Best part of this book for me was checking out the music on you- tube. Not a fan of Freudian psychiatry, but the plot was adequate and characters ok ( )

At the beginning of "Death and the Maiden," by Frank Tallis, Ida Rosenkrantz, operatic diva at the Vienna Opera under the direction of Gustav Mahler, is found dead, an apparent suicide. But when Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt and his young psychiatrist colleague and protege of Freud, Max Liebermann, look a bit closer, it seems that perhaps the singer has been murdered. An inquiry into her life, habits, friends and lovers reveals a connection between the diva and the Lord Mayor Karl Lueger, and also between herself and her rather exhibitionistic psychiatrist; and when it’s discovered that she had been pregnant and had an illegal abortion some months before her death, well, the questions multiply. But when there’s also found to be a connection with the Royal Palace, and the Habsburg Emperor’s household itself, things really start to become dangerous….. There are, to my knowledge, six novels in the “Max Liebermann Papers” stories by Frank Tallis, this being the last; all set in 1903 Vienna, with all its complexities: on the one hand a very genteel and cultured world, on the other a very barbaric and vicious place, especially if one is, like Max, Jewish. I love the attention to detail, the amount of research both of the time, place and status of psychiatry then (Tallis is a trained clinical psychologist), but I also love that the stories that unfold are as human today as they would have been over 100 years ago; human technology changes a lot, but human nature doesn’t. I don’t know if there will be more novels in this series (this one was published in 2011), but I hope so; the world can use more well-rounded, music-minded, men like Oskar and Max. Recommended - but read the first five before this one, to get the most out of it! ( )

Frank Tallis's fifth book in his Liebermann Vienna series is a very good follow-up to the previous four. Set in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century, the novels follow the burgeoning psychiatric career of Max Liebermann, an acolyte of Sigmund Freud, who often assists the Viennese police in crime solving. I've read others in this series and the key players are interesting and evolving.

Max Liebermann is not the only main character in Tallis's books. He shares the pages with policeman Oskar Rheinhardt and the city of Vienna. Vienna - that gorgeous capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire on the banks of the Danube - a city filled with music and pastries, which cover up a deeper layer of anti-Semitism and corruption of all layers of government that Rheinhardt and Liebermann delve into as they work together to solve murders.

In his latest novel, Tallis throws in murder of an opera diva, the election of Karl Lueger to yet another term as mayor of Vienna, as well as tracing the history of some musical pieces Liebermann has found. Dr Freud makes an appearance as Liebermann's mentor and Amelia Lydgate returns as the object of Liebermann's rather ham-handed suitor. Gustav Mahler and Emperor Franz Josef are also part of the story. A real all-star lineup! But it all comes together in the end. Tallis has a way of tying up loose ends, making this book a very satisfactory read. ( )