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Viennese Mysteries #3
The Silence
The new book in the Viennese Mystery series - Vienna , 1900. Lawyer Karl Werthen is puzzling over the suicide of a local councilman when he is assigned by Karl Wittgenstein, a powerful industrialist with many enemies, to find his recently missing son, Hans. Werthen quickly discovers that the young man appears to be alive and well in another country. But when a friend of Hans – a journalist who wrote a number of articles claiming the councilman who committed suicide was corrupt – is found dead, also from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Werthen fears that sinister forces are at work . . .
240 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2011
About the author
J. Sydney Jones
41 books65 followersJ. Sydney Jones is the author of twenty books, including the six installments of the critically acclaimed Viennese Mystery series, as well as stand-alone mysteries and thrillers, including TIME OF THE WOLF, THE GERMAN AGENT, RUIN VALUE, BASIC LAW, THE EDIT, THE CRY OF CICADAS, PLAY IT IN BETWEEN, LILACS OUT OF THE DEAD LAND, BIGOT LIST: A RECKONING, and the 2026 mystery, KILLER ART. His books have been translated into eight languages.
A long-time resident of Vienna, he has also lived and worked in Florence, Paris, Molyvos, and Donegal. Jones currently lives on the central coast of California.
Visit the author at his homepage and at his blog, Scene of the Crime.
A long-time resident of Vienna, he has also lived and worked in Florence, Paris, Molyvos, and Donegal. Jones currently lives on the central coast of California.
Visit the author at his homepage and at his blog, Scene of the Crime.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 15, 2011
La Belle Époque, (it translates as the beautiful era) was the name given, by the survivors of the Great War, to that period between May of 1871 and August of 1914. During those forty-three years, the European powers were at peace, and, looking back over the horrors and privations of the previous four years, it appeared, in retrospect, to have been a golden age.
And, partly, it was.
In the Habsburg Empire, Otto Wagner was designing marvelous buildings; Gustav Klimt was painting up a storm; Sigmund Freud was publishing his seminal works on psychoanalysis and Hans Gross was laying the foundations of modern criminology.
Yes, criminology.
Because the other side of the coin was that the Belle Époque was nowhere near as belle as the name suggests.
It was a time of great inequality, of religious prejudice, of stifling hierarchies, of outrageous privilege and of considerable murder and mayhem.
It is also the time in which J. Sydney Jones sets his novels, the most recent of which is "The Silence".
The place: Vienna; the year: 1900; the principal protagonist: a lawyer we’ve met twice before (in "The Empty Mirror" and "Requiem in Vienna") by the name of Karl Werthen.
I’m certain Werthen is a creature of Jones’ imagination, but I’m not entirely sure about many of the other characters. One of the author’s admirable qualities is his splendid ability to mix fact and fiction, transforming every book in his series from a mere mystery to a primer of place and time.
And, speaking for myself, I’m never quite sure how much of any Jones book is true and how much is not.
In this installment, we reencounter Klimt and Gross (to name just two of his continuing characters) and meet Karl Lueger, the populist, anti-Semitic mayor of the city and Karl Wittgenstein, Austrian steel magnate, and friend of Andrew Carnegie.
And both the politician and the industrialist play principal roles.
The plot is complex and riveting. Towards the end of the book, the revelations come thick and fast. And, just as you think you have the whole thing figured out, Jones springs another surprise.
He serves it all up, in his typical fashion, with a heady mixture of the sights, the sounds, the smells and the tastes of those distant days.
Most of the tastes, I admit, don’t appeal to me at all.
Except for the liver-dumpling soup.
For some inexplicable reason, I’ve always been fond of leberknödelsuppe.
But foods aside, there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, in "The Silence" not to like.
If you’ve read Jones before, let me assure you, you don’t want to miss this one. He’s as good as ever.
And, if you haven’t, my suggestion is to get cracking with the series.
You’ll be glad you did.
And, partly, it was.
In the Habsburg Empire, Otto Wagner was designing marvelous buildings; Gustav Klimt was painting up a storm; Sigmund Freud was publishing his seminal works on psychoanalysis and Hans Gross was laying the foundations of modern criminology.
Yes, criminology.
Because the other side of the coin was that the Belle Époque was nowhere near as belle as the name suggests.
It was a time of great inequality, of religious prejudice, of stifling hierarchies, of outrageous privilege and of considerable murder and mayhem.
It is also the time in which J. Sydney Jones sets his novels, the most recent of which is "The Silence".
The place: Vienna; the year: 1900; the principal protagonist: a lawyer we’ve met twice before (in "The Empty Mirror" and "Requiem in Vienna") by the name of Karl Werthen.
I’m certain Werthen is a creature of Jones’ imagination, but I’m not entirely sure about many of the other characters. One of the author’s admirable qualities is his splendid ability to mix fact and fiction, transforming every book in his series from a mere mystery to a primer of place and time.
And, speaking for myself, I’m never quite sure how much of any Jones book is true and how much is not.
In this installment, we reencounter Klimt and Gross (to name just two of his continuing characters) and meet Karl Lueger, the populist, anti-Semitic mayor of the city and Karl Wittgenstein, Austrian steel magnate, and friend of Andrew Carnegie.
And both the politician and the industrialist play principal roles.
The plot is complex and riveting. Towards the end of the book, the revelations come thick and fast. And, just as you think you have the whole thing figured out, Jones springs another surprise.
He serves it all up, in his typical fashion, with a heady mixture of the sights, the sounds, the smells and the tastes of those distant days.
Most of the tastes, I admit, don’t appeal to me at all.
Except for the liver-dumpling soup.
For some inexplicable reason, I’ve always been fond of leberknödelsuppe.
But foods aside, there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, in "The Silence" not to like.
If you’ve read Jones before, let me assure you, you don’t want to miss this one. He’s as good as ever.
And, if you haven’t, my suggestion is to get cracking with the series.
You’ll be glad you did.
October 23, 2011
I'm delighted that J. Sydney Jones sent a PDF of this book to me for review. It is the third in a series of mystery novels set in historic Vienna, a city Jones lived in for some time years ago. The fact that I hadn't read the first two was no barrier to enjoyment of this one, but certainly convinced me that I must read the others very soon. They are, in order: The Empty Mirror and Requiem in Vienna, both published last year. I should add that these are print books with gorgeous covers appropriate to the setting.
Attorney and private inquiries agent (private detective) Karl Werthen is the protagonist but by no means alone in his investigations. His wife Berthe is one of my favorite characters, so level-headed, patient, and fully invested in each case. She gives him fresh eyes and good ideas. Another partner in solving the crime is a real person, Dr. Hanns Gross who was the father of criminology. He is gruff and abrupt with people but has a better grasp of the issues than anyone else.
In addition to his case, Werthen is beset by family squabbles involving his orthodox father-in-law, and his snobbish parents who apparently don't credit Werthen and his wife with the good sense to take care of their baby daughter, the apple of Werthen's eye. Leave it to the grandparents to muddy the waters when the first grandchild is born.
Werthen is at first hired to find a wealthy family's oldest son. As he goes to their mansion we learn one of the many things about 1900 Vienna that make this book so charming and interesting to read. The wife has a migraine, so city workers have been dispatched to spread straw on the street to muffle the sound of horses' hooves. There are descriptions of homes, the architecture of city buildings, the sounds and smells of the city, and the Vienna Woods. We also learn of the anti-Semitism rampant in the city so long before WW II, and the great gulf between the rich and the poor.
At the same time, a councilman who is second in power only to Mayor Karl Lueger (who has visions of undermining the rule of Emperor Franz Josef) has apparently committed suicide in his office. Werthen becomes involved in that case as well and finds himself and his family in great danger.
Two of my favorite characters are two young boys, one a son of the wealthy family, the other a street urchin that Werthen's legal assistant wants to adopt. The boys become unlikely friends. I liked both of them immensely.
I find it difficult to tell you much about the story, partly because there are several plotlines, but also because I don't want to give anything away. Let me just say that it is a great story told by an author who is capable of putting the reader in 1900 Vienna (so much so that I was startled when a horn honked outside my house), and the characters are ones that you will enjoy getting to know. My next job is to order the first two books. Highly recommended.
Attorney and private inquiries agent (private detective) Karl Werthen is the protagonist but by no means alone in his investigations. His wife Berthe is one of my favorite characters, so level-headed, patient, and fully invested in each case. She gives him fresh eyes and good ideas. Another partner in solving the crime is a real person, Dr. Hanns Gross who was the father of criminology. He is gruff and abrupt with people but has a better grasp of the issues than anyone else.
In addition to his case, Werthen is beset by family squabbles involving his orthodox father-in-law, and his snobbish parents who apparently don't credit Werthen and his wife with the good sense to take care of their baby daughter, the apple of Werthen's eye. Leave it to the grandparents to muddy the waters when the first grandchild is born.
Werthen is at first hired to find a wealthy family's oldest son. As he goes to their mansion we learn one of the many things about 1900 Vienna that make this book so charming and interesting to read. The wife has a migraine, so city workers have been dispatched to spread straw on the street to muffle the sound of horses' hooves. There are descriptions of homes, the architecture of city buildings, the sounds and smells of the city, and the Vienna Woods. We also learn of the anti-Semitism rampant in the city so long before WW II, and the great gulf between the rich and the poor.
At the same time, a councilman who is second in power only to Mayor Karl Lueger (who has visions of undermining the rule of Emperor Franz Josef) has apparently committed suicide in his office. Werthen becomes involved in that case as well and finds himself and his family in great danger.
Two of my favorite characters are two young boys, one a son of the wealthy family, the other a street urchin that Werthen's legal assistant wants to adopt. The boys become unlikely friends. I liked both of them immensely.
I find it difficult to tell you much about the story, partly because there are several plotlines, but also because I don't want to give anything away. Let me just say that it is a great story told by an author who is capable of putting the reader in 1900 Vienna (so much so that I was startled when a horn honked outside my house), and the characters are ones that you will enjoy getting to know. My next job is to order the first two books. Highly recommended.
January 14, 2015
"Lawyer Karl Werthen is puzzling over the suicide of a local councilman when he is assigned by Karl Wittgenstein, a powerful industrialist with many enemies, to find his recently missing son, Hans. Werthen quickly discovers that the young man appears to be alive and well in another country. But when a friend of Hans – a journalist who wrote a number of articles claiming the councilman who committed suicide was corrupt – is found dead, also from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Werthen fears that sinister forces are at work . . ."
Really enjoyed this one. Obvious though that Jones never took care of a newborn baby as a one-month old baby does not "went to bed early" nor stays asleep for long!
Really enjoyed this one. Obvious though that Jones never took care of a newborn baby as a one-month old baby does not "went to bed early" nor stays asleep for long!
April 13, 2012
Really enjoyed this - a historical mystery novel set in turn-of-the-century Vienna, featuring the Wittgenstein family (as in, Ludwig Wittgenstein, of Tractatus-Logico-Philosophicus fame. This is the third in the series and the second one I've read, and this one was just as satisfying as Requiem in Vienna was, that is, very!
December 20, 2012
The Silence is definitely a historical mystery and does an excellent job of providing authentic details to its story. I also liked the twist at the end. On the other hand, due to its authentic setting, the prose sometimes gets mired in the factoids surrounding its location. It's not a page-turner, but it does beautifully depict Vienna in 1900 and adds intrigue to the city of the past.
October 29, 2023
1900s ViennacMystery
Excellent detective mystery in Vienna early 1900s. Great presentation of the historical period and winds it within a well designed murder mystery.
Story is thoughtfully drafted and well balanced. One of those books you can’t put down.
Excellent detective mystery in Vienna early 1900s. Great presentation of the historical period and winds it within a well designed murder mystery.
Story is thoughtfully drafted and well balanced. One of those books you can’t put down.
January 2, 2023
Most enjoyable but not quite completely compelling somehow, at least for me.
March 28, 2016
In this third volume of mysteries in Vienna, the year is 1900, and the industrialist Wittgenstein has his eyes on developing the Vienna Woods as real estate for the ultra wealthy, while the May of Vienna is also involved in the secretive plot to take the important park from the common folk. Once again, Jones does his best with dropping names; the Emperor, the Wild West Show 's owner, Thomas Reddington, and others. The thought that the murders at the heart of this volume were committed by one woman had not occurred to me until the very end. The details of the are, as before, impressively fine.
May 31, 2015
I appreciated that Karl Lueger was portrayed as a very slimy character. Other cameos included: Otto Wagner, Karl & Ludwig Wittgenstein, Rosa Mayreder, Viktor Adler, and Karl Kraus.
I love these books for making me feel like I'm in fin-de-siècle Vienna, though of course with Lueger figuring prominently into this one, the reminders of the rampant anti-Semitism at the time were a little less than ideal. I'm not sure what I will do to get my Vienna fix once I'm done with this series.
I love these books for making me feel like I'm in fin-de-siècle Vienna, though of course with Lueger figuring prominently into this one, the reminders of the rampant anti-Semitism at the time were a little less than ideal. I'm not sure what I will do to get my Vienna fix once I'm done with this series.
May 20, 2012
This was an okay historical mystery. At times,it over explained and talked down to the reader. But it was an interesting mystery that gave interesting history to Vienna at the turn of the 20th century.
July 31, 2012
Helps to have an understanding of German, European history - especially 1800-1900's with the political dynamics surrounding Austria, and time to sort through this author's love of words. The ending was almost too neat and tidy.
August 31, 2012
Interesting mystery set in 1900 Vienna. It involves a mysterious suicide, and a young man who is missing from a wealthy family. The author does a good job of conjuring the setting of the time and place, as well as writing an interesting mystery.
March 6, 2013
I read this because it is a mystery-thriller (a genre I enjoy) set in Vienna (a place I will be visiting soon). The historical setting/atmosphere was good and held my interest to a certain degree, but the plot was somehow lacking.
August 9, 2014
This was good. I love reading all the details about Vienna, where I lived long ago. J. Sydney Jones has written several mysteries that take place in Vienna and involve famous historical figures and places. Pearl, you need to read these!
March 21, 2015
Very good! I enjoyed the descriptions of pre-WWI Vienna, as well as the references to art and architecture. Karl Werther was a very interesting character as was his sidekick Dr. Gross. This was the third in the series, and I will definitely go back and read the others. Good mystery!
January 13, 2016
This was better than the next book but perhaps the "name dropping" just hadn't started to get to me yet. It was an interesting story. I like Jones' main players and their relationships with their wives.
January 2, 2012
Interesting look at 1900s Vienna and the anti-Semitism already there. It would seem many people "assimulated" in order to get a position. Also I thought the Vienna Woods was just a waltz.
January 20, 2012
I enjoyed the first two books in this series, however, I was disappointed with this one. Very slow moving and dull.
August 11, 2013
if you want a mystery set in the same time/place, I think the frank tallis series is much more interesting.
August 11, 2012
Good fast read. You get a good feel for Vienna at the turn of the century-c1899.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews