Viena, 1909. Cuando aparece el cadáver del célebre actor Bischoff, que aparentemente se ha suicidado, todas las sospechas recaen sobre un oficial del ejército enamorado de la mujer del difunto, el barón Von Yocsch, como inductor de la muerte, pese a que este clama desesperadamente su inocencia. La sucesión de nuevos suicidios cada vez más enigmáticos que se producen en los siguientes días llevan a una indagación detectivesca que se remontará varios siglos para descubrir el origen maléfico de tan macabra epidemia...

Eine kakanisches, herausgeberfiktionales Leckerli.

"Aber was Sie vorher als Furcht erlebt haben, war nur ein schwacher Widerschein eines Gefühls, das seit Jahrtausenden in uns erloschen ist." ( )

Vienna, 1909. The Actor of the Court Theatre Eugene Bissov is dead at his pavillion of his manson. His death is linked to a series of mysterious deaths. Are they suicides or murders? Is the narrator of the story guilty, the baron Son? Two friends of the dead actor, taking on the role of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, undertake to unravel the murder. However, the role of the detective is also to be played by the reader, as history is constantly suspended between certainty and doubt, truth and lie.

The novel combines art with pleasure, the anxiety about the outcome of the plot with the agony of a consciousness which is called upon to confront the spectrum of guilt.

Leo Perutz has masterfully set his story against the backdrop of the capital of the formerly might Austro-Hungarian Empire. A whole world, which will soon be swept through by the war, is vigorously inspired by the writer's narrative mastery, the evocative atmosphere and the eclectic mood that exudes the work.

The book can be characterized, depending on the angle of view, by a police novel, a psychological novel, and even a novel - in any case ironic - about the genesis of Art. the same text, and the reader is proclaimed the creator of the true story that the novel deals with in a very contradictory way. "
Hans-Harald Muller

This is a remarkable little book that's not easily forgotten.
'
A famous actor, after recounting for his guests a tale of two inexplicable suicides, goes to his garden pavilion and shoots himself. One of those guests is Baron von Yosch, who soon is accused of imparting information that drove the actor to kill himself.. The Baron, who narrates the story, feels overwhelmed by guilt, and when his word of honour is seemingly proved a sham he himself considers suicide. This is Vienna in 1909: an officer and a gentleman knew the honourable way out. Much of the book tells of his and his friends' attempt to solve the mystery of a string of suicides that have common factors. Eventually they do so.

The book is well-written and well-constructed. So many scenes and details are striking and linger in the memory: the connoisseur money-lender, the inane conversation about music, the villain too fat to stir from his home, the Baron's hallucination and his enigmatic saviour.

It's also a provocative book, in a way a study of the psychology of guilt: of why and when we acknowledge guilt--truly or falsely--or deny it or simply confabulate. For me it also raised questions about credulity and story-telling; despite Perutz's indirect but clear warnings, I found myself readily believing in the fantastic elements of the story and reluctant to credit what was (almost certainly) the underlying truth of it. A very good book indeed.

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/a-one-pipe-problem/ ( )