A Death in Vienna (Frank Tallis) - Random House - 2007 - 459 pages

The writes with excellent clarity and he divides the novel into 87 chapters for ease of reading.  Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt is assigned to solve the murder of a woman who died in a room that was locked from the inside.  For some reason, Rheinhardt calls upon his good friend Dr. Max Liebermann.  The doctor is a colleague of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).  At one point, Liebermann analyzes a dream sequence to eliminate one suspect.  There are numerous suspects most of whom were involved in weekly seances.  Rheinhardt and Liebermann snoop around for six weeks and 58 chapters (314 pages) until Commisioner Brugel decides to bring another inspector into the case.  Then, with the help of a young woman recovering from hysterical paralysis, the boys get to work to solve this thing.  There really is not much detective science here but there is quite a bit of clinical psychology - the author's primary profession.  The prose in the book flows easily but there are not enough clues for the reader to participate in the mystery.  [JAM 12/10/2011]