Midnight in Vienna

Jane Thynne

IF your end-of-summer fancy turns to a clever murder mystery – seeped in the febrile atmosphere and dark suspicion of the pre-war months, and delicately laced with a Golden Age flavour – then get your hands on this historical gem from the wonderful Jane Thynne.

An author, journalist and broadcaster, Thynne has also written two acclaimed dystopian novels, Widowland and Queen High, under the pen name of C.J. Carey, but she is perhaps best known for her much-loved Clara Vine wartime espionage thrillers.

And in this new edge-of-the-seat crime adventure, Thynne whisks us away to London and Vienna in 1938 when the world teetered precariously on the precipice of another destructive war, and uncertainty and fear stalked the streets of Britain and Europe. Into the coming conflagration steps an unlikely – and utterly charming – partnership of detectives... one a young woman whose brainpower is, quite typically, seriously underestimated, and the other a former Special Branch man on a risky secret mission.

And what a winning formula it proves to be as Thynne (pictured left) delivers a gritty, suspense-packed story filled with her trademark richly detailed and exciting world-building, intriguing characters (including a cameo appearance by crime novelist Dorothy L. Sayers), and a growing sense of menace.

In September of 1938, war looms large and the whole of Europe seems to be ‘holding its breath in anticipation.’ In Britain, talk of gas masks and blackouts is increasing daily, people are understandably jumpy and anxious, and in London, ‘politics tinged the air like petrol.’

Stella Fry has spent the last five years working in Vienna as tutor for a Jewish family but they have been forced to flee Austria for the safety of New York and on return to London, Stella finds herself with no job and a broken heart.

Eager to work, she answers an advertisement from a famous mystery writer, Hubert Newman, who needs a manuscript typed. She meets the author at the upmarket Athenaeum Club in Pall Mall and takes on the job but is shocked the next day to learn of his sudden, unexplained death. She is even more surprised when, twenty-four hours later, she receives Newman’s manuscript through the post and reads the Dedication: ‘To Stella, spotter of mistakes.’

Meanwhile, Harry Fox, formerly of Special Branch and brilliant at surveillance, has been suspended for some undisclosed misdemeanour. He is currently shadowing suspected Communist sympathisers like George Orwell through the streets of London and has his own reasons for being interested in Hubert Newman. When Harry approaches Stella to share his belief that the writer’s death was no accident, she recalls Newman telling her at their one and only meeting that ‘people need a world where the loose ends are tied up and justice is done.’

And now it seems that since she was the last person to see Newman, Stella could be in danger herself and that by agreeing to help Harry, her life is soon going to be engulfed by events more extraordinary and perilous than she could ever have imagined.

Thynne has a wonderful way of blending fact and fiction into a story that bristles with menace and evokes time and place with both stunning authenticity and memorable vibrancy whilst dishing up a superb murder mystery sprinkled with tantalising clues and elusive red herrings. And leading the charge to solve the case are the likeable dyslexic detective Harry and his ‘partner in crime’ Stella, a strong, determined and brave woman whose hunt for the truth takes her from London to the shadowy corners of pre-war Vienna.

With Thynne’s meticulous research underpinning every inch of the plot, and some devilish twists and turns to enjoy, this is an autumnal treat not to be missed!
(Quercus, hardback, £20)