CRIME SCRAPS: DARKNESS RISING: FRANK TALLIS

Thursday, November 27, 2008

I have just finished reading Darkness Rising , the fourth in the Dr Max Liebermann series, and my review will appear in due course on Euro Crime.

Lauren said...: I hadn't noticed this was out - will have to try and track down a copy. I must confess, I really want to like Tallis' books more than I do, because I love the era, the characters and the references...but the stories are a tad too deriative for my tastes. I've read a lot of fiction from fin de siecle Austria, and the feeling of of deja vu is just too strong on occasion. (Book 3's main crime subplot read like a fusion of Schnitzler and Musil.)

A(nother) case of too much background knowledge to be the target readership, I suppose. I think I'd actually prefer more of deviations from the historical norm to give the stories extra 'oomph', but I can see reviewers jumping all over anachronisms, so I don't really know what the answer is. (Perhaps better history teaching so that historical fiction isn't forced to be as didactic, but I think that's a pipe dream.); 3:44 AM
Uriah Robinson said...: Lauren, I had an ARC the book which is published on January 9th.
I too love the era, the characters, the apfelstrudl and the clever references. I would like to think that others with less background knowledge will read the books and be stimulated to learn more.; 4:47 AM