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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Manhattan, 1909.
On the morning after Sigmund Freud arrives in New York on his first – and only – visit to the United States, a stunning debutante is found bound and strangled in her penthouse apartment, high above Broadway. The following night, another beautiful heiress, Nora Acton, is discovered tied to a chandelier in her parents’ home, viciously wounded and unable to speak or to recall her ordeal. Soon Freud and his American disciple, Stratham Younger, are enlisted to help Miss Acton recover her memory, and to piece together the killer’s identity. It is a riddle that will test their skills to the limit and lead them on a thrilling journey – into the darkest places of the city, and of the human mind.
It’s 29th August 1909. Sigmund Freud (accompanied by Carl Jung and Sandor Ferenczi) arrives in New York to give a series of lectures and receive an honorary doctorate from Clarke University and is met by his American translator Abraham Brill and Dr Stratham Younger (an associate professor at Clarke who is developing his own practice in psychoanalysis). Freud’s arrival, however, coincides with the discovery in an exclusive penthouse apartment of a young woman’s body who’s been bound, whipped and strangled with a silk tie. The next day, 17-year-old heiress Nora Acton is discovered similarly bound and whipped in her own home but the trauma has left her unable to speak or even to remember what happened to her.
There’s pressure on the police from the mayor to quickly find the culprit while keeping the investigation from the front pages of the newspapers so New York coroner, Hugel and detective Jimmy Littlemore call on Freud to help unlock Nora’s memories and Freud asks Younger to psychoanalyse her. As Younger delves into Acton’s memories, however, he discovers dark secrets and debauchery at the heart of New York’s upper classes together with twisted desires that will not be denied …
Jed Rubenfeld’s debut historical crime novel is an ambitious work that combines turn of the century New York aristocracy with the burgeoning field of psychoanalysis and Hamlet’s motivation in the play of the same name. It’s a crisply written affair with an intriguing main character in the form of Stratham Younger (a young man from a good family whose father committed suicide after losing his money in a bank collapse), although I found Hugel and Littlemore less convincing as they’re painted with broader brushstrokes. Exposition of the historical developments that shaped the time are well conveyed and while Freud is more of a side character to this, his observations provide useful boosts to the plot and I greatly enjoyed Rubenfeld’s depiction of the rivalries and petty jealousies among his acolytes together with Jung’s own huge sense of self-regard and professional frustration. The crime element rolls along nicely as Nora and Younger grow closer but I did find the perpetrator easy to guess and the plot starts to become a unglued and melodramatic in the last quarter. That said, it’s a smart novel with a fascinating premise and a likeable main character and for that reason I will read the sequel.
The Verdict:
Jed Rubenfeld’s debut historical crime novel is an ambitious work that combines turn of the century New York aristocracy with the burgeoning field of psychoanalysis and Hamlet’s motivation in the play of the same name. It’s a crisply written affair with an intriguing main character in the form of Stratham Younger (a young man from a good family whose father committed suicide after losing his money in a bank collapse), although I found Hugel and Littlemore less convincing as they’re painted with broader brushstrokes. Exposition of the historical developments that shaped the time are well conveyed and while Freud is more of a side character to this, his observations provide useful boosts to the plot and I greatly enjoyed Rubenfeld’s depiction of the rivalries and petty jealousies among his acolytes together with Jung’s own huge sense of self-regard and professional frustration. The crime element rolls along nicely as Nora and Younger grow closer but I did find the perpetrator easy to guess and the plot starts to become a unglued and melodramatic in the last quarter. That said, it’s a smart novel with a fascinating premise and a likeable main character and for that reason I will read the sequel.
On the morning after Sigmund Freud arrives in New York on his first – and only – visit to the United States, a stunning debutante is found bound and strangled in her penthouse apartment, high above Broadway. The following night, another beautiful heiress, Nora Acton, is discovered tied to a chandelier in her parents’ home, viciously wounded and unable to speak or to recall her ordeal. Soon Freud and his American disciple, Stratham Younger, are enlisted to help Miss Acton recover her memory, and to piece together the killer’s identity. It is a riddle that will test their skills to the limit and lead them on a thrilling journey – into the darkest places of the city, and of the human mind.
It’s 29th August 1909. Sigmund Freud (accompanied by Carl Jung and Sandor Ferenczi) arrives in New York to give a series of lectures and receive an honorary doctorate from Clarke University and is met by his American translator Abraham Brill and Dr Stratham Younger (an associate professor at Clarke who is developing his own practice in psychoanalysis). Freud’s arrival, however, coincides with the discovery in an exclusive penthouse apartment of a young woman’s body who’s been bound, whipped and strangled with a silk tie. The next day, 17-year-old heiress Nora Acton is discovered similarly bound and whipped in her own home but the trauma has left her unable to speak or even to remember what happened to her.
There’s pressure on the police from the mayor to quickly find the culprit while keeping the investigation from the front pages of the newspapers so New York coroner, Hugel and detective Jimmy Littlemore call on Freud to help unlock Nora’s memories and Freud asks Younger to psychoanalyse her. As Younger delves into Acton’s memories, however, he discovers dark secrets and debauchery at the heart of New York’s upper classes together with twisted desires that will not be denied …
Jed Rubenfeld’s debut historical crime novel is an ambitious work that combines turn of the century New York aristocracy with the burgeoning field of psychoanalysis and Hamlet’s motivation in the play of the same name. It’s a crisply written affair with an intriguing main character in the form of Stratham Younger (a young man from a good family whose father committed suicide after losing his money in a bank collapse), although I found Hugel and Littlemore less convincing as they’re painted with broader brushstrokes. Exposition of the historical developments that shaped the time are well conveyed and while Freud is more of a side character to this, his observations provide useful boosts to the plot and I greatly enjoyed Rubenfeld’s depiction of the rivalries and petty jealousies among his acolytes together with Jung’s own huge sense of self-regard and professional frustration. The crime element rolls along nicely as Nora and Younger grow closer but I did find the perpetrator easy to guess and the plot starts to become a unglued and melodramatic in the last quarter. That said, it’s a smart novel with a fascinating premise and a likeable main character and for that reason I will read the sequel.
The Verdict:
Jed Rubenfeld’s debut historical crime novel is an ambitious work that combines turn of the century New York aristocracy with the burgeoning field of psychoanalysis and Hamlet’s motivation in the play of the same name. It’s a crisply written affair with an intriguing main character in the form of Stratham Younger (a young man from a good family whose father committed suicide after losing his money in a bank collapse), although I found Hugel and Littlemore less convincing as they’re painted with broader brushstrokes. Exposition of the historical developments that shaped the time are well conveyed and while Freud is more of a side character to this, his observations provide useful boosts to the plot and I greatly enjoyed Rubenfeld’s depiction of the rivalries and petty jealousies among his acolytes together with Jung’s own huge sense of self-regard and professional frustration. The crime element rolls along nicely as Nora and Younger grow closer but I did find the perpetrator easy to guess and the plot starts to become a unglued and melodramatic in the last quarter. That said, it’s a smart novel with a fascinating premise and a likeable main character and for that reason I will read the sequel.
