Jed Rubenfeld

'Manhattan, 1909. On the morning after Sigmund Freud arrives in New York on his first --and only -- Visit to the United Sates, a stunning debutante is found bound and strangled in her penthouse appartment, high above Broadway. the following night, another beautiful heiress, Nora Acton, is discovered tied to a chandelier in her parents' home, viciously wounded and unable to speak or recall her ordeal. Soon Freud and his American disciple, Stratham Younger, are enlisted to help Miss Acton recover her memory, and to piece together the killer's identity. It is a riddle that will test their skills to the limit, and lead them on a thrilling journey -- into the darkest places of the city, and of the human mind' --rear cover.

The Interpretation of Murder

edith w.

** spoiler alert **
           I mentioned elsewhere that I’d started to read The Interpretation of Murder because I felt like getting stuck into a whodunnit. Oh my life, I wish I hadn’t bothered. I said to Himself at the weekend that I never fail to finish a book no matter how bad it is, but last night I ate my words (literally). I got to page 161 out of 550-odd and I realised I couldn’t get any further.

The Interpretation of Murder is absolutely dreadful.

We have Freud with his typical misogynistic ‘maybe she asked for it’ theorising, Jung being rude and offensive, another psychoanalyst whose role never became apparent, and our very dull protagonist. Add to this one dead victim, one alive victim, and a host of other characters (all with the same name, I’m sure of it), none of whom were properly introduced and therefore completely forgettable.

Awful, awful, awful, tedious, unstructured, amateur rubbish. It’s the very worst book I’ve ever opened, I think.

I thought I would try to sell it on Amazon Marketplace but 553 copies are for sale already. I think that says it all.

Sarah Escorsa

I must admit I didn't expect much when I started reading this book. Too much hype, too many rave reviews, I feared this was going to be yet another disappointing historical murder mystery... Well it turns out I was pleasantly surprised! I liked the story, the characters and the depiction of New York in the early 20th century. The book also reminded me of Caleb Carr's excellent novel The Alienist. I did skip some passages that distracted the reader from the central plot, such as the analysis of Freud's Oedipus complex or the digressions on Hamlet. I also found the book to be confusing as far as the narrator was concerned and sometimes wondered if Rubenfeld hadn't got his characters mixed up at some point... Still, this was a pretty good read!

Janet Doré

This is just not my style of book, which is the only reason for the 3-star rating. If you're interested in psychology and mysteries, you will probably really enjoy this book. Loved the setting in old New York City.

Addison Mecklenburg

In 1909, as a sadistic killer stalks Manhattan's wealthiest heiresses, Sigmund Freud is called in by American analyst Dr. Stratham Younger to assist him in interviewing Nora Acton, a hysterical survivor of the killer who can recall nothing about the attack. A first novel. 250,000 first printing.

A Novel

Aubrey Hicks

A dazzling literary thriller - the story of Sigmund Freud assisting a Manhattan murder investigation. Think SHADOW OF THE WIND meets THE HISTORIAN. THE INTERPRETATION OF MURDER is an inventive tour de force inspired by Sigmund Freud's 1909 visit to America, accompanied by protégé and rival Carl Jung. When a wealthy young debutante is discovered bound, whipped and strangled in a luxurious apartment overlooking the city, and another society beauty narrowly escapes the same fate, the mayor of New York calls upon Freud to use his revolutionary new ideas to help the surviving victim recover her memory of the attack, and solve the crime. But nothing about the attacks - or about the surviving victim, Nora - is quite as it seems. And there are those in very high places determined to stop the truth coming out, and Freud's startling theories taking root on American soil.

The Interpretation of Murder

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