In this fascinating psychological neo-noir mystery, a notorious late 19th-century photograph provides the key to a contemporary murder. In 1882, the young Lou Andreas-Salome, writer, psychoanalyst and femme fatale, appears with Friedrich Nietzche and another man in a bizarre photograph taken in Luzern, Switzerland. Over thirty years later, an intense art student in Freud's Vienna presents Lou Salome with his own drawing based on the infamous photograph. In the present day, Tess Berenson, a brilliant performance artist, moves into an art deco loft in downtown Oakland, California. Her new apartment, she learns, was vacated in a hurry by a professional dominatrix who used the name Chantal Desforges. Tess's curiosity about Chantal intensifies when her body is discovered in the trunk of a stolen car at Oakland airport. Embarking on an obsessive investigation into the murder, Tess discovers a link to the original Luzern photograph and the 1913 drawing - but as she gets closer to the shocking truth, Tess finds that she too is in jeopardy.
William Bayer is the author of numerous psychological crime novels, including the New York Times bestsellers, Switch, Pattern Crimes and Punish Me With Kisses. His books have won the Best Novel Edgar, the Lambda Literary Award, and the French Prix Mystere de la Critique (twice). He lives with his wife, the renowned food writer Paula Wolfert, in Sonoma Valley, California.
Title: The Luzern Photograph: A Noir Thriller (Large Print)
Author: Bayer, William
ISBN: 9780727894519
Binding:
Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
Publication Date: 2016-07-31
Number of Pages: 432
Weight: 0.5672 kg
Bayer keeps the suspense high as he artfully toggles among story lines and thoughtfully develops his characters Publishers Weekly Edgar winner Bayer (The Dream of Broken Horses, 2002, etc.) continues his romance with psychoanalysis with a riff on Lou Andreas-Salome's persona as analyst and femme fatale ... Nazis, sadomasochism, and psychoanalysis always provide a heady mix, and a little murder thrown in pushes Bayer's latest into the radioactive zone. -- Kirkus Reviews In this clever psychological thriller, Bayer chillingly and skillfully depicts the divide between good and evil. Suggest to Thomas Harris and -Michael Connelly devotees. Library Journal Starred Review