Murder mystery with a twist (The Interpretation of Murder - Jed Rubenfeld)

Member Name: honey000

Product:	The Interpretation of Murder - Jed Rubenfeld
Date:	27/07/09 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast paced, great plot

Disadvantages: A little bit of psychobable!

As you can probably guess from the title of this book one of the major topics running through the book is murder. At heart this is a good old fashioned murder mystery, a "whodunnit" with a definite surprise when you finally realise who the villain is!

But this book is so much more than that. The Interpretation bit of the title refers to psychological interpretation of the murderer and victim. The story is set in 1909 during the visit of Sigmund Freud to America. As an expert in the field of memory recovery he is asked to assist a survivor of a vicious attack to regain her memories of the attack.

Plot
I dont like giving away spoilers so won't give away any details that are not on the cover of the book!

A young socialite is found strangled having been subject to a horrible attack with a whip! the next day a second victim is found, alive but wounded after a very similar attack. She has no memory of what happened to her or who did it!

The story then follows two main threads. Littlefield the detective brought in to investigate the murder follows physical evidence to try and uncover the identity of the killer. His story takes dangerous turns as he uncovers secrets that powerful people want to remain hidden.

Dr Younger - a follower of Sigmund Freud treats the surviving victim to try to help her remember what happened. He constantly seeks advice from Freud who is obsessed with Odoepal ideas and disturbing sexual ideas.

All the while are their lives and the lives of the survivor in danger?

Characters:
Freud: Only ever made one trip to the USA as he was traumatised on his first visit. This book seeks to explain why - expect lots of psychological discussions and ideas - dont worry they are not too hard to understand.

Nora: The survivor of the attack, a 17 year old debutante with a great future. Beautiful and imaginative the reader is almost made to fall in love with her!

Younger: The young american psychologist - defers to Freud's ideas but then wants to strike out on his own.

Style:
The story flits between the different streams of the investigation and into the mind of the murderer for a while (without revealing who it is!) It is told in the third person so you are not biased towards any of the characters in particular!

ALthough there is some discussion of early 20th century psychological theories this is an interesting part of the plot but manages not to overwhelm the basic murder mystery plot.

There are even a couple of fledgling romances thrown in for good measure, just to lighten the tone. These are well placed and don't distract from the main story or feel too false - in fact I really thought that they added to the story as a whole.

The tale romps along at a good pace so that you are not left waiting for the next action for too long!

The twist
Shall we say that I did not see the end coming at all. I was really surprised about what had happened! If you guess early then you might not enjoy this book as much as I did but I just had no inkling of what was going to happen!

Overall
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The author had clearly reasearched clinical psychology and the period of history so that it seems set in he correct time period. I wasnt bored once and read the book cover to cover in about 3 days as I just wanted to know who had dunnit!

Summary: An educational murder mystery