This is really good read. The setting is charming and I use the word to describe the way the author embeds the whole story in a faithful attention to the period and place. It is well written and the plot is well constructed. The use of the European political,dynamics of the time is well done with its hints of worse to come for the Hapsburg court. The reader might be lulled into thinking the end will be predictable but that would be unwise. Nothing could be further from the truth as an unexpected twist to the story ensures a surprise at the end.

This is the author's 6th Viennese mysteries. Well up to his usual high standard. He has taken an important time in history which led up to the start of the 1st World War. After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Countess Sophie Chotek on a visit to Sarajevo. Austria and Hungary declared war on Serbia, who had an ally in Russia. The book starts with the murder of a head waiter in an Austrian coffee house and develops into an assassination attempt on Emperor Franz Joseph. Fellow investigator Advokat Karl Werthen and criminologist Dr. Hans Gross are asked to help. Highly recommended. The author always picks a title with a meaning. The third way is the coffee house, following the first way is Home and the second way is Work.. See my full review on the Euro-Crime website.