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A review by jdintr
Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd
4.0
A clever spy story that takes begins in Vienna on the eve of the First World War. Lysander Rief travels from London to seek help from the new therapy of psychoanalysis, but what he finds in fin de siecle Vienna is a "river of sex" that promises to do far more than cure his mama issues.
Just outside his therapist's office, Rief meets Hetty Bull, a seductive sculptor who casts him under her spell until dramatic events: a false rape charge, the death of the crown prince, send Rief back home to London and plunge Europe into a great war.
I read this book in advance of a trip to Vienna, and I really enjoyed the Viennese scenes and the peek into the pre-war era that it provides. Once the action moves to Britain, Rief's acting skills are put to the test as he is forced to uncover a spy embedded high in the British armed forces.
Waiting for Sunrise is more than a spy novel, more than a novel of place. It is a well-written, tightly paced, often surprising tale.
Just outside his therapist's office, Rief meets Hetty Bull, a seductive sculptor who casts him under her spell until dramatic events: a false rape charge, the death of the crown prince, send Rief back home to London and plunge Europe into a great war.
I read this book in advance of a trip to Vienna, and I really enjoyed the Viennese scenes and the peek into the pre-war era that it provides. Once the action moves to Britain, Rief's acting skills are put to the test as he is forced to uncover a spy embedded high in the British armed forces.
Waiting for Sunrise is more than a spy novel, more than a novel of place. It is a well-written, tightly paced, often surprising tale.