seem deeply, desperately unfashionable. Runs out of steam after a while, and I grew tired of spending time in the odious narrator's head.
Read about half. Interesting at first – not least as a time capsule of early-90s British sociocultural references and humour, most of which now seem deeply, desperately unfashionable. Runs out of steam after a while, and I grew tired of spending time in the odious narrator's head.
October 7, 2015
Finished it quickly and it was enjoyable / funny in parts, and certainly diverting.
But an odd mix of farce, social commentary and then crime / thriller.
The narrator is unpleasant, a sort of wannabe intellectual snob, but also a conniving, sexist egoist. He can't be wrong, despite frequently being so. The sex cents, with an affair being carried out in secret feet from the husband seemed unreal (surely Karen would have told) was funny in way described, but not real. The way he lied about wanting children to con her into marrying him was shocking and the best bit in the book. The reveal of the earlier vasectomy was brilliant. But the marriage to Karen was unreal in terms of his social climbing, and he appeared to have no plan to get rid of her, just exploit. At this point I went past suspended disbelief to incredulity, but actually starting liking (or at least appreciating) the narrator more.
I felt the social climbing was a bit out of date for when it was written - seemed a bit Kingsley Amis (a writer I've never really got on with) which is a decade or two earlier when I think the social need barriers were stronger
I wouldn't recommend it to people I don't know really well as they might not like it at all, but I would be interested in their opinions.
But an odd mix of farce, social commentary and then crime / thriller.
The narrator is unpleasant, a sort of wannabe intellectual snob, but also a conniving, sexist egoist. He can't be wrong, despite frequently being so. The sex cents, with an affair being carried out in secret feet from the husband seemed unreal (surely Karen would have told) was funny in way described, but not real. The way he lied about wanting children to con her into marrying him was shocking and the best bit in the book. The reveal of the earlier vasectomy was brilliant. But the marriage to Karen was unreal in terms of his social climbing, and he appeared to have no plan to get rid of her, just exploit. At this point I went past suspended disbelief to incredulity, but actually starting liking (or at least appreciating) the narrator more.
I felt the social climbing was a bit out of date for when it was written - seemed a bit Kingsley Amis (a writer I've never really got on with) which is a decade or two earlier when I think the social need barriers were stronger
I wouldn't recommend it to people I don't know really well as they might not like it at all, but I would be interested in their opinions.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 19, 2013
An enormously clever book with some very beautifully drawn characters. The protagonist is a first rate cad, adventurer, opportunist, shameless and cynical exploiter of women. He has a contempt for the English upper middle class, their mediocre Readers Digest minds, their snobbish aspirations and the like. However, this doesn't stop him from wanting to have what they have.
He is prepared to use his skills in flattery and seduction to gain advantage. Having a lack of genuine feeling is no barrier to him. The kinds of people that he is dealing with himself are themselves often not very genuine. They are also trying to better themselves though association with brands, schools, affiliations that lend status to their positions in society.
The results are quite hilarious. He is a difficult character to warm towards, for want of any good qualities in his nature. And being a wheeler and dealer he is smart enough to come out relatively unscathed. Looking back on the trail of adventuring, it seems that the one redeeming thing that makes such actions somehow forgivable is that he is playing others at their own game.
He is prepared to use his skills in flattery and seduction to gain advantage. Having a lack of genuine feeling is no barrier to him. The kinds of people that he is dealing with himself are themselves often not very genuine. They are also trying to better themselves though association with brands, schools, affiliations that lend status to their positions in society.
The results are quite hilarious. He is a difficult character to warm towards, for want of any good qualities in his nature. And being a wheeler and dealer he is smart enough to come out relatively unscathed. Looking back on the trail of adventuring, it seems that the one redeeming thing that makes such actions somehow forgivable is that he is playing others at their own game.
August 18, 2012
Though this first person narrative does contain some crime it is essentially a satire on Oxford society at the time it was written (round about 1990) and takes the form of a farce. There are numerous barbed shafts and a great deal of wit. The narrator is not a likeable person, but he is observant and claims he is trying to be honest, though as with any first person narrative we would expect him to be least honest about himself and his motives.
He is given to dispensing judgements on others, which provides an outlet for his unflattering take on society. Of the many I could quote, this is my favourite.
‘Let’s face it, those who can, have fun. The others, too poor in pocket or spirit, have children. Any parent who says he enjoys it is a liar. You might as well say you enjoy being crippled.’
(Vintage edition, page 102)
The book is entertaining and well written. How much of the social observation still holds good today I cannot tell without spending some time in Oxford, which I don’t intend to do.
He is given to dispensing judgements on others, which provides an outlet for his unflattering take on society. Of the many I could quote, this is my favourite.
‘Let’s face it, those who can, have fun. The others, too poor in pocket or spirit, have children. Any parent who says he enjoys it is a liar. You might as well say you enjoy being crippled.’
(Vintage edition, page 102)
The book is entertaining and well written. How much of the social observation still holds good today I cannot tell without spending some time in Oxford, which I don’t intend to do.
June 2, 2020
I have read the first four books of Dibdin's detective Aurelio Zen series and enjoyed them immensely. But they are nothing like this stand-alone comic crime novel. Didbin's nameless narrator is a real piece of work; cruel and clever, witty and sadistic, he's as misanthropic and misogynistic as you can imagine, and he's very funny at times for all that. Dibdin's writing has never been better and his characters are finely drawn. And it zips right along. While it took me a few days to finish, I could easily see finishing this in one night if you devoted the evening to it. It would be a evening well spent, I assure you. Most highly recommended; 5 stars.
February 22, 2024
Leesplezier van start tot einde!
September 15, 2014
Despite the cleverness of the writing, the structure, plot and the use of language, the content was not pleasant, and the humor, though present, was not enough to balance out the unsavory tone. Granted, this was intended as a satire on conventional mores, but that said, the end is no justification of the means.
Nevertheless, I did finish reading it, something I wouldn't have done had the bk been without merit. It did have merit: the astute observations of the rampant prevalence of self-serving motives in post-Thatcher UK were formidable, as were the descriptions of class-consciousness. Let's just say I found the book a rather interesting but disturbing read.
Nevertheless, I did finish reading it, something I wouldn't have done had the bk been without merit. It did have merit: the astute observations of the rampant prevalence of self-serving motives in post-Thatcher UK were formidable, as were the descriptions of class-consciousness. Let's just say I found the book a rather interesting but disturbing read.
October 12, 2015
So disappointed with this book. I have always enjoyed Dibdin's writing in the Aurelio Zen series and was looking forward to this book, but found it so unreadable that I couldn't finish it. The Zen series have humour and sharply observed characters, and Zen's cynical view of the world and his attempts to navigate the complexity of the Italian beurocracy are a joy. The first person recount of the sordid story didn't work for me, maybe because the character was so unlikeable and shallow. Just a bleak, humourless tale. Disappointing.
September 19, 2016
Fantastic little book. This is my very first Dibdin, and I'm floored by both his style and his narrative, as well as his amazing vocabulary. The things that happen over the course of the book are both dirty as well as immensely enjoyable, and I greatly enjoy intelligent protagonists caught up in a world of mediocre, sub-par characters. Witty, sarcastic, brilliantly plotted and just enough twists and turns to keep the flow highly interesting. Certainly not for those on moral high horses.
I'm going to take a shot at Dibdin's Aurelio Zen series now.
I'm going to take a shot at Dibdin's Aurelio Zen series now.
June 13, 2015
I can't seem to put less than one star and since I didn't get past page 37, I shouldn't have to rate it at all. From the first page, I disliked the narrator. And on page 37 there was a sentence so vulgar that I just tossed the book on the floor and said "the hell with this". I am NOT a prude and cuss like a sailor, but the combination just turned me off. At the ripe old age of 55, I finally allowed myself the freedom to just stop reading a book I plain didn't like.
Want to read
July 14, 2016* 1000 novels everyone must read: the definitive list: Crime
Selected by the Guardian's Review team and a panel of expert judges, this list includes only novels – no memoirs, no short stories, no long poems – from any decade and in any language. Originally published in thematic supplements – love, crime, comedy, family and self, state of the nation, science fiction and fantasy, war and travel – they appear here for the first time.
Selected by the Guardian's Review team and a panel of expert judges, this list includes only novels – no memoirs, no short stories, no long poems – from any decade and in any language. Originally published in thematic supplements – love, crime, comedy, family and self, state of the nation, science fiction and fantasy, war and travel – they appear here for the first time.
May 9, 2008
Superb, I raced through this comedy/thriller in a couple of days. Very sharp, funny with some involuntary laugh-out-loud in-public descriptions. Spot on with his nouveau-rich Thatcher loving twats characters.
Bev if you manage to get hold of the Martin Clunes adaptation I'd certainly want a look. I could imagine Harry Enfield doing a good Dennis. Arf!
Bev if you manage to get hold of the Martin Clunes adaptation I'd certainly want a look. I could imagine Harry Enfield doing a good Dennis. Arf!
May 17, 2011
Fun book, last read this about twenty years ago. Its nice to visit an old friend again.
It's mainly a commentary on the comedy of class and behavior with classes in the UK. There's some fun parodies of Inspector Morse etc in there too.
The narrator is wonderfully untrustworthy. There are times when you feel you want to believe him and then his behavior escalates once more.
It's mainly a commentary on the comedy of class and behavior with classes in the UK. There's some fun parodies of Inspector Morse etc in there too.
The narrator is wonderfully untrustworthy. There are times when you feel you want to believe him and then his behavior escalates once more.
June 30, 2008
An absorbing plot, but no sympathetic characters. Also, I felt by being untrained in British humour, I missed ninety percent of the wit. Someone should write a book about farting or people falling down or people falling down and farting when they hit the ground.
March 20, 2009
As funny as Grahame Greene in his humorous moods, and as sinister as Donald Westlake when he's being gruesome. Add in a big dollop of social satire about Britain in the Thatcher era, and I chortled my way through this book--except for the moments when I was well and truly horrified.
March 14, 2013
Agony to read ! Very clever writing as usual but it's hard to read something from the perspective of such a sociopathic character. I couldn't stop reading ... A few pages at a time but then it was too much.
December 2, 2015
Haven't read a Dibdin novel is some time and must have forgotten how "English" his writing is. There were any number of words and references that would have been edited if the intent was to broaden its appeal across the pond. Cunning ending!
January 9, 2017
It was rather un-nerving to find that I have things in common with a really nasty unreliable narrator.
Clever writing but I cringe at certain graphic sex/violence passages, otherwise I would have given it more stars.
I would read it again for the humour.
Clever writing but I cringe at certain graphic sex/violence passages, otherwise I would have given it more stars.
I would read it again for the humour.
August 3, 2017
Cleverly written mystery/thriller -- the first I have read by this author. Comments on men and women and their relationships with each other were often hilarious. A lot of graphic sex, so if that turns you off, forget about this one. If not, the sex was also cleverly written...
September 7, 2017
I adore the Aurelio Zen series but find his other books sometimes difficult. These characters were so unlikeable that I couldn't wait for it to be over. I would have stopped reading it but was encouraged by some of the reviews.
March 1, 2009
entertaining, funny, and completely unlike his 'Zen' stories
July 8, 2009
I didn't like this. it's not horrible but it's just mean and while I assume we are supposed to enjoy the narrator's exploits I just found it mean and unappealing
Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews