Vienna Secrets

This is my third Frank Tallis book, the best of those that I’ve read, so it won’t be the last. Once again, Dr. Max Liebermann and Detective Inspector Oskar Rheindardt are at work in the first decade of 20^th century Vienna. Max, a psychiatrist, treats patients and Oskar solves crimes. Sometimes, they work together on particularly baffling cases. The first couple books gave the background character development for this one, and in Vienna Secrets, Tallis spent less time on the two men’s relationships with each other, and more time on the plot. It was a much more complex story about religious tensions in Vienna during this pre WWI era when the Hapsburgs were still a ruling force in Europe. There are a series of grizzly murders in which men’s heads are literally being ripped off their heads. Can you imagine the force it would take to do that? Those events revive ancient Jewish lore about the Golem, a supernatural character that defends the Jewish ghetto, but in the lore, it is a character that eventually got out of control and could not just be harnessed for the good of the Jews. Psychoanalytic thought has an important place in the understanding of the crimes that are being committed and of the people involved.

With regard to the growing religious tensions in Vienna, When the Rebbe Barash was asked to explain his teachings to Dr. Lieberman, he said, “When something is broken, it must be repaired. This is our task: tikkun, the mending of vessels, the healing of the cosmos. When you ask yourselves ‘What is the purpose of human existence?’ you now have an answer: tikkun. What is the purpose of the sky, the earth, the stars, and the moon? You now have an answer: tikkun. It is the purpose of the holy books, the purpose of scripture, the purpose of prayer. The achievement of tikkun is the only means of redemption. It brinks perfection back to God and so the universe, to humanity, and to the people of Israel.” The Rebbe said, in professing his radical views, the tikkun could only be achieved by “the unselfish pursuit of religious perfection…. No man is exempt. Without total participation, the tikkun will not succeed, and wickedness with remain in the world.” At the same time Judaic thought was radicalizing, the Christians, under the direction of Mayor Karl Luegar, were beginning the process of removing Jews from all important academic and professional positions in the city.

This was an excellent historical novel. Start with an early Tallis book and work your way forward in time. After three books, Tallis has climbed into my power rotation.