Murder in Vienna

The author%E2%80%99s%C2%A0ambitious scope%E2%80%94the book spans five decades%E2%80%94isn%E2%80%99t matched by her execution in this unwieldy historical novel with a few mystery elements. In the waning months of WWII, Polly Huber loses her two closest friends. First, Helene Gr%C3%BCnbaum goes out to run an errand and never returns; she%E2%80%99s abducted by someone driving a white car and found dead shortly afterward. Then Liese Hellmann is killed in a train accident in the U.S. before she can return to Vienna and reunite with Huber. Tragedy continues to mark Huber%E2%80%99s life, but Wittig%E2%80%99s failure to imbue any of the characters with depth will make it hard for readers to feel for them. The action jumps abruptly from 1975 to 1988, but the lacuna makes no difference as the story wends it way slowly to revelations that most readers will anticipate. The opening section, depicting a devastated Austria trying to recover from the Nazi regime, presents a different perspective than is usually portrayed, and had the story been set there, the book would have been greatly improved.