I found this book frustrating/irritating, because the author was constantly describing things that are hard to describe in words, such as music and paintings and food. The book needs illustrations! And maybe an accompanying CD of German art-songs and opera excerpts!It would make an exciting movie (in the style of "The Illusionist," perhaps) or BBC miniseries. It has great settings - the opera house, the coffee shops, the reptile house at the zoo, the underground sewers (shades of Les Miz and Phantom!). Most importantly, several major turning points in the action take place through VISUAL media -- someone has an epiphany during an opera performance, or when looking at paintings in a gallery, or in getting a close look at a person's face or expression. Music is also hugely important - the sound of a singer's voice, the emotional quality of a melody. The murder mystery is MUCH more bloody and downright disgusting than the previous book ("A Death in Vienna"). This time it's a serial killer in the style of "Seven"... and I didn't find the resolution very plausible. The chapters are incredibly short (some as short as 3 pages), which adds to the sense that it really should be a movie. Although the point of view changes in every chapter (some chapters follow the detective, some follow the psychologist, some show different possible suspects), the narrative voice never changes. It's always bland and descriptive. I kept reading 'til I found out "who dunnit," and then stopped. I think Tallis is going for something along the lines of Caleb Carr's "The Alienist," but isn't willing to write at such a "literary" pace or with such moral seriousness. The most disturbing aspect of the book is not the murder mystery, but the description of various intellectual/cultural/political currents c 1900 that would all too quickly provide the basis of Nazi thought and policy. The author obviously cares about this, because he has a little "afterword" about his sources... but I felt he used it in kind of a bland and superficial way.
This one falls right on the edge of being interesting: a historical mystery/ procedural with elements pairing the development of psychoanalysis and the forensic sciences, all set in Vienna, a city I love to read about.It's a pot boiler, and lacks a real literary texture to the language; it's not as, I don't know, engaged with the language of paradox and equivocation in Freud and sort of leaps for the brass ring of Germanic racial purity in a way that seems a little convenient with the benefit of historical hindsight. But in spite of that, I thought this was an appealingly modest novel-- the mystery itself is interesting enough, and it doesn't beat you over the head with the denouement, and as a careless reader I actually had to reconstruct some things myself that increased by admiration for Tallis' discretion or maybe trust in his reader instead of making me question his chops. It really is, I suspect, a step above a traditional mystery story, without quite transcending its genre roots (which I'm not saying it needs to do, I promise). It was good enough, in short, to make me want to read the first book featuring these characters, Death in Vienna, to see if he's getting better or worse, away from the flush of Tallis first realizing he could write books like this.Matt
What do You think about Vienna Blood (2007)?
Author Frank Tallis combines gruesome crimes with the atmospheric world of fin-de-siècle Vienna. Vienna Blood is the second title in the Detective Oscar Rheinhardt series and continues the friendship of the analytical detective and the Freudian disciple, Dr. Max Liebermann. A serial killer is ritualistically butchering women. As the pair use the new sciences of forensics and psychoanalysis to investigate, they are hindered by the prejudices of their peers. The Weiner Kaffeehaus culture is wonderfully described, and will make you crave an Einspanner (dark coffee with whip cream) and Dobostort (an eight layer chocolate cake with whip cream). Contrasting that is the concern of these modern thinking men, searching for a killer who targets the vulnerable prostitutes who live in the dark side of beautiful Art Noveau Vienna. -Bethany R.
—Scottsdale Public Library
Two years have passed since I read the first installment of this series. I had it on my wishlist since and finally got to purchasing it. I was a bit hesitant before starting, for it was a 400+ pages long novel but the pleasant memory of the previous book encouraged me to keep on.Surprisingly, I was flying through the pages at a quick pace, getting reacquainted with the characters and narrative style. Perhaps the nods and winks to psychological themes and personalities don't agree with some reader but those that are familiar with them will have a few chuckles reading those bits.One thing I didn't like so much, which is actually the reason I'm not giving this book the highest rating, is that the antagonist characters weren't memorable at all, and the big number of German patronyms didn't help one bit.I'm positive I'll be getting more books of this series but I think I'll take some time to pick it up again. It seems to me that the psychoanalytic crime solving formula is good but not very versatile, so it's better to read these novels in intervals.
—Erika
I think Vienna Blood was better than Mortal Mischief, but yet there were too many frustrating little things that makes it impossible to give it more than three stars. The setting of the novel is great, the background work done well, and the characters are credible. Generally the novel is entertaining and an easy read. The problem, in my opinion, is in the mystery itself. From the start it was clear that there were only few potential bad guys, and none of them were interesting enough so that it would have mattered who the murderer actually is, and the crimes were quite ordinary for this type of books though covered with all kinds of symbols and such.
—Jenni
