I find nothing better than a good murder mystery, especially an historical one, so I was very eager to immerse myself in the Interpretation of Murder. It is set in 1909 when Sigmund Freud went on his one and only trip to America to deliver a series of lectures on psychoanalysis; after which he described the Americans as “savages”. He always spoke in later years of this visit as if some trauma had befallen him in the United States. No-one knows for sure what happened to Freud to make him react this way. Jed Rubenfeld takes this historical fact and creates a scenario where Freud’s visit coincides with a mysterious murder. The second victim manages to survive and Dr Younger, a Freud devotee, is asked by Sigmund Freud to help the second victim regain her memory after the attack by using Freud’s techniques. Jed has moved some historical details around as he explains in the author’s note but I loved his attention to detail, especially the description of the privileged upper class New York socialites and the strained relationship between Freud and his then disciple Carl Jung. I found it compelling and a real ‘who dunnit’ which kept me guessing all the way through and found it a fascinating portrayal of the New York of 1909 and an excellent debut novel by Rubenfeld.
