The skyline was created when a tea tray was tipped over the city, scattering its contents, which became the curiously shaped

• Book: The Fig Eater
• Location: Vienna
• Author: Jody Shields

I had read this book when it was first published in 2000. I forgot I had read this until a friend gave it to me when I went to Vienna. It only vaguely rang bells second time around. It is set in fin de siècle Vienna and it is about a policeman and his wife, who is a superstitious woman, looking for the person who killed Dora. I loved the mystery, other worldliness and descriptions of Vienna back in the early part of the 20th century. The first half was great but then I found it a little tedious, and I gradually looked keenly to the end. The descriptions of Vienna are great, and I even found myself looking up where the Volksgarten was in relation to where we were staying at the Stadtgarten, but the darkness, the spells, the shrouded mysteries of another world are a kind of process. I have now forgotten the reason for the killing. The writing style I enjoyed, though, and I would give it an extra rating for the historical aspects.

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