Mephisto Waltz, Tallis - C+

                                               Max Lieberman and Oskar Reinhard are friends in 1904 Vienna. Max is a psychiatrist who helps out Oskar, a detective with the Security Office. The plot involves anarchists/socialists planning to bomb a gathering of high ranking civil servants and an archduke. The author does a nice job setting up the time and place, but fails to deliver an interesting storyline and dumbs down the whole book with constant inane asides. For example, Ferry Porsche, who apparently was a driver for the royal family, appears for a moment and Reinhard says he can't see the automobile catching on. Porsche's appearance is interesting—the comment takes away from it.