Of Murder, Muses and Me is a debut book from Austrian writer Claudia Chibici Revneanu that came out this summer.
Set in London. The novel is a murder mystery type story. When the main character, Rosalind Waterloo’s idol and favourite writer, Drubenheimer dies, in what everyone is accepting as a suicide, Rosalind, whose interest in the writer borders on obsessive, makes it her mission to find out the real cause of his death, unearthing some secrets about her idols writing, life and love affairs. Appointing herself as detective, Rosalind digs deep, speaking to all those close to the writer to try and solve the mystery.
Prior to her book’s release, Revneanu has published poems and literary essays in a number of Austrian and international literary journals and magazines, and she was the recipient of the Minna Kautsky in 2000, Austria’s award for writers.
This debut didn’t blow me away, however, it was a cute read. Revneanu writes really well, the plot just wasn’t meaty enough for me, she also (spoiler alert) infuses a love story in between Rosalind and Drubenheimer’s secret son, which I found quite unconvincing. That being said, I did read the book in its entirety (mainly because I had to know how Drubenheimer met his maker), and Revneanu is a witty and promising writer. The novel may not have delivered the punch I expected, but it did keep me entertained on the horrendously busy Jubilee line.
