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    The Final Testament
    The Final Testament
    The Final Testament
    Ebook48 pages33 minutes

    The Final Testament

    By Peter Blauner

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    About this ebook

    As World War II draws near, a dying genius fights against hate to preserve his legacy.
    Cancer has ravaged Sigmund Freud. It is 1938, and the great doctor has fled Vienna for London, where he races to finish his final, most dangerous work: a radical reimagining of the origins of Judaism, which posits that Moses was murdered by his followers. Though his colleagues say that such a controversial text could only give grist to those who would do the Jews harm, Freud is adamant about releasing the book—until a Nazi named Sauerwald comes to visit.
    He has written a manuscript in Freud’s name, a hateful screed that claims to prove that all of Jewish history is based on falsehood, and asks that Freud help him have it published—lest something unpleasant happen to the doctor’s family in Austria. Horrified by this foul threat, Freud responds with the only weapon he has left. He picks up pen and paper and suggests that Sauerwald sit down on his couch.

    The Bibliomysteries are a series of short tales about deadly books, by top mystery authors.  
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMysteriousPress.com Open Road
    Release dateOct 1, 2013
    ISBN9781480448773
    The Final Testament
    Author

    Peter Blauner

    PETER BLAUNER is the bestselling author of six novels, including SLOW MOTION RIOT, which won the 1992 Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America. To find out more visit: www.peterblauner.com

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      Book preview

      The Final Testament - Peter Blauner

      The Final Testament

      Short Tales about Deadly Books

      Peter Blauner

      Contents

      The Final Testament

      The doctor ’ s hands were trembling as he took the clutching end of the clothes-pin and put it in his mouth. On some days, there was no other way to negotiate past the pain that caused his jaws to lock up. Carefully, he pushed the head of the pin past his lips, up to his gums, and then tried to wedge it between his clenched teeth.

      Fighting back tears, he began to bargain. A dull, persistent throb he could accept if he could stay off the morphine and maintain a clear mind. The occasional hot skewer up through the cheekbone could be borne, even as his eyes blurred with tears. What he quietly feared was overwhelming, incapacitating anguish that would render him finally useless and put the work of his life at a permanent end.

      It was autumn of 1938 and the news on the radio was not good. The Germans had crossed the border into Austria in March, meeting no resistance. He had tried to tell himself that this could be lived with. But then had come the introduction of the racial laws and the decrees that all Jewish assets were assumed to be improperly acquired and therefore subject to confiscation without advance notice. When they burned his books in the street, he joked about the progress of civilization. In the Middle Ages, they would have burned me.

      But then Nazis had shown up at the offices of the publishing company he owned, aiming a gun at his son and confiscating the financial ledgers. Soon after, the Gestapo had come to his home in Vienna without an appointment, leaving Berggasse 19 with six thousand schillings in cash. After that, he had no choice but to call upon favors from foreign friends in high places so that he could find another country that would accept him and the rest of the family should they manage, by some miracle, to be able to flee Austria with a few remaining assets.

      Now he was in London and Hitler’s troops had overrun Poland. On the radio, the Fuhrer was demanding the Czechs leave the Sudetenland. Back in Austria, brownshirts were swinging clubs and breaking windows of

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