A Death in Vienna
by: Frank Tallis
finished: 1.17.11
This is another detective series I had wanted to give a read to for a while. Again, I knew very little about what the stories were like, save that they were set in Vienna around the time of Freud.
Having just finished a detective book that I very much liked, this one really let me down. I'm not sure if I'll continue reading the series or not, although I have heard the second book was better than the first, so I might just have to get it over with.
Something that really irritates me in books are big "surprises" that only the very perceptive main characters pick up on. Unless it is done well (such as in Sherlock Holmes?) it's usually pretty easy to figure out what's going on WAY before the author makes the big reveal. I wonder if the author thinks he's being clever, or if he thinks his readers are stupid, because either way, I think he's wrong.
Several times in this book, somebody would make a "freudian slip" because, you know, it's the time of Freud, so he must be written into the book. But it was such stupid stuff. Things like an angry husband saying "I couldn't possibly still hate her. I mean, love her" And then this very perceptive detective says "AHA! He still loves her, because he first said I could not still hate her!". It was literally written almost exactly like that.
I'm admittedly a big fan of historical books, but they either work or they don't, and I feel like this one just... didn't. There was no focus, and instead was just littered with references to the people and music of the time without incorporating them in any meaningful way.
Basically, a disappointment.
Overall: 5/10
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