Vienna Secrets: A Max Liebermann Mystery

Frank Tallis's dark novel of 2010, VIENNA SECRETS, is about how to solve three ghastly beheadings by drawing upon Jewish legends, Jewish exegesis, Jewish thought processes, the dream theory of Sigmund Freud -- and remarks on architectural history made by the English girl friend of the hero, Doctor Maxim (Max) Liebermann. ***** Liebermann is a young psychiatrist working in a prestigious Vienna hospital. Volunteering as assistant to his music-loving friend, police Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt, Dr Liebermann sets to work to tackle the mystery of three beheadings. By the time the killer is identified and brought to justice, readers of VIENNA SECRETS will have been drenched in a bath of a dozen somewhat clumsily presented clues. Only one of those clues does not require knowledge of Jewish history, legends, kabbalah and exegetical practices. ***** And that clue is planted in Liebermann's mind by Miss Lydgate, an Englishwoman who is the psychiatrist's patient. She is a polymath and, during a walk, tells him all about the architecture of the 18th century Viennese church dedicated to Saint Charles Borromeo, patron saint of plagues! The dome of the church owes much to the theory developed by and to the giant hoists created by Filippo Bruneleschi, 15th Century Florentine architect. * * * * * Let me repeat: this is a clue. When eventually applied by Liebermann to the three beheadings, Miss Lydgate's mini lecture will suggest to her psychiatrist and secret lover the method used by the killer. When that killer by chance reads the young doctor's musings in his diary, he decides that Max Liebermann must die. ***** Every other clue in the novel presupposes a thorough knowledge of Jewish legends, myths and what it is that various characters make of these Jewish clues, including the dream theory of non-practicing but culturally Jewish Professor Sigmund Freud. Fortunately, VIENNA SECRETS provides a didactic primer of all the Judaica that a reader bent on solving the beheadings must learn before he can recognize a clue as a clue. I wonder if sharing the secrets of rich Central European Jewry is not the dominant purpose of the author. If so, he does it very well. -OOO-