Mortal Mischief [Hardcover]

Frank Tallis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 2005

In 1900s Vienna, Psychoanalyst Dr Max Liebermann is called in to help with police investigations into the murder of a young medium.

In this first of a new series of psychoanalytical detective novels set in Vienna, Dr Max Liebermann is a young psychoanalyst – and disciple of Freud. The world of 1900s Vienna is one where philosophy, science and art flourish and are hotly debated in the coffee shops. Psychoanalysis is still developing and is viewed with a mixture of excitement and suspicion.

Liebermann’s good friend Oskar Rheinhardt is a Detective Inspector — hard working but lacking Liebermann’s insights and forensic eye, and so it is through Rheinhardt that 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. When 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.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Frank Tallis is a writer and practicing clinical psychologist. He has published seven non-fiction works (including Changing Minds: The History of Psychotherapy as an Answer to Human Suffering; and Hidden Minds: A History of the Unconscious.)


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Century (June 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844136051
• ISBN-13: 978-1844136056
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #555,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Frank Tallis is a consultant clinical psychologist at the Charter Nightingale Hospital in London. He has also written How to Stop Worrying (1990) and is a trustee of Obsessive Action, a charity which helps sufferers of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and their families.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Buyer beware . . ., December 10, 2007

By 

Jane Q. Doe (Charlottesville, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mortal Mischief (Lieberman Papers) (Paperback)

This is a well-written and interesting mystery, but be aware that "Mortal Mischief" and "A Death in Vienna" are the same book! One is the British title, the other the title used in the States. Don't buy both.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Almost a non-book, January 10, 2009

By 

WB, Zeno - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mortal Mischief (Paperback)

I really don't know where to begin. How could the other reviewers rate it so highly? But better keep things simple:

(1) The characters are two-dimensional. Many words are written about, but nothing is really said of, their being, their personality. Thus, why are the Police Inspector and the analyst friends? Because they play music together? Not a single significant thought is exchanged between them in this whole series of disconnected vignettes that passes for a book.

(2) The plot, and its dénouement, are absurd. The murder is presented as a fascinating locked-room mystery, but the solution to this particular puzzle is demeaningly cheap.

(3) Freud appears in three (?) half-pages only to smoke and utter total trivialities, so giving "local colour" to the story.

(4) And what's the point of the meanigless, idiotic twaddle exchanged between Amelia and the Professor? "Fluxions" in Continental Europe, in 1900, in the language of Leibniz, indeed! Why include chapters that make anybody with a minimum of science college training laugh at you?

And that's it. (5) Oh yes, there are some details about food, the psychiatric practices and theories of this fascinating period, and a glimpse of its courting customs, and that must have taken some (not much) research to write about. That's why I'm giving the book two stars instead of one.
But if you're genuinely interested in those times, then read Stefan Zweig's autobiography, or Sándor Márai "The Final Meeting" (I don't know if this is the exact title in English), or "Wittgenstein's Vienna" by Janik and Toulmin. These are wonderful books, and the time it takes to absorb them is well invested.

In a nutshell, avoid, even if there are enough loose ends to flesh out the following volumes, which I don't even dream of buying.

5.0 out of 5 stars Also known as A Death in Vienna, October 12, 2011

By 

Ulla - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mortal Mischief (Lieberman Papers) (Paperback)

I enjoy Frank Tallis' books. I was disappointed that the same story was published under different titles. One should have been told.