Synopses & Reviews
In Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century, Max Liebermann is at the forefront of psychoanalysis, practicing the controversial new science with all the skill of a master detective. Every dream, inflection, or slip of tongue in his hysterical patients has meaning and reveals some hidden truth. When a mysterious and beautiful medium dies under extraordinary circumstances, Max's good friend, Detective Oskar Rheinhardt, calls for his expert assistance. The medium's body has been found in a room that can only be locked from the inside. Her body has been shot, but there's no gun and absolutely no trace of a bullet. On a table lies a suicide note, claiming that there is such a thing as forbidden knowledge. All signs point to a supernatural killer, but Liebermann the scientist is not so easily convinced. He interviews the members of the medium's seance circle--a nervous locksmith, a flamboyant count, a stage magician, and others--all suspects for the impossible crime. Then one of the suspects is brutally murdered, and the pieces fall into place in Max and Oskar's hunt. Set in the Vienna of Freud, Klimt, and Mahler, a time of unprecedented activity in the worlds of philosophy, science, and art, A Death in Vienna is an elegantly written novel, taut with suspense and rich in historical details. It was a time of remarkable advances in the worlds of philosophy, science, and the arts. The coffeehouses became lively debating societies, in which the political, social, and cultural agenda of the twentieth century was set. Sigmund Freud, Arnold Schoenberg, Arthur Schnitzler, Gustav Klimt, Theodor Herzl, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Gustav Mahler were all neighbors; however, at the same time, Viennawas playing host to a quite different set of thinkers: German mystics, social Darwinists, and race theorists whose ideas would eventually be consolidated under the banner of Hitler's National Socialism. Thus, it was a place of great excitement and terrible danger.
Synopsis
In Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century, Max Liebermann is at the forefront of psychoanalysis, practicing the controversial new science with all the skill of a master detective. Every dream, inflection, or slip of tongue in his “hysterical” patients has meaning and reveals some hidden truth. When a mysterious and beautiful medium dies under extraordinary circumstances, Maxs good friend, Detective Oskar Rheinhardt, calls for his expert assistance. The mediums body has been found in a room that can only be locked from the inside. Her body has been shot, but theres no gun and absolutely no trace of a bullet. On a table lies a suicide note, claiming that there is “such a thing as forbidden knowledge." All signs point to a supernatural killer, but Liebermann the scientist is not so easily convinced. Set in the Vienna of Freud, Klimt, and Mahler, a time of unprecedented activity in the worlds of philosophy, science, and art, A Death in Vienna is an elegantly written novel, taut with suspense and rich in historical details.