| A young man, Dr. Streatham-Younger, one of the first psychoanalysts in USA in 1909 is more than excited to be meeting Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung as they visit the US on a speaking schedule.
The pair are hardly off the boat when a curious murder is discovered and the three doctors are brought in to try to determine the reasoning behind the death. Working to the same end is a brash young New York detective, Officer Littlemore, and the local coroner. During the examination of the superficially mutilated body of the yourg girl, another murder victim comes to their attention, this time, having successfully escaped the murderer's final intent. This is Nora Acton, the young and beautiful daughter of a wealthy Manhattan family. Nora is very friendly with another similarly well-off family and it soon becomes clear that the husband within this family is the likely culprit. Dr. Younger is assigned to assess Nora's mental state as the story she tells, after feigning loss of memory and, indeed, speech, leaves many questions unanswered. Officer Littlemore pursues his own line of sleuthing, which, when mixed with the information the Doctor provides leads them both to a huge construction site and the building of a new fly-over bridge, all the work being carried out by the husband's firm of engineers and builders. The story deepens when the first murder victim's body disappears from the morgue and yet another body of a young girl, also connected to Nora through charity work, is found dumped in a high-rise but low-class appartment. Not content with these conundrums, he introduces an escapee from a sanitorium for the insane intent on a murderous pursuit and all in all, the reader is left bemused by the possible outcome. With an approaching near-death experience for both the main investigators deep under the Manhattan waterline, they both deserve a successful outcome to solving the case. Suffice it to say that Officer Littlemore finds the right answers, Dr. Younger finds the right girl and they both find the murderous, though well-hidden, perpetrator, amongst the streets and estates of Manhattan. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of story - depressing/sad How difficult to spot villain? - Challenging Time/era of story: What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 30% Murder of certain profession? Misc. Murder Plotlets - Big focus on autopsies Kind of investigator Any non-mystery subplot? descript. of violence and chases - 10 % Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 % How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20 % Crime Thriller Yes Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes Amnesia story? Yes Is Romance a MAJOR (25%+) part of story? Yes Main Character Gender - Male Profession/status: Age: - 20's-30's Ethnicity/Race Main Adversary Identity: - Female Age: - 20's-30's Profession/status: Motive of antagonist - money/treasure How sensitive is this character? Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters Setting United States Yes Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths Unusual form of death? Yes Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog |
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