Master of the Day of Judgment

By Leo Perutz and Leo Perutz (Intro by Anthony Boucher

Book Overview

Vienna, 1909. When the celebrated actor Eugen Bischoff is found dead in his garden pavilion, suspicion falls immediately on Baron von Yosch, a well-to-do army officer who was once the lover of the dead man's wife. By all appearances--the door was locked from the inside when the two shots rang out--the actor took his own life, but someone, or something, drove him to it. The baron sets out to learn all he can about the actor's death in order to clear his name. Meanwhile, within a few days, similar apparent suicides are reported. What started out as a straightforward quest to establish Bischoff's last deeds and discover the truth of his death becomes a search through the ages for an invisible enemy identified only by the actor's dying breath, when he whispered: ". . . the Day of Judgment." Leo Perutz combines his hallmark blend of suspense and the fantastic in this spine-tingling mystery.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1611458420
• ISBN13: 9781611458428
• Release Date: June 2013
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Masterpiece, no other word

1909. Strange suicide plague in Vienna. Why do all these people kill themselves, while they have no reason at all to do so? Wouldn't be something - or somebody - else? Warning to impossible crime fans: one of the so-called "suicides" is a locked room.While he - remarkably - uses Golden Age school's apparatus, Perutz gives here a book that is wholly sui generis. It could be a mystery. It could be weird. It could be both. Mystery fans will be delighted by intricate plotting, virtuoso use of multiple solutions and a totally unexpected ending. They'll also be delighted, along with others, by magistral recreation of a vanished world, quirky atmosphere and characters, and a reflection on time, art and reality. Yet in the end, the book's real nature remains a mystery. There's only one thing to know: it's a masterpiece.

The other austrian insurance novelist

This novel is an entertaining mystery (suicide or murder?), a haunting meditation on history and fate, and a playful self-referential narrative a la Borges or Calvino. In fact, Borges liked Perutz's work well enough to promote its publication in Argentina while Perutz was living in Tel Aviv and was banned from publishing in Germany. Like his coeval Kafka, Perutz also wrote fiction while working in insurance (though LP was an actuary in Vienna and Trieste, unlike FK, who worked in Prague, LP's birthplace).

Best author of German tongue in the 20th century

Leo Perutz is a true master of the German tongue, very powerful and strong. But he is also a great storyteller, something very rare in German literature. All of his novels are highly recommended. It is a shame they're mostly out of print. Read them, and start with this one.

A gem of a thriller, sorrily underrated

Literature is full of great authors that do not receive the praise they deserve, for all kinds of reasons. Leo Perutz is one of them. I can only urge you to try one of his works once, and "The Master of the Day of Judgment" is a good place to start. Its central idea is shocking and original, the writing is crisp and tantalizing, and the book, while short - certainly compared to today's massive thrillers, is surprisingly "finished". Valid excuse to, for once, shout in a review: READ THIS BOOK!!!