Requiem in Vienna (A Viennese Mystery, book #2) by J. Sydney Jones
At first it seemed like a series of accidents plagued Vienna’s Court Opera. But after a singer is killed during rehearsals of a new production, the evidence suggests something much more dangerous. Someone is trying to murder the famed conductor and composer Gustav Mahler. Worse, Mahler might not be the first musical genius to be dispatched by this unknown killer.
Alma Schindler, one of Mahler’s many would-be mistresses, asks the lawyer and aspiring private investigator Karl Werthen to stop the attacks. With the help of his new wife, Berthe and his old friend, the ground-breaking criminologist Hans Gross, Werthen delves into Vienna’s rich society of musicians to discover the identity of the person who has targeted one of Austria’s best-known artists. Soon Werthen discovers that Mahler might not be the first musical genius to be dispatched by this unknown killer. With the recent deaths of Johann Strauss and Johannes Brahms, the investigators fear a madman is killing the great musicians of Vienna.
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Earlier this month I read Mr. Jones’ 1st Viennese mystery, The Empty Mirror, and found it to be a very good historical mystery. Therefore I’m expecting good things from Requiem in Vienna. Because this is a historical mystery (1890s) the reader is treated to criminology in its infancy. Much different solving crime back then compared to the high-end wizardry today’s CSI techs have handy.
I have seen Jones on several different blogs, and read several different reviews of this book–it seems to be making many blogger/readers happy! I’ll be interested to read what you think, but it is on my TBR list as well! The description is more appealing to me than that of his first book.
Michele
SouthernCityMysteries
It is getting good reviews but mine won’t be one of them. While I really enjoyed his other Viennese mystery, The Empty Mirror, this one wasn’t for me.