A page-turner mystery: "The Interpretation of Murder" by Jed Rubenfeld

[Lex]

I'm enjoying reading it, so if you're looking for a good, engrossing mystery, I can recommend this one. Set in New York City in 1909. Intricate and very well done.

In 1909, Drs. Freud and Jung visit Manhattan. They no sooner arrive when a young socialite is murdered, followed by another attempted murder, bearing the same characteristics. In the second case, the victim lives. She has lost her voice and cannot remember anything. The young doctor, Stratham Younger, who has invited Freud to speak at his University, soon involves Dr. Freud in the case. Freud, saying that Nora's case will require a time committment that he does not have, turns her over to Younger. The rudiments of Nora's case are based on Freud's famous Dora, complete with sexual perversions, convoluted twists and turns and downright lies.

That is just one of the myriad plot lines in the novel, all of which are intricate, interesting and plausible. All it takes for all of the incidents to be true is a great deal of bad will--and it is abundant here! There are politicians who are less than statesmen, city employees at work for themselves and not the city, doctors who will do anything to undermine Freud's theories, thereby saving the neurotics for themselves, and opportunists at every level of society, seeking psychological or material advantage. Carl Jung is portrayed by turns as secretive, mysterious, odd, and just plain nuts, while Freud remains a gentleman whose worst problem is his bladder.

http://www.amazon.com/Interpretation-Murder-Novel-Jed-Rubenfeld/dp/B000S9D49M

[TheCentepedeShoes]

1. I have not read that one

but am reading The Death Instinct, a later book with Stratham and NY police detective Jimmy Littlemore (got it off the New Books section at the library last week)
Takes place in 1920 and involves the Wall Street bombing, Freud and Marie Curie's work with radium

[Lex]

2. Cool, thanks! I hadn't even looked to see

if there was a later book featuring any of the same characters. I'm going to get that one. I really enjoyed The Interpretation of Murder.