I bought this book because I thought the story sounded good. Someone is trying to kill Gustav Mahler, the composer and chief conductor at the Hofoper. It takes place in Vienna (my husband is Austrian so always nice to read stories that take place there) around the last century, (meaning between 19th and 20th century). It is historic fiction, which I love.
Well, then. What's wrong? I don't really know. The story did not catch my attention, neither did the characters. It seems this is the latest book in a series, about the lawyer Werthen and his criminologist friend Dr. Gross. They have obviously solved murders before and this is yet another one. This book also includes Werten's new wife Berthe, who is an emancipated woman.
The story in short. A young girl, Alma Schindler, in love with Mahler (and later marries him in real life), employs Werthen to find out who is trying to kill Mahler. There has been several accidents at the Hofoper (Royal Court Opera) where he is working. One of the singers died instead of Mahler. Mahler is a rather nasty type, so he naturally finds people who don't like him. The suspects are therefor rather many. Werthen starts his investigation, Gross turns up and take over...almost. They go about trying to find out who is behind it all. None of the investigations or the people are really exciting. You get a lot of information and description on how Vienna looks, where everything is situated, historical background and a lot of famous, real life, people are passing by during the investigation.
This historic fiction is more of a history lesson, which is nice, but there is something missing. Jones surely knows his way around Vienna, and its history. However, it is not enough to make this book into something thrilling and exciting.
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