A Murder Mystery set amongst the Thunder at Twilight....

 The Strangler’s Waltz by Richard Lord 

Review by Jon Hanson

The year is 1913; the place is Vienna, Austria. This bustling city sits at the heart of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It is a city renowned for its art, culture, and zest for life. But underneath the glamour lies a seedy underbelly of drug dealers, prostitutes, pimps, and killers. 

As in all cities, it is the job of the police to protect the city. While the partolmen walk a beat everyday, the detectives are the ones who investigate vicious crimes. Two of the best detectives in Vienna are Inspector Julian Stebbel and Inspector Karl-Heinz Dorfner who work in Homicide. They are assigned a case involving a local killer who is strangling women on the streets of Vienna. As the body count grows, the papers begin comparing the killer to the infamous Jack the Ripper and the population becomes more afraid to walk the streets. With pressure mounting from the commissioner and the mayor, can these two detectives solve the crime? 

Criminology is limited; there is no DNA evidence, no internet, and fingerprinting is a relatively new tool in the police arsenal. Most of their information comes from autopsies, interviews, and good old fashioned deductive reasoning. Interestingly, some of the side characters in this novel were almost as interesting as the main characters themselves: Adolf Hitler & Sigmund Freud. 

Early in the novel, the protagonists come across an eyewitness who saw the aftermath of the first murder and even bumped into the killer himself. The witness was a young struggling artist named Adolf Hitler. Of course, this story is set 25 years before Hitler would seize power in Germany and become the monster he became. At this time, Hitler is trying to make a living as a street artist (having been rejected from art school) and living in a youth hostel. He is depicted as an emotional, nervous, paranoid person who provides valuable information to the detectives. 

As the story progresses, Inspector Stebbel consults with renowned psychiatrist Dr. Sigmnud Freud (who was at the height of his fame) for insight into the killer’s mindset as he continues these gruesome murders. Freud is very down-to-earth and blunt in his portrayal, providing some interesting ideas as to why the killer murders young women. 

The characters of Hitler and Freud help to move the story along, especially since the inspectors only have their interviews with the families of the victims and the autopsy reports to provide them with information. Much of the story takes place in various cafes and restaurants as the inspectors review the information they glean and rely on deduction and theory to try and find the killer. 

Personally, I have never been a big fan of murder mystery novels, but I have to say this one I found enjoyable because of the LACK of technology in the story (as I write this review on a wireless laptop, haha). Similar to Sherlock Holmes, the detectives mostly have to rely on their wits to try and solve the case, which means their questioning has to be more thorough and often, obtrusive, much to the chagrin of the families of the victims.

If you like murder mysteries with a pinch of history, you’ll love this book. It is actually the first in a four book series. I plan to read the other three about the adventures of Stebbel & Dorfner. 

Keep reading!