This image is the cover for the book Empty Mirror, The Viennese Mysteries

Empty Mirror, The Viennese Mysteries

“Set in Vienna in 1898, Jones’s absorbing whodunit succeeds both as a mystery and as a fascinating portrait of a traditional society in ferment.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The summer of 1898 finds Austria terrorized by a killer who the press calls “Vienna’s Jack the Ripper.” Four bodies have already been found, but when the painter Gustav Klimt’s female model becomes the fifth victim, the police finger the artist as the culprit. He’s already scandalized Viennese society with his erotically charged modern paintings—who better to take the blame for the crimes that have plagued the city?

This is, however, far from an open-and-shut case. Klimt’s lawyer, Karl Werthen, has an ace up his sleeve. Dr. Hanns Gross, the renowned father of criminology, has agreed to assist him in investigating the murders. Together, Gross and Werthen must not only clear Klimt’s name but also follow a killer’s trail that will lead them in the most surprising of directions. But by uncovering the cause of the crimes, the two men may risk damaging Vienna more than the murders did themselves . . .

Written by an acclaimed expert on Vienna and its history and featuring a variety of real historical figures, The Empty Mirror introduces a new series of stunning mysteries that reveals the culture and curiosities of this fascinating fin de siècle metropolis.

“A colorful story that neatly combines fact and fiction.” —The Washington Post

“A novel that will appeal to mystery aficionados as well as history buffs.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch

“What Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did for Victorian London and Caleb Carr did for old New York, Sydney Jones does for historic Vienna.” —Karen Harper, New York Times–bestselling author of the Queen Elizabeth I mystery series

J. Sydney Jones

J. Sydney Jones (b. 1948) is an American author of fiction and nonfiction. Born in the United States, he studied abroad in Vienna in 1968 and later returned to Austria to live there for nearly two decades. In the late 1970s he began writing travel books, many of which concern central Europe, and published his first thriller, Time of the Wolf, in 1990. In 2009 Jones published The Empty Mirror, a mystery set in late-nineteenth-century Vienna that would become the first book in his Viennese Mystery series, of which the most recent installment is The Keeper of Hands (2013). Jones lives with his wife and son in California. 

Minotaur Books A Thomas Dunne Book