A Viennese Fanny Hill

I just sent in book four in the Viennese Mysteries to my editor in London and began thinking about one of the main characters in this series installment, the famous Viennese courtesan, Josephine Mutzenbacher.

Well, perhaps famous is a bit too strong. This mythic prostitute was introduced to Viennese readers in the 1906 novel, Josefine Mutzenbacher – Die Lebensgeschichte Einer Wienerischen Dirne, Von Ihr Selbst Erzählt (Josephine Mutzenbacher – The Life Story of a Viennese Whore, as Told by Herself). This first-person pseudo-memoir was written–the experts finally concur–by Siegmund Salzmann, better known by his pen name of Felix Salten, and, if known at all to readers outside the German-speaking world, as the author of Bambi.

In the novel, Salten depicts a strong-spirited woman in her fifties–Pepi to her friends–looking back with candor and sometimes even humor on her sexual adventures.

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Maureen Carter’s Birmingham Police Novels: More Canals than Venice

Maureen Carter is the author of the critically acclaimed DS Bev Morriss crime series, seven books strong, and the  police procedural featuring reporter Caroline King and DI Sarah Quinn. Former BBC news presenter Carter  began her DS Bev Morriss series with the 2004 Working Girls, a title about which Reviewing the Evidence declared, “Carter can do dialogue… the writing has bounce and energy, as befits a journalist.” This was followed with Dead Old, Baby Love, and Hard Time, which  Eurocrime praised for its “no-nonsense pared down style which combined with an action filled plot leaves the reader gasping for breath and turning the pages.” Then came Bad Press, Blood Money, and  Deathline.

Carter’s DI Quinn series kicked off with the 2011 Question of Despair, of which Library Journal said, ” Crisply written with an electric pace – this story won’t soon leave you.” Mother Love followed, then with then this year’s Dying Bad.

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