I really liked some parts of this second novel featuring Max Liebermann, young, dashing doctor of psychiatry in Vienna at the beginning of a new century. Set a few months after book 1, in the winter of 1902, Vienna experiences the spree killing of a very disturbed individual. Again, Herr Doctor Liebermann is asked to consult. I still like the whole Vienna turn of the 1900's. The music scene, much more prominent in this book, the cafes, the food. We get our obligatory Freud cameos and Max's troubled relationship with Miss Lydgate and his doubt about his engagement with Clara are a good counterpoint to the whole Jack the Ripper, Hitler avatar, secret society plot that kinda lose steam and coherence after the third murder. Still, for the atmosphere, the characters it was worth reading.