Vienna Secrets (Max Liebermann Series #4)

Marilyn Stasio

…Max's efforts to debunk hysterical fears of a murderous golem running amok won't be enough to hold off the gathering political storm. But for the course of this elegantly designed and executed period mystery, it's ever so satisfying to watch an intelligent man of science make a monkey out of the ignoramuses who would too soon take over this civilized society.
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Tallis's excellent fourth puzzler set in early 20th-century Vienna (after 2008's Fatal Lies) neatly blends mystery and history. A scary series of murders, which may have a supernatural component, challenge psychiatrist Max Liebermann and Det. Insp. Oskar Rheinhardt. Two men, both with a track record of anti-Semitism, have turned up dead, their heads ripped from their bodies by some powerful force beyond the capacity of a single killer. The first, Brother Stanislav, was a regular contributor to Das Vaterland, a right-wing Catholic newspaper, and spoke at a rally that ended with the fatal stabbing of a young Jewish boy. The second victim, city councillor Burke Faust, had also fomented hatred. An important clue comes from a witness who heard a “whirring sound, like a giant insect” near one crime scene. Meanwhile, Liebermann's defense of a dying patient's rights puts him at odds with the Catholic church. Fans of Caleb Carr will feel right at home. (Apr.)

Library Journal

In this fourth series title featuring psychoanalyst Max Liebermann in 1903 Vienna (after Fatal Lies), Tallis again combines murder with elegant, erudite descriptions of a period and place in which modern, scientific, and rational thought clash with prejudice, ignorance, and racial hatred. When he's called by his police friend Rheinhardt to help investigate the decapitated corpse of a monk, both men are baffled. Then a rising politician meets a similar fate, and it appears that Jews may be at fault. Nonreligious Liebermann is forced to confront his own Jewish heritage as he discovers discomfiting similarities to a Jewish myth of the golem, a Frankenstein-like creature of monstrous strength. With his professional position threatened by anti-Semitic forces, his love life in shambles, and his beliefs shaken by questions about collective racial memory, Liebermann must use language and dream analysis plus scientific training to make sense of these mystic elements. VERDICT As in Tallis's earlier works, the murder mystery is almost second to larger themes involving dreams, architecture, music, racial politics, and even pastries in a Vienna that we realize is soon to break apart. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 12/09.]—Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

Kirkus Reviews

Grisly murders shock an elegant city. In turn-of-the-century Vienna, Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt calls his friend Dr. Max Liebermann to examine a horrific murder scene. Piarist monk Brother Stanislav has been decapitated, his head literally torn from his body. The first wave of questioning depicts the victim as a saintly sort, with no enemies, but a fellow monk later reveals that Stanislav wrote several articles for the anti-Semitic Vaterland. Indeed, anti-Semitism is flourishing in Vienna. To compete with golden-boy rival Burke Faust and curry the mayor's favor, Councillor Julius Schmidt proposes bigoted initiatives. By contrast, a Jewish study group led by charismatic Rebbe Barash sees the hand of God in the murder. Liebermann inadvertently steps into the middle of this simmering conflict when he prevents a priest from giving the last rites to a dissolute young baron who's finally at peace and oblivious to his imminent death. Liebermann and Rheinhardt share their theories during informal musical evenings, with Liebermann at the keyboard and Rheinhardt on vocals. In the nights that follow, Liebermann, who's recently broken off his engagement, has increasingly graphic dreams about his feminist friend Amelia Lydgate. When Faust is found decapitated like Stanislav, the case goes from an aberration to a serial killing. The only clue is the thick dark mud found at both murder scenes. In Liebermann's fourth case (Fatal Lies, 2009, etc.), Tallis again paints an elaborate portrait of Vienna. The precision and economy of his intelligent prose keep his story in balance and tension high.