The Prussian Dispatch
David Neilson
Category: Mystery/thriller, Action/adventure
Penniless in 1770s Vienna, Sophie Rathenau can’t refuse work. But tracing a stolen document is chancy: Prussian maniacs, local racketeers, and a desperate Polish countess are after it too. Sophie’s only weapons are her sardonic tongue and an old cavalry pistol. But it’ll take more than those to keep her from being engulfed in a conspiracy among despots.
An investigator in Mozart’s Vienna, widowed Sophie Rathenau is tousle-headed, broad of hand, acid-tongued, and inclined to self-righteousness. In The Prussian Dispatch, the first of three adventures to date, Sophie comes up against overbearing aristocrats, shady adventurers, and Viennese lowlifes in her determination to recover a purloined document—a document which the great powers of central Europe will do anything to bury.
“Vienna in the eighteenth century, its sights and sounds and smells, its fine buildings and its rough poverty, is drawn vividly.” Lynden Wade’s history blog, “Quills, Quotes, Queens and Quests”
“…If you love strong women characters and historical fiction at its finest, you will fall in love with Sophie Rathenau…” Author and Editor Sharon K Miller’s blog
“Tension is built up nicely, the characters and the story are very engaging. Historical facts and details are not overdone but add nicely to the flair and intensity of the novel.” Discovering Diamonds
