Soon, another attack occurs, similar to the first. This time, the young victim, Nora Acton, is alive, but traumatized. She has lost memory of the event, and has remained mute ever since. Another of Freud's American disciple, Stratham Younger, learns from the mayor about the case and the fact that a man such as Freud would be welcomed, to help the young woman recover her memory. Freud, once consulted, decides that Younger will take on Miss Acton as a patient and he himself will supervise.

While Younger takes care of the victim's side of things, the coroner, Charles Hugel, assisted by Littlemore, a young idealist detective, track the perpetrator. Clues soon seem to point to influent, untouchable Banwell, but a complication arises: the corpse of the first victim has disappeared...

The synopsis of the novel is promising, and the depiction of New York in the beginning of the twentieth century thoroughly researched and rendered. The style is pleasant enough, the novel well written. However, as a suspense novel, I found this novel to be a failure. It lacked the spark that could have made it a very good book, and although I could easily finish it, I was never, at any moment of the plot, truly hooked. In fact, my opinion of it improved when I read the final note and realized how much of what Rubenfeld inserted in his novel is true, even, although there never was a murder, the complex and perverse relationships between the main characters involved in the plot (based on a case studied by Freud)...

Rubenfeld blends facts and fiction convincingly, too bad he couldn't spin his tale in a more bewitching manner...

Rating:

© Discussing Books, 05/27/2007