Death And The Maiden

Apr 28, 2025 5:54 PM

Author:Frank Tallis

Vienna, 1903.

An operatic diva, Ida Rosenkrantz, is found dead in her luxurious villa. It appears that she has taken an overdose of morphine, but a broken rib, discovered during autopsy, suggests other and more sinister possibilities. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt seeks the assistance of his young friend, the psychoanalyst Dr Max Liebermann, and they begin their inquiries at Vienna's majestic opera house, where its director, Gustav Mahler, is struggling to maintain a pure artistic vision while threatened on all sides by pompous bureaucrats, vainglorious singers, and a hostile press.

When the demagogue Mayor of Vienna, Karl Lueger, becomes the prime suspect - with an election only months away - the Rosenkrantz case becomes politically explosive. The trail leads Rheinhardt and Liebermann, via a social climbing professor of psychiatry, to the Hofburg palace and the mysterious Lord Marshal's office - a shadowy bureau that deals ruthlessly with enemies of the ageing Emperor Franz Josef.

As the investigation proceeds, the investigators are placed in great personal danger, as corruption is exposed at the very highest levels. Meanwhile, Liebermann pursues two private obsessions: a coded message in a piece of piano music, and the alluring Englishwoman, Miss Amelia Lydgate.

Romance and high drama collide as the Habsburg Empire teeters on the edge of scandal and ruin.

Reviews

This sixth Viennese mystery to feature the sleuthing double-act of detective Oskar Rheinhardt and psychoanalyst Max Liebermann should satisfy Frank Tallis's old admirers and seduce new ones

—— The Independent

A serious, well-informed and interesting novel

—— Literary Review

With plenty of entertaining, intelligent dialogue and two subplots... this novel convinces with every word

—— HNR Reviews

Costume drama at its best. The ethos of turn-of-the-century Vienna...is very seductive. Tallis has done his research to good effect, and it seems that the only really fictional element in the whole novel is the crime itself. The elegance of the highbrow conversations between the main characters is winning...All this makes for pleasant reading, while the descriptions of the elaborate good manners and old-fashioned moral code are soothing. And yet there is an edge to what might otherwise be cloying...luxuriously enjoyable

—— TLS

Tallis's mysteries seduce a legion of fans with well-crafted intrigues and sumptuous atmospheres. This latest adds to its rich mix a terrific cameo from the tyrant of the opera: Gustav Mahler

—— i, Independent

A truly great writer

—— Jo Nesbo

I always eagerly await a new novel from Karin Fossum

—— Ruth Rendell

Suspenseful, penetrating, clever and thoroughly enjoyable

—— scandinavianbooks.com

Adrenaline-fuelled adventure... He knows exactly how to press all the buttons... yet another awesome performance

—— Evening Standard

Reacher is vengeance personified, a walking, fighting revenge fantasy... what he normally chooses to do is right wrongs and defend the weak against the forces of oppression... Characteristically, Child drives the plot like a rally car, a hair-raising ride careering down the route a break-neck speed... Lee Child's loyal fans know only too well that those who enter his Reacher tales have no reason to abandon hope. Quite the opposite and Worth Dying For is no exception

—— Sunday Express

It looked like Lee Child cheekily killed off the seemingly unstoppable Jack Reacher in his last book - but no. Reacher is battered but upright- still the thinking man's action hero, supreme butt-kicker and smartest guy in the room... [another] hell-for-leather story

—— Seattle Times

A model of suspenseful storytelling and an outstanding addition to a series that stands in the front rank of modern thrillers

—— Washington Post

Child's gift for pacing makes it almost impossible to start one of his novels without finishing. Worth Dying For is grade-A escapism

—— Independent on Sunday (Books of the Year)

Child presses all the buttons... Another awesome performance

—— Mark Sanderson , The Scotsman

Brings a shock of moral horror that is unprecedented in Reacher novels

—— Toronto Star

Utterly compelling... one of Child's best. He keeps up the lightning pace, great writing and punchy one-liners throughout

—— Daily Express

A contender for top thriller of 2010

—— Sun (Best books of 2010)

A turbo-charged page-flipper: you're on page 300 before you take a breath...Child is a master of distances, spaces and the physics of opposing forces

—— The Scotsman

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