Ratking is a 1988 novel by Michael Dibdin, and is the first book in the popular Aurelio Zen series, introducing readers to the Italian police commissario's morally shady world.

From the depths of a mundane desk job in Rome counting paperclips, to which he has been exiled through political fallout from the Aldo Moro kidnapping and murder, he is unexpectedly transferred to Perugia.

He is to take over a kidnapping case involving one of Italy's most powerful families, with control of a business empire at stake.

The missing head of the family is a big benefactor of one of Italy's main political parties and pressure is being applied.

The novel was adapted for television by the BBC, starring Rufus Sewell in the title role.