(Vienna Blood 6)

Death And The Maiden

6th in the critically acclaimed series from one of Britain's best historical crime writers

This sixth Viennese mystery to feature the sleuthing double-act of detective Oskar Rheinhardt and psychoanalyst Max Liebermann should satisfy Frank Tallis's old admirers and seduce new ones

A serious, well-informed and interesting novel

With plenty of entertaining, intelligent dialogue and two subplots... this novel convinces with every word

Costume drama at its best.  The ethos of turn-of-the-century Vienna...is very seductive.  Tallis has done his research to good effect, and it seems that the only really fictional element in the whole novel is the crime itself.  The elegance of the highbrow conversations between the main characters is winning...All this makes for pleasant reading, while the descriptions of the elaborate good manners and old-fashioned moral code are soothing.  And yet there is an edge to what might otherwise be cloying...luxuriously enjoyable

Tallis's mysteries seduce a legion of fans with well-crafted intrigues and sumptuous atmospheres. This latest adds to its rich mix a terrific cameo from the tyrant of the opera: Gustav Mahler

Frank Tallis is a writer and clinical psychologist. He has held lecturing posts at the Institute of Psychiatry and King's College, London. He has written self-help manuals (How to Stop Worrying, Understanding Obsessions and Compulsions) non-fiction for the general reader (Changing Minds, Hidden Minds, Love Sick), academic text books and over thirty academic papers in international journals. He has also published seven novels, six of which are the critically acclaimed 'Liebermann Papers'.

Vienna, 1903. 
 
An operatic diva, Ida Rosenkrantz, is found dead in her luxurious villa. It appears that she has taken an overdose of morphine, but a broken rib, discovered during autopsy, suggests other and more sinister possibilities. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt seeks the assistance of his young friend, the psychoanalyst Dr Max Liebermann, and they begin their inquiries at Vienna's majestic opera house, where its director, Gustav Mahler, is struggling to maintain a pure artistic vision while threatened on all sides by pompous bureaucrats, vainglorious singers, and a hostile press. 
 
When the demagogue Mayor of Vienna, Karl Lueger, becomes the prime suspect - with an election only months away - the Rosenkrantz case becomes politically explosive. The trail leads Rheinhardt and Liebermann, via a social climbing professor of psychiatry, to the Hofburg palace and the mysterious Lord Marshal's office - a shadowy bureau that deals ruthlessly with enemies of the ageing Emperor Franz Josef. 
 
As the investigation proceeds, the investigators are placed in great personal danger, as corruption is exposed at the very highest levels. Meanwhile, Liebermann pursues two private obsessions: a coded message in a piece of piano music, and the alluring Englishwoman, Miss Amelia Lydgate. 
 
Romance and high drama collide as the Habsburg Empire teeters on the edge of scandal and ruin.

(Vienna Blood 5)

Deadly Communion

A major repackage for one of Britain's best historical crime writers

It's cleverly done and never dull, with science and folklore neatly woven into a fascinating plot. This, together with well researched and wonderfully imagined period detail, make Deadly Communion a rich and riveting read

Brilliantly combines the popular with the serious in clever historical thrillers

Confirms his place in the front rank of British thriller writers

Tallis's writing still has the richness of literary fiction ... the reader is taken into the terrifying psyche of a murderer ... Deadly Communion is the most psychologically cohesive of the Max Liebermann outings

An interesting, intelligent and enjoyable read

Frank Tallis's Deadly Communion takes his psychoanalyst protagonist Dr Max Liebermann deep into the mind of a murderer. Our hero suspects that the motivation for the murders lies in childhood trauma, and employs Freud's ideas about the unconscious to find a strikingly modern killer

From page one, I was hooked. The descriptions in this novel are clear, graphic and the atmosphere they create is one of mystery, intrigue and a definite need to turn the page

Frank Tallis is a writer and clinical psychologist. In 1999 he received a Writers' Award from the Arts Council and in 2000 he won the New London Writers' Award. Mortal Mischief was shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award in 2005 and for the prestigious Quais du Polar award in France, 2007. Vienna Blood was published in 2006, Fatal Lies in 2008 and Darkness Rising in 2009, all to great acclaim. Titles in the Liebermann series have been translated into fourteen languages.

A sexual predator is at large on the streets of Imperial Vienna. 
 
The killer is no ordinary 'lust murderer', but rather an entirely new phenomenon, his deviance revealing the darker preoccupations of the age before the First World War. 
 
Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt appeals to his friend, psychoanalyst Dr. Max Liebermann, for assistance. But to understand the killer's behaviour, Liebermann must make a journey into uncharted regions of the human mind, tracking a monster whose modus operandi combines both exquisite precision and savage cruelty. 
 
As the investigation continues, Liebermann and Rheinhardt find themselves drawn into the worlds of art and couture, worlds in which glamorous appearances mask the most sinister of secrets...

(Vienna Blood 4)

Darkness Rising

The fourth in the Dr Max Liebermann series; literature's first psychoanalytic detective

beautifully written and extremely interesting

intelligent, intellectual, historical crime fiction at its very best

... perhaps the most accomplished entry so far.

Scholarly and informative, cunningly put together - a real page-turner

Darkness Rising has a strong, intelligent plot and a terrific atmosphere of fin-de-siecle Vienna

Whether you are an aficionado of fin-de-siècle Europe, compelling crime fiction or strong characterisation, Darkness Rising delivers healthy doses of all three

A most enjoyable read and, as usual, Vienna sparkles with atmosphere

Frank Tallis is a writer and clinical psychologist. In 1999 he received a Writers' Award from the Arts Council and in 2000 he won the New London Writers' Award. Mortal Mischief was shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award in 2005 and for the prestigious Quais du Polar award in France, 2007. Vienna Blood was published in 2006 and Fatal Lies in 2007, both to great acclaim. Titles in the Liebermann series have been translated into fourteen languages.

Vienna, 1903. 
 
Outside one of the city's most splendid baroque churches, the decapitated body of a monk is found. Then, the remains of a municipal councillor are discovered in the grounds of another church - his head also ripped from his body. Both men were rabid anti-Semites, and suspicions fall on Vienna's close-knit community of Hasidic Jews. In a city riven by racial tensions and extremism, the situation is potentially explosive. 
 
Detective Inspector Rheinhardt turns to his trusted friend, the young psychoanalyst Doctor Max Liebermann, for assistance. As the investigation progresses, Liebermann is drawn into the world of Jewish mysticism. Amid the atmosphere of threat and fear, Liebermann's life is in crisis. Political forces conspire against him, and the object of his romantic desires, the unreachable Miss Lydgate, is becoming an unhealthy obsession...

(Vienna Blood 3)

Fatal Lies

The third in the Dr Max Liebermann series; literature's first psychoanalytic detective

A clever plot, jokes for those who are interested in the history of psychoanalysis, and a convincing portrait of the imperial city combine in Fatal Lies to provide lively and enjoyable reading.

Entertaining ... provides fascinating glimpses of the earliest use of Freudian theory in criminal investigations

Don't read this on an empty stomach. Not, I hasten to add, for reasons of gore, but because of the Viennese cakes. Aficionados of classical music and architecture are also in for a treat: this, after all, is fin-de-siècle Vienna and Tallis has a supreme talent for bringing the city to life

... a sound tale, told with humour and elegance.  An important plus, is Tallis's atmospheric evocation of a scintillating Vienna at the height of its artistic, intellectual and medical influence

Tallis has come up with a particularly ingenious method of murder, which leaves no trace and almost claims the lives of two more victims before the culprit is unmasked.  His novels show the modern world coming into existence in one of Europe's great cities, and are all the more poignant for the knowledge that the first world war will soon cast its shadow over his deeply humane characters

An enjoyable and original series, of which this is the third volume ... Vivid and fascinating but with a sinister undercurrent ... Highly recommended.

The plot and subplots take in murder, espionage, sex, politics and the new psychoanalysis of Freud - all cleverly wrapped up in a pastiche of the stately written language of the time.

A fascinating portrait of one of the most vibrant yet sinister cities of fin-de-siecle Europe. On top of this, Tallis has laid a murder mystery of great intelligence

...his handling of the psychoanalysis and criminal pathology are fantastic . . . a romping tale

Frank Tallis is a writer and practising clinical psychologist. He has published seven non-fiction books (including Changing Minds: The History of Psychotherapy as an Answer to Human Suffering and Hidden Minds: A History of the Unconscious). He has also written two novels; Killing Time and Sensing Others, both published by Penguin. In 1999 he received a Writers' Award from the Arts Council of Great Britain and in 2000 he won the New London Writers' Award (London Arts Board). He lives and works in London.

The hit novels behind the major new TV series Vienna Blood 
___________________________ 
 
Vienna, 1903. 
 
In St. Florian's military school, a rambling edifice set high in the hills of the city's famous woods, a young cadet is found dead - his body lacerated with razor wounds. Once again, Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt calls on his friend - and disciple of Freud - Doctor Max Liebermann, to help him with the investigation. 
 
In the closed society of the school, power is everything - and suspicion falls on an elite group of cadets, with a penchant for sadism and dangerous games. When it is discovered that the dead boy was a frequent guest of the deputy headmaster's attractive young wife - other motives for murder suggest themselves. 
 
A tangled web of relationships is uncovered, at the heart of which are St. Florian's dark secrets, which Liebermann, using new psychoanalytic tools such as dream interpretation and the ink-blot test, begins to probe. At the same time, a shocking revelation makes it impossible for Liebermann to pursue the object of his affections, the Englishwoman Miss Lydgate, and he finds himself romantically involved with the passionate and elemental Trezska Novak - a mysterious Hungarian concert violinist, gifted with uncannily accurate intuitions. Again, all is not what it seems, and Liebermann is drawn into the perilous world of espionage - and must make choices, the outcome of which will threaten the entire stability of the Empire.

(Vienna Blood 2)

Vienna Blood

' A murder mystery of great intelligence' the Times

A fascinating portrait of one of the most vibrant yet sinister cities of fin-de-siecle Europe. On top of this Tallis has laid a murder mystery of great intelligence

An astute and beautifully written psychological thriller ... his handling of the psychoanalysis and criminal pathology are fantastic ... a romping tale

Interesting, original and ... a second novel even better than the author's first

Tallis spices things up with a cast of outlandish suspects and colourful witnesses, and a series of mounting suspicions, wrong turns and dead ends creates an exhilarating chase

This is the second novel in the Liebermann series and it lives up to the promise of Tallis's earlier book, Mortal Mischief

Frank Tallis is a writer and pracitising clinical psychologist. He has published seven non-fiction books (including Changing Minds: The History of Psychotherapy as an Answer to Human Suffering and Hidden Minds: A History of the Unconscious). He has also written two novels; Killing Time and Sensing Others, both published by Penguin. In 1999 he received a Writers' Award from the Arts Council of Great Britain and in 2000 he won the New London Writers' Award (London Arts Board). Mortal Mischief was published by Century in 2005. He lives and works in London.

The hit novels behind the major new TV series Vienna Blood 
___________________________ 
Vienna, 1902. 
 
Vienna is in the grip of the worst winter for years. Amid the snow and ice, a killer embarks upon a bizarre campaign of murder. Vicious mutilation, a penchant for arcane symbols, and a seemingly random choice of victim are his most distinctive peculiarities. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt summons a young disciple of Freud - his friend Dr. Max Liebermann - to assist him with the case. 
 
The investigation draws them into the sphere of Vienna's secret societies - a murky underworld of German literary scholars, race theorists, and scientists inspired by the new English evolutionary theories. At first, the killer's mind seems impenetrable - his behaviour and cryptic clues impervious to psychoanalytic interpretation; however, gradually, it becomes apparent that an extraordinary and shocking rationale underlies his actions ... 
 
Against this backdrop of mystery and terror, Liebermann struggles with his own demons. The treatment of a patient suffering from paranoia erotica and his own fascination with the enigmatic Englishwoman Amelia Lydgate raise doubts concerning the propriety of his imminent marriage. To resolve the dilemma, he must entertain the unthinkable - risking disgrace and accusations of cowardice.

Mortal Mischief

'Holmes meets Freud in this enjoyable whodunnit' Guardian

An intriguing, impressive achievement - puts the psychological back into crime and written by a real expert

Smart detection and a mouthwatering view of Viennese cafe society ... good prospects for the Liebermann series, of which this is book number one

Bernard Knight, former home office pathologist

Frank Tallis's new max Liebermann series is off to a flying start with its location, a turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna torn between mysticism and rationalism, liberalism and anti-Semitism... a cracker.

Frank Tallis is a writer and practising clinical psychologist in Harley Street. In 1999 he received a Writers' Award from the Arts Council of Great Britain and in 2000 he won the New London Writers' Award (London Arts Board). Love Sick is also published by Century. Frank lives and works in London.

The hit novels behind the major new TV series Vienna Blood 
___________________________ 
Vienna, at the turn of the century. 
 
Philosophy, science and art are flourishing. Coffee shops are full of the latest cultural and political theories. The new field of psychoanalysis, formed in the wake of Freud, is just beginning to make itself heard. 
 
And a woman is dead. 
 
Dr Max Liebermann is a young psychoanalyst, and friend to Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt. Rheinhardt, though hard-working, lacks Liebermann's insights and forensic eye - and so Liebermann is called upon to help with police investigations surrounding the death of a beautiful young medium, in what seems at first to be supernatural circumstances. 
 
While Liebermann attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery, he also must decide whether he is to follow his father's advice and marry the beautiful but reserved Clara. But the personal and the professional cannot be wholly separated, and the darkness of Liebermann's case threatens to swallow his entire life.

Frank Tallis

Love, far from being benign and sweet, is, in fact, the closest many of us get to experience mental illness

Funny, fascinating, clever and accomplished. Buy it for someone you're mad for, but it yourself first

Lesser mortals will find much to entertain and inform

Here, leading clinical psychologist, Dr Frank Tallis, explores our age-old preoccupation with love and in particular romantic love.  Love is rarely described as a wholly pleasant experience and Tallis considers our experiences and descriptions of love and why the combinations of pleasure and pain, ecstasy and despair, rapture and  grief have come to characterise what we mean when we speak about falling in love. Obsessive thoughts, erratic mood swings, insomnia, loss of appetite, recurrent and persistent images and impulses (irresistible urges to phone or text), superstitious or ritualistic compulsions (she loves me, she loves me not), inability to concentrate - so much so that it affects your work, delusion, (are his eyes really deep pools of oceanic azure?).  Exhibiting just five or six of these symptoms is enough to merit a diagnosis of Major Depressive Episode, according to the recognized medical criteria.  Drawing on the writings of poets, philosophers, songwriters, zoologists and scientists Tallis shows how throughout time - and particularly in the West, the metaphor of illness and specifically mental illness has been used to describe the state of being in love. And asks why it is that we continue to search out this kind of love, with the ecstasy seeming to blind us to the agony.

Frank Tallis

Praise for Love Sick

Love, far from being benign and sweet, is, in fact, the closest many of us get to experience mental illness

Funny, fascinating, clever and accomplished. Buy it for someone you're mad for, but it yourself first

Lesser mortals will find much to entertain and inform

Love, far from being benign and sweet, is, in fact, the closest many of us get to experience mental illness

Funny, fascinating, clever and accomplished. Buy it for someone you're mad for, but it yourself first

Lesser mortals will find much to entertain and inform

Love, far from being benign and sweet, is, in fact, the closest many of us get to experience mental illness

Funny, fascinating, clever and accomplished. Buy it for someone you're mad for, but it yourself first

Lesser mortals will find much to entertain and inform

Books by Frank Tallis

Series by Frank Tallis

Vienna Blood

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