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I Was Jack Mortimer
A taxi-driver in 1930s Vienna impersonates a murder victim-with unsettling consequences.
"One doesn't step into anyone's life, not even a dead man's, without having to live it to the end."
A man climbs into Ferdinand Sponer's cab, gives the name of a hotel, and before he reaches it has been murdered: shot through the throat. And though Sponer has so far committed no crime, he is drawn into the late Jack Mortimer's life, and might not be able to escape its tangles and intrigues before it is too late...
Twice filmed, I Was Jack Mortimer is a tale of misappropriated identity as darkly captivating and twisting as the books of Patricia Highsmith.
"One doesn't step into anyone's life, not even a dead man's, without having to live it to the end."
A man climbs into Ferdinand Sponer's cab, gives the name of a hotel, and before he reaches it has been murdered: shot through the throat. And though Sponer has so far committed no crime, he is drawn into the late Jack Mortimer's life, and might not be able to escape its tangles and intrigues before it is too late...
Twice filmed, I Was Jack Mortimer is a tale of misappropriated identity as darkly captivating and twisting as the books of Patricia Highsmith.
205 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1933
14 people are currently reading
386 people want to read
About the author
Alexander Lernet-Holenia
54 books47 followersAlexander Lernet-Holenia (1897 — 1976) was an Austrian poet, novelist, dramaturgist and writer of screenplays and historical studies who produced a heterogeneous literary opus that included poetry, psychological novels describing the intrusion of otherworldly or unreal experiences into reality, and recreational films. He was born and died in Vienna.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
September 7, 2016
http://www.crimesegments.com/2016/09/...
To each his own, but I seriously don't get the low ratings for this book. Maybe there's something wrong with me in the sense that I prefer well-written, older novels to much of what's on today's crime fiction shelves, but this book from the 1930s runs rings around a lot of newer stuff I've read recently. It's suspenseful, is a really good story, and, since I read mainly to discover what makes people tick or what drives people to make the choices they make, it also works nicely as a character study. Evidently, though, my high opinion of this novel isn't shared by a lot of readers, who in general give it an average overall rating mainly because of the plot. Well, this book is a prime example of what you can miss when plot and story arc are the main things on your mind.
For example, I've seen this novel labeled as a thriller, and I suppose there are a number of thriller-type elements, but I got much more of a noir sort of flavor from it -- the hapless Joe who's in the wrong place at the wrong time, looking for a way out of his predicament only to discover that he just may be trapped by fate and his own choices. It really doesn't take that long to figure out just how much the main character's life is spiraling out of control, along with the lives of those who fall within his immediate orbit. In this case, we have our main character caught smack in the middle of a collision course between the past and the present.
Both this book and the 1935 German film I watched earlier today are definite yesses. Trust me, there's nothing average about this book at all -- it's another fine example of an old book that has been largely forgotten, and thanks to Pushkin Vertigo, it's now widely available. Once again I'll say that I do understand that crime from 1930s may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I seem to be encountering a lot of these old novels that are really, really good and which definitely ought to be part of every serious crime fiction reader's repertoire.
Recommended to all crime readers, but most especially to readers who love these old books as much as I do. Sometimes I think I'm part of a dying breed, which is really sad.
To each his own, but I seriously don't get the low ratings for this book. Maybe there's something wrong with me in the sense that I prefer well-written, older novels to much of what's on today's crime fiction shelves, but this book from the 1930s runs rings around a lot of newer stuff I've read recently. It's suspenseful, is a really good story, and, since I read mainly to discover what makes people tick or what drives people to make the choices they make, it also works nicely as a character study. Evidently, though, my high opinion of this novel isn't shared by a lot of readers, who in general give it an average overall rating mainly because of the plot. Well, this book is a prime example of what you can miss when plot and story arc are the main things on your mind.
For example, I've seen this novel labeled as a thriller, and I suppose there are a number of thriller-type elements, but I got much more of a noir sort of flavor from it -- the hapless Joe who's in the wrong place at the wrong time, looking for a way out of his predicament only to discover that he just may be trapped by fate and his own choices. It really doesn't take that long to figure out just how much the main character's life is spiraling out of control, along with the lives of those who fall within his immediate orbit. In this case, we have our main character caught smack in the middle of a collision course between the past and the present.
Both this book and the 1935 German film I watched earlier today are definite yesses. Trust me, there's nothing average about this book at all -- it's another fine example of an old book that has been largely forgotten, and thanks to Pushkin Vertigo, it's now widely available. Once again I'll say that I do understand that crime from 1930s may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I seem to be encountering a lot of these old novels that are really, really good and which definitely ought to be part of every serious crime fiction reader's repertoire.
Recommended to all crime readers, but most especially to readers who love these old books as much as I do. Sometimes I think I'm part of a dying breed, which is really sad.
January 9, 2023
A short but hard-to-put-down book that is hard to characterize; a young taxi driver in Vienna is fascinated by a young beauty from the upper classes who takes a ride into his vehicle, then a passenger of his is shot dead and when the police kind of ignores his pleas for attention, decides to impersonate the dead man for a little while, to avoid being accused of murder (while throwing his body into the Danube and cleaning the car of blood); of course, things do not go as planned, as Jack Mortimer, the dead man was quite an interesting character, so stepping into his persona, can be considerably more dangerous than going to the police. However, our young hero is resourceful...
A fast and quite entertaining novel, that is more of a sort of modern picaresque novel than a mystery or drama, so has to be enjoyed as such rather than expecting some clever mystery plot. Also, a slice of Viennese life in the 1930's that is interesting in its own way.
Highly recommended
A fast and quite entertaining novel, that is more of a sort of modern picaresque novel than a mystery or drama, so has to be enjoyed as such rather than expecting some clever mystery plot. Also, a slice of Viennese life in the 1930's that is interesting in its own way.
Highly recommended
May 24, 2024
So I was wandering around my shelves the other day and saw I'd put this on my wish list back in 2017 and then promptly ignored it. But something else caught my attention that had also been published by Pushkin Vertigo and so I wandered over to their website. (Yep, sometimes I do book wandering. It can be such a pleasant waste of time!) I was reminded about this title and picked it up for Kindle.
Ferdinand Sponer picked up a fare near the train station. By the time he got to the requested destination, his fare was dead. A quick investigation showed Jack Mortimer had been shot sometime after entering Sponer's cab. Sponer panicked. He thought if he went to the police he'd be accused of murder. But what was he to do with the body? And then, wouldn't Jack Mortimer be missed at his hotel?
This is written in third person limited. The internal dialogue is good. Sponer is not maybe fully fleshed, but his characterization is done well. The plot is excellent. This is not a detective mystery and there is no investigation to follow. For most of the short novel I thought little of who might the murder have been. I was entirely focused on the predicament Sponer had found himself and in which he had made worse.
This may be a one off for me by this author, but there is always the chance I'll see another and pick it up on a whim. This climbs into the 4-star group.
Ferdinand Sponer picked up a fare near the train station. By the time he got to the requested destination, his fare was dead. A quick investigation showed Jack Mortimer had been shot sometime after entering Sponer's cab. Sponer panicked. He thought if he went to the police he'd be accused of murder. But what was he to do with the body? And then, wouldn't Jack Mortimer be missed at his hotel?
This is written in third person limited. The internal dialogue is good. Sponer is not maybe fully fleshed, but his characterization is done well. The plot is excellent. This is not a detective mystery and there is no investigation to follow. For most of the short novel I thought little of who might the murder have been. I was entirely focused on the predicament Sponer had found himself and in which he had made worse.
This may be a one off for me by this author, but there is always the chance I'll see another and pick it up on a whim. This climbs into the 4-star group.
December 6, 2024
Kitapçıda gezinirken karşıma çıkan ve çabucak okunabilen bir “whodunnit” hikâyesi “I Was Jack Mortimer.”
İki savaş arası Viyanasını arka plana aldığından olsa gerek, tatlı bir klasik havası içinde okunan hikayede, taksicilik yapan Ferdinand Sponer’ın taksisinde öldürülen yolcusu Jack Mortimer ile hayatının birden nasıl altüst olduğunu, insanın kendisini kurtarmak için neleri düşünüp yapabileceğini bir aşk ve kıskançlık, kibir ve gerçek sevgi, yaşayış ve vazgeçiş çerçevesinde anlatıyor yazar.
Bir yandan “e kim öldürdü?” diye merak ettirirken diğer yandan ana karakterleri geçmişlerine de giderek bize tanıtan ve genelde whodunnit’lerde olduğu gibi son ana kadar kimin masum kimin suçlu olduğunu anlayamadığınız bir kurgusu var. Bununla beraber hikayedeki herkesin bencilce hareket etmesi dolayısıyla insanın doğasını da ufaktan sorgulaması ve bunu okura da geçirmesi benim hoşuma gitti.
Biraz bohem bir havayla sarmalanmış bir whodunnit okumak isteyenlere tavsiyemdir, tam da bu kitapların mevsimindeyiz üstelik.
Since time immemorial there were gods and demons, virtue and vice, saints and sinners, angels and beasts, lords and knaves. Oft were the lords the knaves, and the knaves the lords. Never were the lords and the knaves one and the same. But each had a touch of the lord and a touch of the knave in him, a touch of the reigning and a touch of the slaving, the conscientious and the ruthless, the animal and the spiritual, the loving and the hating, the shining and the darkening in him.
The underworld had again and again broken through the Earth’s ridiculously thin crust, and since time immemorial the demon would rear up in men’s hearts.
İki savaş arası Viyanasını arka plana aldığından olsa gerek, tatlı bir klasik havası içinde okunan hikayede, taksicilik yapan Ferdinand Sponer’ın taksisinde öldürülen yolcusu Jack Mortimer ile hayatının birden nasıl altüst olduğunu, insanın kendisini kurtarmak için neleri düşünüp yapabileceğini bir aşk ve kıskançlık, kibir ve gerçek sevgi, yaşayış ve vazgeçiş çerçevesinde anlatıyor yazar.
Bir yandan “e kim öldürdü?” diye merak ettirirken diğer yandan ana karakterleri geçmişlerine de giderek bize tanıtan ve genelde whodunnit’lerde olduğu gibi son ana kadar kimin masum kimin suçlu olduğunu anlayamadığınız bir kurgusu var. Bununla beraber hikayedeki herkesin bencilce hareket etmesi dolayısıyla insanın doğasını da ufaktan sorgulaması ve bunu okura da geçirmesi benim hoşuma gitti.
Biraz bohem bir havayla sarmalanmış bir whodunnit okumak isteyenlere tavsiyemdir, tam da bu kitapların mevsimindeyiz üstelik.
Since time immemorial there were gods and demons, virtue and vice, saints and sinners, angels and beasts, lords and knaves. Oft were the lords the knaves, and the knaves the lords. Never were the lords and the knaves one and the same. But each had a touch of the lord and a touch of the knave in him, a touch of the reigning and a touch of the slaving, the conscientious and the ruthless, the animal and the spiritual, the loving and the hating, the shining and the darkening in him.
The underworld had again and again broken through the Earth’s ridiculously thin crust, and since time immemorial the demon would rear up in men’s hearts.
Read
November 22, 2025This is a light, breezy, easy-to-read little book that I finished on a long plane trip. It was very suitable to that purpose. I had never read anything by Alexander Lernet-Holenia, who was born in 1897 and lived the last decades of his life inside the nationalized formerly-Habsburg Hofburg palace in Vienna. This story follows a taxi driver who has a girlfriend he neglects, falls in love with a young aristocratic woman based on her looks, picks up a fare at a train station who is mysteriously murdered -- without the driver noticing -- in his cab before they arrive at their destination (a hotel in the city center), makes a series of increasingly silly decisions about how to respond to that horrific situation, and somehow ends the whole affair having learned one thing: There are "women one shouldn't see again" and there are others that "wanted to sacrifice themselves for you" and he hadn't done a very good job of deciding which type to prioritize.
I've read a lot of Austrian literature from this period and none of it is rousingly feminist, but the ridiculous and borderline misogynist depictions of women in this novel were so outrageously sexist that I couldn't stand to give it the 3 stars it might have deserved, despite its outrageous denouement, artificial dialogue, and a series of really horrible female characters who seem to fall into and out of love merely out of spite.
I've read a lot of Austrian literature from this period and none of it is rousingly feminist, but the ridiculous and borderline misogynist depictions of women in this novel were so outrageously sexist that I couldn't stand to give it the 3 stars it might have deserved, despite its outrageous denouement, artificial dialogue, and a series of really horrible female characters who seem to fall into and out of love merely out of spite.
January 13, 2011
Pioveva a Vienna, la notte che Ferdinand Sponer divenne Jack Mortimer.
Pioveva forte e il destino aveva bisogno di un taxi per non mancare a un appuntamento.
Il taxi di Sponer. Una svolta sbagliata (Detour?). L'appuntamento con l'assassinio.
Sponer non c'entra niente, Sponer sarà incolpato ed è proprio Sponer a condurre la più efficace delle indagini, perchè la compie su se stesso, ha tutte le prove, tutte le informazioni. Sponer si condanna, ma a Fritz Lang le conclusioni ovvie non sono mai piaciute.
Nemmeno ad Holenia, che stringe i tempi e serra i ritmi.
Ne indovina tante, passaggi intensi, passaggi buffi, passaggi tragici ("E' la fine di un amore, quando un amore non riesce a finire").
Ma a volte incespica, diventa farraginoso, meccanico e scontato. E la divagazione con la contessina è il miglior esempio.
Si riscatta con un bel finale, ma bello davvero, quanto poco mancava al capolavoro.
Continua a piovere su Vienna.
Lang e Ulmer vanno al montaggio, dissolvenza al nero.
Pioveva forte e il destino aveva bisogno di un taxi per non mancare a un appuntamento.
Il taxi di Sponer. Una svolta sbagliata (Detour?). L'appuntamento con l'assassinio.
Sponer non c'entra niente, Sponer sarà incolpato ed è proprio Sponer a condurre la più efficace delle indagini, perchè la compie su se stesso, ha tutte le prove, tutte le informazioni. Sponer si condanna, ma a Fritz Lang le conclusioni ovvie non sono mai piaciute.
Nemmeno ad Holenia, che stringe i tempi e serra i ritmi.
Ne indovina tante, passaggi intensi, passaggi buffi, passaggi tragici ("E' la fine di un amore, quando un amore non riesce a finire").
Ma a volte incespica, diventa farraginoso, meccanico e scontato. E la divagazione con la contessina è il miglior esempio.
Si riscatta con un bel finale, ma bello davvero, quanto poco mancava al capolavoro.
Continua a piovere su Vienna.
Lang e Ulmer vanno al montaggio, dissolvenza al nero.
November 5, 2019
I found this in the bargain bin and thought it looked like it was worth a buck. Turns out to be a fun discovery from an imprint I'd never heard of before--Pushkin Vertigo, a subset of Pushkin Press. First published in German in 1933 and now reissued with an English translation in 2013, I Was Jack Mortimer was popular enough in its day to inspire two filmed adaptations, and holds up quite nicely I think even now.
Everyman Ferdinand Sponer, taxi driver, picks up a fare from the train station, and is asked by the man to take him to The Bristol Hotel. After a ten minute drive, Ferdinand asks him if he wants the old or the new Bristol. He gets no answer. He turns around to find his fare is dead, shot three times...
I'd never heard of Lernet-Holenia, and that's probably not uncommon as few of his works have been translated into English (Mars in Aries is likely the most well-known). Anyway, I enjoyed this noir-ish nightmare that Sponer is inadvertently mixed up in--it's good (not great), but atmospheric and a tad philosophic, like all good noirs. Probably a 3.5, but rounded up for being an unexpected treat, and for introducing me to a publishing imprint that I'll keep an eye out for in the future.
Everyman Ferdinand Sponer, taxi driver, picks up a fare from the train station, and is asked by the man to take him to The Bristol Hotel. After a ten minute drive, Ferdinand asks him if he wants the old or the new Bristol. He gets no answer. He turns around to find his fare is dead, shot three times...
I'd never heard of Lernet-Holenia, and that's probably not uncommon as few of his works have been translated into English (Mars in Aries is likely the most well-known). Anyway, I enjoyed this noir-ish nightmare that Sponer is inadvertently mixed up in--it's good (not great), but atmospheric and a tad philosophic, like all good noirs. Probably a 3.5, but rounded up for being an unexpected treat, and for introducing me to a publishing imprint that I'll keep an eye out for in the future.
January 10, 2018
This is a page-turning novella of crime noir that describes the few days in the life of taxi driver Ferdinand Sponer’s life in 1930s Vienna.
Sponer has a normal life as a young man, and a devoted girl friend, but one day is infatuated by the daughter of a countess. At first she rejects his advances but shortly after a man breathes his last in the back of his cab having been shot in the throat. Almost accidentally Sponer’s life changes as he becomes entwined in the murdered man’s life.
This is classic noir. The almost romantic attraction of the gangster lifestyle at that period is behind this definitive tale, along with its powerful cast of characters and the backdrop of the Vienna streets. It has a most appropriate title which also is the last sentence of the story.
It is great entertainment.
Sponer has a normal life as a young man, and a devoted girl friend, but one day is infatuated by the daughter of a countess. At first she rejects his advances but shortly after a man breathes his last in the back of his cab having been shot in the throat. Almost accidentally Sponer’s life changes as he becomes entwined in the murdered man’s life.
This is classic noir. The almost romantic attraction of the gangster lifestyle at that period is behind this definitive tale, along with its powerful cast of characters and the backdrop of the Vienna streets. It has a most appropriate title which also is the last sentence of the story.
It is great entertainment.
December 29, 2022
Bleh. Not sure if it was a bad translation or just not my style. But bleh. Moral of the story is if u stalk hard enough u can get the girl? Toxic King Sponer
July 23, 2024
This was an in-depth exploration of the desperation of middle-class and the ambiguity of love, in the guise of a thriller.
Ferdinand Sponer is a day-time taxi drive in Vienna. He has a girlfriend he intends to marry, but is obsessed with a women out of his reach, and he has a dead man that seems to cling to life through him.
Sponer is extremely unpredictable. We begin the story with him stalking Marisabelle, a high-society socialite who rides in his cab one day. He repeatedly stalks and harasses her in the day, and goes on to meet Marie, his girlfriend, in the night. We have no clue what motivates him or why he behaves in the way he does. The writing shields Sponer's thoughts from us. Like in a play you watch him act.
◃───────────▹
dead man and desperation
It is when he finds himself unexpectedly with a dead body in the back seat of his cab, that he starts to showcase his real self. His reaction to the corpse and the ramifications of reporting to the police is wild and erratic. I struggled to understand his actions initially and felt like a crucial piece of information was being hidden from me. As the night chases dawn, you learn more and more about Sponer's thoughts and his past and slowly begin to perceive him.
He is a man desperate to escape the reality of his poverty. Marie, his taxi, his apartment, his plain clothes - are all part of the world he lives in, the reality of what makes him Ferdinand Sponer. But, what he aspires for throughout the story is Marisabelle, Jack Mortimer's, hotel, clothes, and identity itself. He experiences periods of anxiety and unreal periods of calm as he struggles to balance between these two worlds - one he comes from and one he wants to be in.
His impersonation of Jack Mortimer could be the act of a man creating an alibi, but also the act of a man suddenly enamoured and curious about this mysterious American. He sets out to steal one night. One night of living as someone far removed from his reality and one night for subjugating his fate. But in the end he inevitably has to return to his former world.
◃───────────▹
favourite moments
There were so many symbolic moments in the story that I could write about them in detail for hours on end. Here are a few:
◃───────────▹
-1 star for the horrible treatment of female characters
The writing and symbolism is so strong that it's really heart-breaking the way the female characters are written. They are either fiercely loyal to their men or heartless bitches who use men. They are linear and have no shades of their own. I hated how Marisabelle and Marie were treated.
Sponer literally stalks and harasses Marisabelle and yet towards the end she is shown as vain and lacking compassion. She sees him worthy of her attention only when Sponer has a cloud of crime and mystery hung over him. Once he is deemed innocent she chides him for returning to her. She might be an opportunist and that would be okay, but given that all the other female characters share a similar disregard to their development, I resented the end to her story.
Marie on the other hand is an angel. She knows very evidently that Sponer doesn't love her and only keeps her close because she is convenient, yet she will go to the edges of the world to save him. Her escape from the police while retrieving Sponer's money was elaborately written as though to show the reader how much she cares for Sponer. But when she returns, Sponer has already left. My heart broke for her. I get the era this was written in, but she deserved to be someone more than Sponer's aid. She is incredibly intelligent, resourceful, and kind. I loved her.
Winfred on the other hand is Marie for a different man. And Consuela is Marisabelle for another man. All the four female characters are shallow, unexplored, and primarily drive the plot for the male characters. Jack Mortimer was more developed than these four combined.
#JusticeforMarieAndMarisabelle
◃───────────▹
You should read it but with a pinch of salt, if you're a feminist.
Like I said, I get the era this was written in. I ultimately choose to critique the bad and accept the good. The story is not indeed a thriller, because who killed Jack Mortimer is fairly evident mid-way. The story is rather a study of Sponer and his quest for the unattainable and his gamble over a night to merge worlds and rid the misery of his reality.
Ferdinand Sponer is a day-time taxi drive in Vienna. He has a girlfriend he intends to marry, but is obsessed with a women out of his reach, and he has a dead man that seems to cling to life through him.
Sponer is extremely unpredictable. We begin the story with him stalking Marisabelle, a high-society socialite who rides in his cab one day. He repeatedly stalks and harasses her in the day, and goes on to meet Marie, his girlfriend, in the night. We have no clue what motivates him or why he behaves in the way he does. The writing shields Sponer's thoughts from us. Like in a play you watch him act.
◃───────────▹
dead man and desperation
It is when he finds himself unexpectedly with a dead body in the back seat of his cab, that he starts to showcase his real self. His reaction to the corpse and the ramifications of reporting to the police is wild and erratic. I struggled to understand his actions initially and felt like a crucial piece of information was being hidden from me. As the night chases dawn, you learn more and more about Sponer's thoughts and his past and slowly begin to perceive him.
He is a man desperate to escape the reality of his poverty. Marie, his taxi, his apartment, his plain clothes - are all part of the world he lives in, the reality of what makes him Ferdinand Sponer. But, what he aspires for throughout the story is Marisabelle, Jack Mortimer's, hotel, clothes, and identity itself. He experiences periods of anxiety and unreal periods of calm as he struggles to balance between these two worlds - one he comes from and one he wants to be in.
His impersonation of Jack Mortimer could be the act of a man creating an alibi, but also the act of a man suddenly enamoured and curious about this mysterious American. He sets out to steal one night. One night of living as someone far removed from his reality and one night for subjugating his fate. But in the end he inevitably has to return to his former world.
◃───────────▹
favourite moments
There were so many symbolic moments in the story that I could write about them in detail for hours on end. Here are a few:
◃───────────▹
-1 star for the horrible treatment of female characters
The writing and symbolism is so strong that it's really heart-breaking the way the female characters are written. They are either fiercely loyal to their men or heartless bitches who use men. They are linear and have no shades of their own. I hated how Marisabelle and Marie were treated.
Sponer literally stalks and harasses Marisabelle and yet towards the end she is shown as vain and lacking compassion. She sees him worthy of her attention only when Sponer has a cloud of crime and mystery hung over him. Once he is deemed innocent she chides him for returning to her. She might be an opportunist and that would be okay, but given that all the other female characters share a similar disregard to their development, I resented the end to her story.
Marie on the other hand is an angel. She knows very evidently that Sponer doesn't love her and only keeps her close because she is convenient, yet she will go to the edges of the world to save him. Her escape from the police while retrieving Sponer's money was elaborately written as though to show the reader how much she cares for Sponer. But when she returns, Sponer has already left. My heart broke for her. I get the era this was written in, but she deserved to be someone more than Sponer's aid. She is incredibly intelligent, resourceful, and kind. I loved her.
Winfred on the other hand is Marie for a different man. And Consuela is Marisabelle for another man. All the four female characters are shallow, unexplored, and primarily drive the plot for the male characters. Jack Mortimer was more developed than these four combined.
#JusticeforMarieAndMarisabelle
◃───────────▹
You should read it but with a pinch of salt, if you're a feminist.
Like I said, I get the era this was written in. I ultimately choose to critique the bad and accept the good. The story is not indeed a thriller, because who killed Jack Mortimer is fairly evident mid-way. The story is rather a study of Sponer and his quest for the unattainable and his gamble over a night to merge worlds and rid the misery of his reality.
September 13, 2016
Not sure if 'charming' is the best word to use for a thriller, but this book is quite charming. The author paints 1930s Vienna so vividly, reading this book is like watching a movie. Part of the brilliant Pushkin Vertigo series, this book, with its very noir feel, is intriguing, fast, and a strange kind of fun.
November 19, 2025
Fast-paced thriller that plays out over 36 hours (excluding flashbacks). A story about love arguably not a love story. Clever plot but it isn't enough to hang 200 pages on, even nicely-written ones.
February 4, 2024
Whilst reading this atmospheric and fast-paced novella, I was constantly flitting between 2 or 3 stars, with some chapters really enthralling me and others stretching the realms of credulity in regards to how the protagonist reacts to the situation he finds himself in. The chapter detailing Mortimer's backstory would be worthy of a novella of its own and was by far the most interesting part of the book. Likewise, Holenia's commentary on the differences between the upper and lower classes was interesting. The plot itself would have been better served by being longer, with Sponer spending more time as Mortimer, or perhaps fully committing to either playing the situation as farce or intense psychological drama; however, not leaning into either, it felt unrealistic at times. A shame as the premise is really interesting and the writer's style was very enjoyable to read. 4/5 for the premise and style, 2/5 for the believability of how the protagonist acted (the man was a complete ass for a lot of the story). A 2.5/5 overall I'd say, very enjoyable, with huge potential but also quite ridiculous when you think about it.
August 20, 2024
A strange experience to read this so soon after Count Luna and Baron Bagge. Lernet-Holenia's name is on the cover, but it was a very different author who wrote this book, it seems.
I Was Jack Mortimer is a solid 1930s thriller. The set-up is cute, the payoff a little contrived, there's some cat-and-mouse fun to be had along the way. And that's about it... apart from some dreamy interludes, when the narrator looks at a painting and lets his mind drift, or when he muses on the mysteries of personal identity. Then, and only then, you get teeny tiny glimpses of the extraordinary writer Lernet-Holenia was to become.
I Was Jack Mortimer is a solid 1930s thriller. The set-up is cute, the payoff a little contrived, there's some cat-and-mouse fun to be had along the way. And that's about it... apart from some dreamy interludes, when the narrator looks at a painting and lets his mind drift, or when he muses on the mysteries of personal identity. Then, and only then, you get teeny tiny glimpses of the extraordinary writer Lernet-Holenia was to become.
June 5, 2024
Trust Lernet-Holenia--whose depictions of paranoia and paralysing madness are always so convincing--to turn the cat-and-mouse genre of the 30s noir thriller into something far more neurotic and psychological. In this wickedly tense little novella, a hapless cab driver stumbles into a stranger's knotty love affair-stroke-murder, resulting in a corpse in the back of his cab. Immoblisied by his own paranoia, endlessly running imagined conversations with imagined police officers and revealing an imagined guilt, the protagonist incriminates himself. Spiralling into a neurotic lapse of sanity, he prevaricates just long enough to be implicated in the crime, and finds himself in a classic noir misadventure, the police on his tale.
Thank you to Pushkin for the review copy, made for a perfectly sized lunch break read
Thank you to Pushkin for the review copy, made for a perfectly sized lunch break read
August 29, 2019
This is an early noir book that should suit the fans of that film genre just fine. Don't worry too much about the not always plausible plot and just let the writer take you on a ride. This is a pre-WWII German atmospheric tale from Munich. Two films have been made from the book although I have seen neither. The book was begging to be filme
July 28, 2025
7.7/10
Austrian noir from 1933. Ferdinand Sponer is an everyman-Jack taxi driver in Veinna. He is having a normal night where he is taking a man from the train station to his hotel. All is normal until he turns around at their destination and finds the man dead. Thrust into a fast-paced mayhem where he now must decide what steps to take.
Austrian noir from 1933. Ferdinand Sponer is an everyman-Jack taxi driver in Veinna. He is having a normal night where he is taking a man from the train station to his hotel. All is normal until he turns around at their destination and finds the man dead. Thrust into a fast-paced mayhem where he now must decide what steps to take.
December 1, 2017
An entertaining, if implausible, Viennese noir.
November 5, 2019
Good rip roaring yarn but not as good as Hammet
May 9, 2020
Gave it 50 pages. Which was more than 25% of the book and just couldn’t care less.
Also stalker much?
Also stalker much?
October 26, 2020
The story is exciting and ties up well at the end. At times it is difficult to believe some of the decisions that the protagonist makes, but they remain important to the overall plot.
December 11, 2021
Not bad at all, worth a read
February 27, 2023
Una perdita di tempo, anche se il romanzo è per certi versi insolito
January 15, 2025
three and a half stars: long winding
November 18, 2025
This book is a really enjoyable read. Particularly liked the staccato dialogue. Struck me as realistic and added to the sense of chaos but still managed to get the message across.
September 28, 2020
A crime story set in Vienna. A passenger is shot dead in the back of a cab. The panicked taxi driver didn't notice anything, but now he courses through the backstreets of Vienna as fear and paranoia close in, afraid nobody will believe he is innocent. After much agonizing, he therefore dumps the body of the unknown man in the Danube, cleans the taxi, and takes the man's suitcases to his flat. But he is still afraid questions will arise when the man doesn't check in at his hotel (he has picked him up at the station and people may have seen him get in his taxi). He therefore decides to play the role of the murder victim so that the murdered person is not missed - he dresses in the man(s clothes (the passport informs him the name was Jack Mortimer), takes the suitcases and checks in at the luxurious hotel the man was headed for. It is clear that this makes him even more suspicious and that he will be in a hopeless situation if it is discovered that he is not who he claims to be... "One doesn't step into anyone's life, not even a dead man's, without having to live it to the end." A sinister tale of false identity and the demons in our heads, twice adapted for the silver screen.
Alexander Lernet-Holenia (1897-1976) was a lyrical poet and protege of Rainer Maria Rilke. He also wrote novels and was also active as a screenwriter. He is the author of more thrillers (such as Resurrection of Maltraven), but also of sophisticated literary novels, of which the most important is Mars in Aries, the story of a romance between an aristocratic Wehrmacht officer and a mysterious woman in Vienna set against the 1939 invasion of Poland; this book was banned by the Nazis upon its publication in 1941 due to its ambiguity, lack of heroic military images, and the sympathetic portrayal of a suffering Poland. Although a conservative and aristocratic elitist throughout his life, Lernet-Holenia kept his distance from National Socialism, and refused to endorse the Nazi political system or participate in its "blood and soil" literary efforts.
Alexander Lernet-Holenia (1897-1976) was a lyrical poet and protege of Rainer Maria Rilke. He also wrote novels and was also active as a screenwriter. He is the author of more thrillers (such as Resurrection of Maltraven), but also of sophisticated literary novels, of which the most important is Mars in Aries, the story of a romance between an aristocratic Wehrmacht officer and a mysterious woman in Vienna set against the 1939 invasion of Poland; this book was banned by the Nazis upon its publication in 1941 due to its ambiguity, lack of heroic military images, and the sympathetic portrayal of a suffering Poland. Although a conservative and aristocratic elitist throughout his life, Lernet-Holenia kept his distance from National Socialism, and refused to endorse the Nazi political system or participate in its "blood and soil" literary efforts.
August 6, 2016
Like most mediocre thrillers, this one starts well with a great premise and succinct, well written execution. The protagonist and his life are well established, along with a few fascinating details about 1930s Vienna taxi driver business and life. The murder and structure of the book seem very modern in their briskness, it could pass as a screenplay for a modern thriller (apparently it's already been filmed twice, but not recently. It would be interesting to see a modern remake with an Uber driver.)
For me, it lost tension in the final third, never recovering from an extensive side track of Mexico back story, where the tone seemed to shift temporarily from thriller to historical epic, and then clumsily back again the final third to action thriller. It is cinematic, evocative, but I disliked the protagonist intensely and the overarching plot was interesting enough to compensate for this.
It is definitely worth a look if you are interested in the development of thriller fiction as a genre, as I suspect it casts a long shadow. However, the presence of an American victim is also reminder that this is a German playing with what were at the time of writing bold and powerful new genre innovations from American noir. Like the best cross cultural artistic conversations (Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven, for example), the translation of tropes is still interesting to watch.
For me, it lost tension in the final third, never recovering from an extensive side track of Mexico back story, where the tone seemed to shift temporarily from thriller to historical epic, and then clumsily back again the final third to action thriller. It is cinematic, evocative, but I disliked the protagonist intensely and the overarching plot was interesting enough to compensate for this.
It is definitely worth a look if you are interested in the development of thriller fiction as a genre, as I suspect it casts a long shadow. However, the presence of an American victim is also reminder that this is a German playing with what were at the time of writing bold and powerful new genre innovations from American noir. Like the best cross cultural artistic conversations (Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven, for example), the translation of tropes is still interesting to watch.
May 24, 2013
Pioveva a Vienna, la notte che Ferdinand Sponer divenne Jack Mortimer.
Pioveva forte e il destino aveva bisogno di un taxi per non mancare a un appuntamento.
Il taxi di Sponer. Una svolta sbagliata (Detour?). L'appuntamento con l'assassinio.
Sponer non c'entra niente, Sponer sar�� incolpato ed �� proprio Sponer a condurre la pi�� efficace delle indagini, perch�� la compie su se stesso, ha tutte le prove, tutte le informazioni. Sponer si condanna, ma a Fritz Lang le conclusioni ovvie non sono mai piaciute.
Nemmeno ad Holenia, che stringe i tempi e serra i ritmi.
Ne indovina tante, passaggi intensi, passaggi buffi, passaggi tragici ("E' la fine di un amore, quando un amore non riesce a finire").
Ma a volte incespica, diventa farraginoso, meccanico e scontato. E la divagazione con la contessina �� il miglior esempio.
Si riscatta con un bel finale, ma bello davvero, quanto poco mancava al capolavoro.
Continua a piovere su Vienna.
Lang e Ulmer vanno al montaggio, dissolvenza al nero.
Pioveva forte e il destino aveva bisogno di un taxi per non mancare a un appuntamento.
Il taxi di Sponer. Una svolta sbagliata (Detour?). L'appuntamento con l'assassinio.
Sponer non c'entra niente, Sponer sar�� incolpato ed �� proprio Sponer a condurre la pi�� efficace delle indagini, perch�� la compie su se stesso, ha tutte le prove, tutte le informazioni. Sponer si condanna, ma a Fritz Lang le conclusioni ovvie non sono mai piaciute.
Nemmeno ad Holenia, che stringe i tempi e serra i ritmi.
Ne indovina tante, passaggi intensi, passaggi buffi, passaggi tragici ("E' la fine di un amore, quando un amore non riesce a finire").
Ma a volte incespica, diventa farraginoso, meccanico e scontato. E la divagazione con la contessina �� il miglior esempio.
Si riscatta con un bel finale, ma bello davvero, quanto poco mancava al capolavoro.
Continua a piovere su Vienna.
Lang e Ulmer vanno al montaggio, dissolvenza al nero.
September 3, 2014
As per the other comments here, this is an atmospheric portrayal of misappropriated identity, and keeps the suspense building right until the end. Although one or two of the decisions taken by the protanganist seem ill-advised, they all seem in keeping with that character (who for a while becomes "Jack Mortimer") put under pressure. A word of praise too for the translator Ignat Avsey who has done a sterling job in translating from the German. A great read and a worthy addition to anyone's book collection.
November 29, 2013
This little book from Pushkin Press is a miniature work of art! The story itself is a thriller, taking place over just a night or two, and I was sad to learn that the translator was the guy I'd just days ago heard had died.
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