The new book in the Viennese Mystery series - Vienna, 1900. Lawyer Karl Werthen is puzzling over the suicide of a local councilman when he is assigned by Karl Wittgenstein, a powerful industrialist with many enemies, to find his recently missing son, Hans. Werthen quickly discovers that the young man appears to be alive and well in another country. But when a friend of Hans - a journalist who wrote a number of articles claiming the councilman who committed suicide was corrupt - is found dead, also from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Werthen fears that sinister forces are at work . . .

Lawyer Karl Werthen must deal with the deaths of a prostitute and a playwright in the latest intriguing novel of suspense in the Viennese Mystery series. Vienna, 1901. With the police seemingly indifferent to the murder of a nineteen-year-old prostitute known as Mitzi, brothel-keeper Frau Mutzenbacher turns to lawyer Karl Werthen. Yet the more he discovers about the mysterious Mitzi, the more questions Werthen’s investigation throws up. At the same time, Werthen undertakes a second commission: to find out who viciously assaulted playwright Arthur Schnitzler. Could his latest controversial play have been the motive for the attack? Werthen soon finds himself drawn into a conspiracy of espionage and affairs of state.Review"Not as widely known as it ought to be, this series is well worth a look"Booklist on The Keeper of Hands“Top-notch detecting and characterizations bolster the intricate plot”Publishers Weekly Starred Review of The Keeper of HandsAbout the AuthorIn 1968 he was a student in Vienna and later returned to live there for almost two decades. He currently lives near Santa Cruz, California.