Aurelia und die letzte Fahrt

BEATE MALY
Aurelia und die letzte Fahrt. Ein historischer Wien-Krimi / Aurelia and the Last Ride. A historical Vienna crime novel

A Crime Novel, ca. 320 pages
Autumn 2022


"Beate Maly has succeeded in writing a perfect historical crime novel. And a promising start to her new series.“
Beate Rottgardt, RUHR NACHRICHTEN

The first case for Aurelia and Officer Janek

Tense and atmospheric, with plenty of biting Viennese humour

From a Viennese sausage stand to the Castle Belvedere – imperial Vienna in all its finery and filth



Murder on Board!

Vienna 1871: young aristocrat and secret caricaturist Aurelia von Kolowitz happens upon a murdered k.u.k officer – and the murder weapon – inside a hansom cab. There is a paring knife hanging out of the dead man’s vast belly. It seems like an open-and-shut case because the passenger had booked a ‘pleasure ride’ – a carriage ride during which a prostitute and her client are driven aimlessly through the city with the carriage curtains drawn – and there’s no sign of the woman. The file is handed to Janek Polorny, a young police agent from a family of Bohemian guestworkers, who is based in the smallest office at Petersplatz Police HQ. But Aurelia also starts investigating the case under her own steam. When she turns up in his office with the courtesan not long afterwards, the woman swears that the portly officer was still alive when she fled from the carriage following a skirmish. Their investigations lead Janek and the tenacious Aurelia from the lowlands of the Viennese demimonde into the heart of the imperial and royal army. But the army still has considerable power in the growing metropolis – and some important men would rather die than allow anyone to pry into their secret affairs ...