Vienna Blood

Max Liebermann is enjoying success as a published author when the discovery of a murder in a luxury fashion house plunges him into the midst of a baffling case. A young seamstress has been killed in a surgical manner while wearing one of Mode Salon Vogl’s most elegant dresses. DI Oskar Rheinhardt needs Max’s help to understand the disturbing psychology of the murderer.

The search for the killer continues under the fear that there will be more victims. As the killer reaches out to Max, Oskar becomes deeply unsettled by the murderer’s conviction that he is an artist who brings a beautiful end to his victims’ lives. Max and Oskar doggedly pursue scant clues and the world of the fashion house perplexes them. Has Max got too close to the killer this time?

Max applies his neurological expertise to the retired Captain Steiner, who suffering from delusions. Oskar is irked when he is assigned to the burglary of an ex-Finance Minister with influential friends. When Captain Steiner is found to have committed suicide, it looks like a tragic case of trauma-induced paranoia. But Max and Oskar wonder if the curse has an altogether more human explanation.

Max and Oskar spend the night at the veteran soldiers’ home where Steiner lived. Max discovers that Steiner had a crisis of conscience while Oskar strives to unravel the identity of the man who tortured Steiner into believing he was bedeviled. Max enlists Clara and his own family in an elaborate and potentially dangerous ruse to help locate treasure and Steiner’s tormentor.

When tragedy strikes at the premiere of a silent film, Max and Oskar find themselves investigating the death of Ida Rego, an actress who lost and then regained her eyesight not long before her death. An examination of Ida’s life, her colleagues and her lovers pulls back the curtain on relationships in Vienna’s theatrical community that are as complex as they are barbed.

Ida had many lovers and mixed with powerful men. While a leak in the investigation has professional and personal repercussions for Oskar and Max, one suspect stands out, an American senator with incendiary views. A damning revelation enables Max to see that in different circumstances the same men can cause both miracles and calamities.