A review by theomnivorescientist
Fatal Lies by Frank Tallis

adventurous challenging funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

5.0

Frank Tallis, a clinical psychologist and now a full-time author famous for his Liebermann crime novels. Fatal Lies is the third novel in this series set in 1900s Vienna at the brink of great scientific and industrial breakthrough surrounding the adventures of Vienna police inspector Oskar Reinhardt and psychiatrist Max Liebermann who also happens to be the student of yes, Sigmund Freud. This particular volume leads the duo crime solvers on a journey through a military boarding school for Viennese boys and investigates the murder of a teenage boy. Tallis infuses his medical knowledge about psychoanalysis throughout the book as I am sure is the underlying skeleton of the series. Solving crimes through observation of human behaviour. A bit like Conan Doyle but Tallis creates a Vienna like no other. The rise of Freudian practices, the Austro-Hungarian political landscape, the coffee houses and Viennese bakeries, opera and of course waltz and classical music. I made copious notes. There are chapters dedicated to the analysis of certain pieces. Next thing you know I was playing Fur Elise on a piano app on my laptop. More than the crime and the solution itself, this series needs to be cherished for its historical accuracy and a love for neuroscience. One single caution: please keep a gap between two Liebermann novels. They are dense and need a palate cleanser in between.