Fatal Lies

A clever plot, jokes for those who are interested in the history of psychoanalysis, and a convincing portrait of the imperial city combine in Fatal Lies to provide lively and enjoyable reading. * TLS * Entertaining ... provides fascinating glimpses of the earliest use of Freudian theory in criminal investigations * Seven, The Sunday Telegraph * Don't read this on an empty stomach. Not, I hasten to add, for reasons of gore, but because of the Viennese cakes. Aficionados of classical music and architecture are also in for a treat: this, after all, is fin-de-sicle Vienna and Tallis has a supreme talent for bringing the city to life * Telegraph * ... a sound tale, told with humour and elegance. An important plus, is Tallis's atmospheric evocation of a scintillating Vienna at the height of its artistic, intellectual and medical influence * Times * Tallis has come up with a particularly ingenious method of murder, which leaves no trace and almost claims the lives of two more victims before the culprit is unmasked. His novels show the modern world coming into existence in one of Europe's great cities, and are all the more poignant for the knowledge that the first world war will soon cast its shadow over his deeply humane characters * Sunday Times *

Frank Tallis is a writer and practising clinical psychologist. He has published seven non-fiction books (including Changing Minds: The History of Psychotherapy as an Answer to Human Suffering and Hidden Minds: A History of the Unconscious). He has also written two novels; Killing Time and Sensing Others, both published by Penguin. In 1999 he received a Writers' Award from the Arts Council of Great Britain and in 2000 he won the New London Writers' Award (London Arts Board). He lives and works in London.