VIENNA BLOOD by Frank Tallis

This is one of my trade paperbacks that I bought while on 'E-Time' on Fr 6/6/08 and finished reading at FitClub West on We 9/24/08.

Refinished 3/24/24

It's a Police Procedural set in Vienna, Austria in 1902. There is a serial killer on the loose and he is targeting people that are somehow connected to characters in Mozart's 'Magic Flute'. 

Detecitive Oskar Rheinhardt- he is similar to Sherlock Holmes and he works the case with Max Liebermann who is an early psychologist (Alienist?).

***The day before I started the novel I saw a film {THE CORSAGE}about Empress Elisabeth of the Habsburg empire. She lived in a 1,400 room castle called the Schonnbrunn Palace. It is featured in 'VIENNA BLOOD'. 

Sigmund Freud is a minor character in the novel. He recommends cocaine as a cure for heroin addiction.  

From the book's page at GoodReads:

"The second in the Dr. Max Liebermann series, literature’s first psychoanalytic detective.

In the grip of a Siberian winter in 1902, a serial killer in Vienna embarks upon a bizarre campaign of murder. Vicious mutilation, a penchant for arcane symbols, and a seemingly random choice of victim are his most distinctive peculiarities. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt summons a young disciple of Freud - his friend Dr. Max Liebermann — to assist him with the case. The investigation draws them into the sphere of Vienna’s secret societies — a murky underworld of German literary scholars, race theorists, and scientists inspired by the new evolutionary theories coming out of England. At first, the killer’s mind seems impenetrable — his behaviour and cryptic clues impervious to psychoanalytic interpretation; however, gradually, it becomes apparent that an extraordinary and shocking rationale underlies his actions. . . .

Against this backdrop of mystery and terror, Liebermann struggles with his own demons. The treatment of a patient suffering from paranoia erotica (a delusion of love) and his own fascination with the enigmatic Englishwoman Amelia Lydgate raises doubts concerning the propriety of his imminent marriage. To resolve the dilemma, he must entertain the unthinkable — risking opprobrium and accusations of cowardice."

*******

From the book's page at Kirkus Reviews:

"An alarmingly prolific serial killer terrorizes turn-of-the-century Vienna.

Police inspector Oskar Rheinhardt is called to a modest house in the rundown Spittelberg district where a madam and three young prostitutes have been brutally murdered. The only definite clue is an enigmatic symbol scrawled on a wall. (It takes Sigmund Freud himself, chapters later, to identify it as a swastika, from the Sanskrit.) As in previous cases, Rheinhardt consults brilliant psychotherapist Max Liebermann, a classically trained pianist who also provides the accompaniment for Rheinhardt’s singing on their musical evenings. Because the weapon appears to be a saber, Rheinhardt begins with the questioning of a swaggering company of military officers. Amelia Lydgate, a feminist doctor with a knowledge of advanced forensic techniques, helps with blood analysis. Liebermann, recently engaged to the beautiful Clara, finds himself inconveniently attracted to the vibrant physician. Two more murders, of a Czech street vendor and the Nubian servant to an influential professor, confirm the presence of a serial killer but bring Rheinhardt no closer to his identity. Could he be connected to Vienna’s recent upsurge of xenophobia, or to the bizarre zoo killing of boa constrictor Hildegard, the emperor’s favorite snake, ritualistically cut into three pieces?

In this intricate sequel to the award-winning A Death in Vienna (2006), Tallis uses his knowledge of medicine, music, psychology and history to create an endlessly fascinating portrait of 1902 Vienna."

I would most definitely read more books by Frank Tallis. His knowledge of history and psychiatry really make the book 'come alive'. 

RABBIT AT REST by John Updike

 Finished Fr 3/15/24

I know I had read this one before, but the first time through this trade edition. The whole series is one of my favorite literary creations of all time. 

Harry is a pretty selfish and self-serving guy, but the beautiful descriptions of his environment tend to highlight the difference- A broken human in a alluring and divine world.

I was blown away when Harry sleeps with Pru, his daughter-in-law. Harry was clearly in the wrong, but the Angstroms blame Pru because she was 'so alluring'. 

The book's review at Independent.co.uk:

"My choice is almost entirely self-serving. I have just looked, and see that I have 23 books by John Updike. In 2006, he suggested me to write the foreword (it ended up as an afterword) for the new Penguin edition of Rabbit at Rest. So in a sense I am trying to attach myself to the great man's memory by choosing it as my Book of a Lifetime.

Other books which were highly influential – a different thing from literary favourites – were Peter Abrahams's Mine Boy and Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. In their very different ways, these two books opened my eyes at a very young age to what was going on in South Africa. I was about 17 when I first read anything by Updike, Pigeon Feathers. I was entranced. Although there are many books which are more obviously striking and even ground-breaking, Updike's novels - to use his own phrase – "take the ordinary and give it is beautiful due". He also said that he had no instinct for social criticism.

Rabbit at Rest is a wonderful book, honest, detailed, perceptive and moving. Although quietly charming and without any symptoms of Bohemia, Updike was ruthlessly forensic with his characters. His description of Rabbit's wayward son, Nelson, is devastating: in contrast to the free pass to life that Rabbit grants himself – he is, in his reckoning, tall, athletic, open and attractive, with a full head of hair - his son is small, balding and furtive with a drug habit and – worse – a trite kind of philophy, confidently uttered. How accurately Updike captures the new banality.

Updike wrote: "Rabbit Angstrom was for me a way in – a ticket to the America all around me." And this, I think, is his beautiful legacy: that, for all his profligacy, he was always a generous and observant chronicler of America and the ordinary life, ever mindful of his own background in small-town Pennsylvania.

I think that Rabbit at Rest may be the finest America novel of the late 20th century. And it has my name on it, in very small print, on the Penguin editon, which is a source of pride to me."

I loved the book and have read the earlier books within the last couple of years. 

 

HOPE OF HEAVEN by John O'Hara

Finished We 3/6/24

This is a novel that I bought for my Kindle ($1.99). I also bought 'BUTTERFIELD 8' ($4.99).

 

THE GREEN RIPPER by John D. McDonald

 This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I first completed on Fr 2/18/94 and refinished Mo 3/4/24. {Also the day that Joe's sister, Bonnie died of complications from lung cancer}.

This was a Travis McGee novel that was a cut above his earlier adventures. In this novel he is looking to destroy leaders of a religious cult that have turned into a domestic terrorist outfit. 

Much of the action takes place at the cult's camp. In the end he must fight twelve soldiers that have been highly schooled in weapons training and hand to hand fighting.

The love of Travis's life was killed by these terrorists because she recognized one of their leaders. He infiltrates the camp claiming that he is looking for his daughter who joined the group.

From a review at 'The View From The Blue House;:

"Travis McGee, salvage consultant and some-time detective, has finally found love with the lithe, Gretel.  Working at fat farm/real estate development as an all-round help – running with the fatties, coaching tennis, looking after the paperwork – Gretel has managed to stumble across a secretive organisation plotting a terrorist incident.  A fanatical religious sect, with cold war enemy connections, is trying to buy twenty acres of undeveloped land.  Only Gretel recognises one of the men, having encountered him when trying to rescue the sister of her former husband from the cult.  In order to protect their cover, the sect murder Gretel, and in so doing ignite the wrath of McGee.  Going undercover, expressly against wishes of the feds, McGee infiltrates the cult with the aim of exacting revenge.

The Green Ripper is the 18th McGee novel in a series of twenty one.  Macdonald writes elegantly in an easy and engaging style.  His characterisation is excellent, and he has a keen eye for observing and commenting on different social phenomena.  The first half of the story is well plotted and paced, unfolding in a way that draws the reader in.  The second half though lacked any real credibility.  Whilst how the religious cult operates and the motivations behind their actions seemed realistic, how they act with respect to McGee is a nonsense.  The rule of the camp is to kill all interlopers.  McGee is not only spared, he is invited into the group and becomes a confidant to all the other elite combat group members.  Then when they discover the truth, he triumphs against odds of 11 to 1.  All tense stuff, but it’s all but impossible for the reader to buy it.  I was confident based on the first thirty pages or so that this was going to be a five stars book, but in the end it tailed off to be a slightly above average affair.  There is more than enough here though to convince me to read more of his books."