The Keeper of Hands
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
An intriguing novel of suspense that “recreates the beau monde of vintage Vienna with verisimilitude and consummate style” (Kirkus Reviews).
Vienna, 1901. With the police seemingly indifferent to the murder of a nineteen-year-old prostitute known as Mitzi, brothel-keeper Frau Mutzenbacher turns to lawyer Karl Werthen to find out what happened and bring her killer to justice. Yet the more he discovers about the mysterious Mitzi, with her secret past and impressive roster of clients, the more questions Werthen’s investigation throws up.
At the same time, Werthen undertakes a second commission: to find out who viciously assaulted playwright Arthur Schnitzler. Schnitzler believes his latest controversial play might have been the motive for the attack—but is there more to it than that?
As he navigates the highs and lows of Viennese society in dogged pursuit of the truth, Werthen finds himself drawn into a conspiracy of espionage and affairs of state.
“Top-notch detecting and characterizations bolster the intricate plot” (Publishers Weekly) of this superb fourth book in the Viennese Mystery series that is “not as widely known as it ought to be, [but] well worth a look” (Booklist).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The discovery of the nude and strangled corpse of a 19-year-old prostitute known as Mitzi propels Jones's masterful fourth mystery set in early-20th-century Vienna (after 2011's The Silence). Josephine Mutzenbacher, Mitzi's madam, hires Hans Gross, the real-life pioneering criminologist, and Karl Werthen, a private enquiry agent and lawyer, to investigate. Werthen's discovery of a letter that Mitzi wrote in code and hid in a Bible specifically in the part of the Book of Joshua that refers to the harlot Rahab concealing Israelite spies suggests that the victim may also have been involved in the world's second-oldest profession. Another woman's murder raises the stakes. Werthen and Gross's inquiries come to the notice of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose revelations about conflict between the country's different intelligence services add another dimension to the case. Top-notch detecting and characterizations bolster the intricate plot.
