Vienna Twilight

This is my fourth Frank Tallis novel in the series which takes place during the first decade of the 20^th century in Vienna, about Max Liebermann, the psychoanalyst, and Oskar Rheinhardt, the detective inspector with the Security Office. Tallis further develops the contrast between his two protagonists, as well as their friendship, while he makes use of the newly introduced technique of psychoanalysis to solve crimes and understand the psychopathology that drives such behaviors.

In this book, there were three criminal events that had to be solved, all linked through an understanding of the Oedipus complex, which Tallis adequately explains. In the story, the author gives Freud a quote: “The sexual instinct is, I believe, infinitely pliable with respect to its aims. Indeed, I am of the belief that all human beings are born with what might be described as a polymorphously perverse disposition – that is to say, a disposition that can be diverted into all possible kinds of sexual irregularly. If one defines healthy sexual behavior as that which is necessary for human reproduction – namely heterosexual congress – it follows that all other forms of arousal-seeking behavior are surplus, and therefore in a literal sense, perverse.” In the book’s primary crimes, Liebermann kept referring to “thanatophila,” the fascination with death, which he distinguishes from necrophilia, the love of the dead. You get the idea that this book is dark, and in penetrating the understanding of this darkness and Rheinhardt’s own difficulty grasping the concepts in this ugly realm of human functioning, Liebermann says, “It is always better to understand than not.” Crucial to solving one of the crimes is the psychoanalytic interpretation of Jack and the Beanstalk.  Near the end of the book, Tallis has Liebermann wondering, “What was wrong with the German soul? Why were love and death so intermingled in the German imagination.”

I will continue to pursue this fascinating series of books – Tallis gets my strongest recommendation.