Mephisto Waltz (Max Liebermann Series #7)

by Frank Tallis

Overview

In the new novel in the iconic Max Liebermann mystery series, master storyteller Frank Tallis delivers his latest suspenseful and spellbinding tale set in the smoky atmospheric world of fin de siecle Vienna.

Vienna, 1904.

The body of a man—still sitting in a chair—is discovered in an abandoned piano factory on the outskirts of the city. He has been shot dead but his face has been horribly disfigured with acid, making identification impossible. In front of the body are three chairs positioned conspicuously in a straight line. Who were the former occupants? Had they sat in judgement and pronounced a sentence of death?

Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt calls on his good friend Doctor Max Liebermann—psychiatrist and disciple of Sigmund Freud—to assist in an investigation that draws them both into the shadowy and sexually unconventional world of fringe political activism. It is a world populated by Bohemians, Utopian idealists, and anarchists, many of whom endorse acts of terror to achieve their revolutionary aims.

When bomb-making equipment is found in a suburban basement, the sinister Imperial intelligence bureau (who have been secretly monitoring Rheinhardt’s investigation) make themselves known. A legendary anarchist known only by his code name—Mephistopheles—is abroad in Vienna. An appalling act of terror has been planned and time is running out. Rheinhardt must hope that Liebermann, with his profound knowledge of psychology and science, will be able to prevent the coming catastrophe.

The latest novel in the iconic Max Liebermann mystery series, Mephisto Waltz is a tale of murder, romance, intrigue, and espionage set in the atmospheric world of fin de siecle Vienna.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681776439
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	02/06/2018
Series:	Max Liebermann Series , #7
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	1,138,748
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Frank Tallis is a writer and clinical psychologist. Between 1999 and 2012, he received or was nominated for numerous awards, including the New London Writers’ Award, the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger, the Elle Prix de Letrice, the Crime Writers’ Association Historical Dagger Award, and two Edgar Allan Poe Awards. Under the name F. R. Tallis, he is the author of The Sleep Room, The Forbidden, The Voices, and The Passenger, all available from Pegasus Crime. He lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

11/20/2017
A prologue describing the assassination of Empress Elizabeth of Austria in Geneva in 1898 casts an ominous shadow over the events of Edgar-finalist Tallis’s gripping seventh mystery featuring psychiatrist Max Liebermann (after 2012’s Death and the Maiden). In Vienna in 1904, an unidentified male body is found in an abandoned piano factory, shot through the head and seated on a chair in front of three other chairs. Liebermann believes that the furniture’s deliberate arrangement indicates that the man’s execution was ordained by three people sitting in judgment, possibly for the violation of a secret society’s rules. The corpse’s webbed feet and scars lead to his identification as Angelo Callari, an Italian who recently arrived in the city, where he joined a society promoting international comity and the better treatment of the poor. Callari also has links to those who pose a threat to the Austrian throne. Series fans will be pleased to see Liebermann has a new love-interest, Amelia Lydgate, a former patient who injects some humor into the otherwise grim tale. Readers will hope they won’t have to wait another six years for Liebermann’s next outing. Agent: Clare Alexander, Aitken Alexander Associates. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"A chilling tale of supernatural snooping. This horror story is undeniably hair-raising."

Shelf Awareness [Praise for Frank Tallis]

"Mephisto Waltz takes us to Vienna in 1904: a city of widespread culture, fading empire and an abundance of nervous energy. Tallis, a London author and psychologist, has written a marvelous, multi-layered thriller, rich with period detail and studded with cameo appearances by figures such as automaker Ferdinand Porsche and Sigmund Freud. Mephisto Waltz often exhibits the energy of the Franz Liszt pieces after which it’s named: a ‘wild and sinister delirium,’ in Liebermann’s perception, in which ‘notes sparkled, glittered [and] exploded like fireworks.’ Yet the book is also undercut with a dark and sophisticated wit."

Tom Nolan

"Mephisto Waltz is an intricately but elegantly written mystery as much as it is an immersion in the time. Vienna in 1904 is brought to life through vivid and detailed illustrations of situations, places, food, and the cultural milieu."

Historical Novel Society

"If you’re looking for the best in popular fiction, Tallis is well worth seeking out."

The Washington Post [Praise for Frank Tallis]

"Max Liebermann is a psychiatrist and follower of Freud's theories who often finds himself assisting his friend, police detective Oskar Rheinhardt. They are just two of a large, vividly described cast of characters. Distinctly of their time, the characters nevertheless suggest parallels to people and phenomena of our own time."

www.historicalnovels.info

"Clever and spooky. The novel is an elegantly constructed psychiatric Gothic, all spires and gargoyles and ghostly echoes—the sort of vast, dread edifice we sometimes build around ourselves when the lights go out."

The New York Times Book Review [Praise for Frank Tallis]

"Fans will particularly enjoy the almost palpable feelings of claustrophobia and impending disaster. It succeeds brilliantly."

Booklist (starred review) [Praise for Frank Tallis]

"Paradise, according to Frank Tallis in Mephisto Waltz, is an exact replica of early-20th-century Vienna. That would make angels of the psychoanalyst Dr. Max Liebermann and his friend, Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt, the brainy sleuths in Tallis’s erudite series of historical mysteries."

Marilyn Stasio

"Gripping. Dialogue is fast paced, and the action is vivid and realistic. A story that is full of adventure and more."

Foreword Reviews [Praise for Frank Tallis]

"What we have here is a proper scare-your-socks-off horror novel."

The Financial Times [Praise for Frank Tallis]

"Tallis is a clinical psychologist, which is reflected in his deft character development and realistic dialogue."

The Sacramento Bee [Praise for Frank Tallis]

"Fans will particularly enjoy the almost palpable feelings of claustrophobia and impending disaster. It succeeds brilliantly."

Booklist [Praise for Frank Tallis]

Mephisto Waltz takes us to Vienna in 1904: a city of widespread culture, fading empire and an abundance of nervous energy. Tallis, a London author and psychologist, has written a marvelous, multi-layered thriller, rich with period detail and studded with cameo appearances by figures such as automaker Ferdinand Porsche and Sigmund Freud. Mephisto Waltz often exhibits the energy of the Franz Liszt pieces after which it’s named: a ‘wild and sinister delirium,’ in Liebermann’s perception, in which ‘notes sparkled, glittered [and] exploded like fireworks.’ Yet the book is also undercut with a dark and sophisticated wit.

Tom Nolan - The Wall Street Journal

Paradise, according to Frank Tallis in Mephisto Waltz, is an exact replica of early-20th-century Vienna. That would make angels of the psychoanalyst Dr. Max Liebermann and his friend, Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt, the brainy sleuths in Tallis’s erudite series of historical mysteries.

Marilyn Stasio - New York Times Book Review

2017-11-14
In turn-of-the-century Vienna, a police inspector and a progressive psychiatrist team up again to track a brilliant, homicidal anarchist.Six years after a mysterious man with a pointed beard surreptitiously murders the Empress Elizabeth of Austria in 1898 Geneva, the Machiavellian Peter Nikolayevich Razumovsky devises an intricate but unspecified plan of destruction in Vienna. Could he have been the assassin in the prologue? Elsewhere, firebrand activists Eduard Autenberg and Axl Diamant are part of a cabal led by a shadowy figure known as Mephistopheles that plots anarchic acts of its own. DI Oskar Rheinhardt (Death and the Maiden, 2012, etc.) is first called in to investigate an unusual murder at a factory in nearby Favoriten, where the victim has been shot and disfigured with acid. Rheinhardt shares this and other oddities of the crime with his friend Dr. Max Liebermann, a psychiatrist who's assisted him on many cases and spent many evenings with him as Rheinhardt sings classical pieces while Liebermann accompanies him on the piano. Meanwhile, Liebermann's deepening bond with emancipated Amelia Lydgate complicates his relationship with his parents and shakes his heretofore firm views on marriage. Distraught office clerk Lutz Globocnik confesses to the crime and identifies the victim but never seems entirely convincing. When he's proven wrong, Rheinhardt's called onto the carpet by his superiors. But Diamant's brutal murder makes Liebermann's insight invaluable in untangling the complex criminal web.Tallis' seventh period mystery is his most intricate and ambitious yet. A lengthy historical note is eye-opening and offers multiple avenues for further reading.

Kirkus Reviews

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