A master of mystery and suspense, Frank Tallis brings back Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt and Dr. Max Liebermann in an eBook short story exclusive—a new, riveting turn-of-the-century tale in the “captivating historical series” (The New York Times Book Review) that is beloved around the world.   Haunted by the sudden death of her grown son, Countess Zigana Nadazdy-Hauke is as unhappy as she is elegant. But is she miserable enough to drown herself in the bath? That’s the conventional wisdom in Vienna. But Rheinhardt and Liebermann have another idea after meeting the poor soul’s much younger widower: Oktav Hauke is handsome and dashing, but also callous to the point of pathology, admittedly abusive, in debt up to his ears, and a serial surviving spouse: He’s lost two other rich older wives to premature deaths. Now he’s the obvious suspect. But can this solution be too simple, as well?   After the shocking ending, catch a preview of Frank Tallis’ thrilling new novel in the series, Death and the Maiden!

In 1900s Vienna, Psychoanalyst Dr Max Liebermann is called in to help with police investigations into the murder of a young medium. In this first of a new series of psychoanalytical detective novels set in Vienna, Dr Max Liebermann is a young psychoanalyst – and disciple of Freud. The world of 1900s Vienna is one where philosophy, science and art flourish and are hotly debated in the coffee shops. Psychoanalysis is still developing and is viewed with a mixture of excitement and suspicion. Liebermann’s good friend Oskar Rheinhardt is a Detective Inspector — hard working but lacking Liebermann’s insights and forensic eye, and so it is through Rheinhardt that Liebermann is called upon to help with police investigations surrounding the death of a beautiful young medium in what seems at first to be supernatural circumstances. When Liebermann attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery, he also must decide whether he is to follow his father’s advice and marry the beautiful but reserved Clara.

A psychologist explores the intersection of love and madness through the riveting stories of the patients he has treatedIn The Incurable Romantic, Frank Tallis recounts the extraordinary stories of patients who are, quite literally, madly in love: a woman becomes utterly convinced that her dentist is secretly infatuated with her and drives him to leave the country; a man destroys his massive fortune through trysts with over three thousand prostitutes—because his ego requires that they fall in love with him; a beautiful woman's pathological jealousy destroys the men who love her. Along the way, we learn a great deal about the history of psychiatry and the role of neuroscience in addressing disordered love. Elegantly written and infused with deep sympathy, The Incurable Romantic shows how all of us can become a bit crazy in love.