The Second Rider

Starred review from September 3, 2018
Austrian author Beer makes her English-language debut with this outstanding series launch set in 1919 Vienna. For three months, Insp. August Emmerich has been on the trail of Veit Kolja, the head of a large-scale black market smuggling operation that supplies people with basic needs—food, medicine, and clothing—that remain scarce in a city still devastated by WWI. Emmerich dreams of a reassignment to the elite division that handles homicides and hopes to showcase his deductive skills after his inexperienced new assistant stumbles across a corpse in the woods. The dead man is eventually identified as war veteran Dietrich Jost, who suffered from extreme shell shock. The coroner and Emmerich’s boss, District Insp. Leopold Sander, are eager to label Jost’s death a suicide, even after a second body turns up. Emmerich resists Sander’s directives to devote himself to the smuggling ring, even as he grapples with debilitating pain from a war wound as well as a devastating development in his personal life. Despite the plot’s essential grimness, Beer is able to inject some humor. Fans of Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series will be intrigued.

October 1, 2018
In her debut novel, Beer, a rising star in Austrian crime fiction, brings post-WWI Vienna to life in an overwhelmingly grim portrayal of a defeated empire's daily struggle to survive the constant cold, disease, hunger, and despair. Inspector August Emmerich, a wounded veteran, is a compelling character, despite the fact he is not easy to like. His life has been one long string of bitter and disappointing events, but he clings to his dream of joining Leib und Leben, the Viennese major-crimes unit. Just enough humanity shows through that the reader feels obliged to urge him forward through the ruined city in his attempt to solve a series of murders. He limps down filthy alleyways and dangerous streets, determined to solve a case that takes so many twists and turns that he needs constant infusions of caffeine and heroin, along with the occasional nip of schnapps, to keep going. This is a masterfully constructed novel with a very satisfying ending that points to a series. But it's very dark stuff, best suited for readers with a deep appreciation of international noir.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)