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Killer Desserts: The True Story of the Viennese Cafe Czar Turned Mass Murderer
By day he ran the royal confectioners. By night, a den of debauchery where he extracted the weaknesses of powerful men. His blackmail box made him untouchable until his success turned him into a mass murderer.
Killer Desserts is based on the bewildering true story of Udo Proksch. An extraordinary tale of greed, power, perfect-pastries and Viennese decadence no one could invent. It's the story of a man who could seduce any woman and overcome any problem - that is, until his ship went down.
Killer Desserts had me hooked from the first page and kept me guessing until the last. This novel starts in 1942 and ends in 2001, narrated by the indomitable Udo Proksch. Like Udo, this book will pull you in so many directions and surprise you at every turn. You might just find yourself asking the same question I still am: Did he know he was sending them to their deaths?
— Jack Brown, Editor
273 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 30, 2018
304 people are currently reading
168 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
March 11, 2019
I am sorry. I really wanted to like this book. But it was unreadable. I don't know if it was my copy or was it more spread, but I would expect that mistakes such as "His right here", "Rudolf his awake", "you wouldn't want to, I plan to decriminalised abortion", "this carpet your walking on" to name just a few and there was plenty of them.
Also, the sentences, even without mistakes in them, were sloppy. "I need a drink in my hands, my hands were shaking on the steering wheel". There is no sense, no continuity in the story - this is attempted to achieve by putting date in the beginning of each chapter but littles does that help as the reader has to concentrate immensely on following the plot in the thick forest of mistakes.
The story of Udo Proksch is grasping and fascinating but the book killed it. I actually found press articles more entertaining. Suffice to say, book has little over 200 pages and it took me over a month to finish it, as I was dreading having to weave through all the grammar and style mistakes.
Also, the sentences, even without mistakes in them, were sloppy. "I need a drink in my hands, my hands were shaking on the steering wheel". There is no sense, no continuity in the story - this is attempted to achieve by putting date in the beginning of each chapter but littles does that help as the reader has to concentrate immensely on following the plot in the thick forest of mistakes.
The story of Udo Proksch is grasping and fascinating but the book killed it. I actually found press articles more entertaining. Suffice to say, book has little over 200 pages and it took me over a month to finish it, as I was dreading having to weave through all the grammar and style mistakes.
July 19, 2020
I very much wanted to like this book, which I found free via BookBub. I hate to complain about something I got for free, especially when it is clear the author is passionate about the subject.
Unfortunately, this reads more like a first draft than a finished piece of nonfiction storytelling. The narrative is difficult to follow because of numerous errors, and suffers from repetition.
The author can paint a beautiful picture. I hope she works with a proofreader and developmental editor in the future. The bones are here, but the book currently offered is nearly unreadable.
Unfortunately, this reads more like a first draft than a finished piece of nonfiction storytelling. The narrative is difficult to follow because of numerous errors, and suffers from repetition.
The author can paint a beautiful picture. I hope she works with a proofreader and developmental editor in the future. The bones are here, but the book currently offered is nearly unreadable.
July 19, 2020
As someone else stated, I really wanted like this book but it definitely was confusing in many parts of the story. I had to re-read many paragraphs to try and understand what was happening and to whom. There are also many many typographical and grammatical mistakes. This book could definitely benefit from a good editor and proofreader.
July 23, 2020
Almost Unreadable
This book is awful. The story doesn’t flow at all. It basically just jumps from scene to scene without any segue. In the beginning the chapters supposedly jump by a decade each, but the character only ages a few years in each one.
The characters aren’t fleshed out, so you don’t really care about any of them. I often found myself wondering who this person or that person was, because names of people are just thrown in without any real introduction or description.
Grammatically this book is a nightmare. The spelling is awful, the grammar is terrible, the punctuation isn’t even almost accurate, paragraph breaks exist where they shouldn’t be, including in the middle of sentences, and incorrect words are used more times than I could begin to count.
The only reason I even finished this book was so I could see if it got any better as it went on. It didn’t. Between the poor prose, the boring story, and the basic writing errors, this book is almost unreadable.
This book is awful. The story doesn’t flow at all. It basically just jumps from scene to scene without any segue. In the beginning the chapters supposedly jump by a decade each, but the character only ages a few years in each one.
The characters aren’t fleshed out, so you don’t really care about any of them. I often found myself wondering who this person or that person was, because names of people are just thrown in without any real introduction or description.
Grammatically this book is a nightmare. The spelling is awful, the grammar is terrible, the punctuation isn’t even almost accurate, paragraph breaks exist where they shouldn’t be, including in the middle of sentences, and incorrect words are used more times than I could begin to count.
The only reason I even finished this book was so I could see if it got any better as it went on. It didn’t. Between the poor prose, the boring story, and the basic writing errors, this book is almost unreadable.
May 16, 2019
I envy people opening this novel for the first time. I grew up hearing my parents talking about Udo Proksch, but I never really understood why the media betrayed him as a mad man - (he was a massively successful business guy too). In this novel, his life story is laid out from the time he meet Himmler to the end. It is simply mindblowing to chart his journey from innocent child to a mass murderer. Elements of the novel reminded me of Mastery by Robert Greene, in that it teaches you the power plays master puppeteers employ. Great novel, I learnt a lot!
May 6, 2019
Without giving too much away for those who’ve not read this book yet, the book starts in a 1942 Nazi Youth Camp and ends in 2001 in the life of a man, I can only describe as a cross between a wannabe Mother Theresa and The Godfather. A funny, sad, yet captivating true crime story which took me on a rollercoaster of emotions in one sitting. A thoroughly good true crime read. I ended feeling like I'd lost a really odd-ball friend in Udo.
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July 22, 2020This was the most poorly written and edited book I have ever read. The author must not have had someone proofread it before publication. I was looking forward to an interesting true story, but it was mostly just an outline and not much more. I would not recommend it at all.
July 25, 2020
Although it's said to be a true crime murder mystery, this is a work of fiction but you only find that out after you obtain it. It mixes a tiny bit of fact based on whatever the author has gleaned from internet searches no doubt, and a whole lot of fiction to fill in the gaps and spice it up.
I downloaded the book free of charge based on the following description;
"In 20th-century Vienna, Udo Proksch made dazzling pastries while running the royal confectioners — but he was living a much darker life at the same time. Based on his real-life crimes, Killer Desserts reveals his story of debauchery, seduction, and mass murder."
As a freebie, I don't feel terrible about wasting a few days trying to read it, however it is terribly formatted, incredibly badly written, and the horrible grammar and spelling errors are more suited for social media posts by teens. I rushed through it so it would count towards the book challenge I'm currently involved with, otherwise I would have abandoned it by the tenth chapter. It was terribly annoying to read in its current state, however, if the author hires an editor and rewrites some of it, I'm sure it will be more pleasurable to read because in some sections, the author shows real talent if she would spend some time developing these skills.
I downloaded the book free of charge based on the following description;
"In 20th-century Vienna, Udo Proksch made dazzling pastries while running the royal confectioners — but he was living a much darker life at the same time. Based on his real-life crimes, Killer Desserts reveals his story of debauchery, seduction, and mass murder."
As a freebie, I don't feel terrible about wasting a few days trying to read it, however it is terribly formatted, incredibly badly written, and the horrible grammar and spelling errors are more suited for social media posts by teens. I rushed through it so it would count towards the book challenge I'm currently involved with, otherwise I would have abandoned it by the tenth chapter. It was terribly annoying to read in its current state, however, if the author hires an editor and rewrites some of it, I'm sure it will be more pleasurable to read because in some sections, the author shows real talent if she would spend some time developing these skills.
July 24, 2020
Poorly edited!
I stopped reading this a quarter of the way into it. The storyline kept jumping over time, failing to connect the dots and with no appreciable understanding of where it was going.
I stopped reading this a quarter of the way into it. The storyline kept jumping over time, failing to connect the dots and with no appreciable understanding of where it was going.
July 14, 2020
Could not get into the story.
March 16, 2019
Quite honestly, I'm still in shock. THIS IS A TRUE STORY.
Killer Desserts is the true story of a man, part-mad, part-genius who comes from a poor Nazi defeated family in Germany, but somehow manages to buy the royal cake shop in Vienna - The Demel. He turns the upper floor into a nightclub and invites rich, powerful men who he sets about working like puppets for his many money-making schemes. Once he's in over his head - in 1976 he comes up with a scheme to get away with $20 million, and many of his friends - now cabinet ministers help him. Afterwards, the whole thing blows up - literally. And he escapes to The Philippines where he invests his ill-gotten gains into pornography. It takes some seriously weird turns when a reporter from Vienna shows up to see if he meant to kill 12 people. Somehow he hits upon the idea of having plastic surgery to return to Vienna in disguise. The whole thing gets even crazier. But the ending, with the corpse left me wondering did it really happen that way?
Killer Desserts is the true story of a man, part-mad, part-genius who comes from a poor Nazi defeated family in Germany, but somehow manages to buy the royal cake shop in Vienna - The Demel. He turns the upper floor into a nightclub and invites rich, powerful men who he sets about working like puppets for his many money-making schemes. Once he's in over his head - in 1976 he comes up with a scheme to get away with $20 million, and many of his friends - now cabinet ministers help him. Afterwards, the whole thing blows up - literally. And he escapes to The Philippines where he invests his ill-gotten gains into pornography. It takes some seriously weird turns when a reporter from Vienna shows up to see if he meant to kill 12 people. Somehow he hits upon the idea of having plastic surgery to return to Vienna in disguise. The whole thing gets even crazier. But the ending, with the corpse left me wondering did it really happen that way?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 14, 2020
Good read and story
Many typos and incorrect words. A good story however the mistakes made you stop, back up and figure it out. Took away from the read.
Many typos and incorrect words. A good story however the mistakes made you stop, back up and figure it out. Took away from the read.
did-not-like
December 6, 2024Needs serious proofreading. Vulgar and lots of language.
August 15, 2023
Let me just say wow. I started it July 19 and again life hit me hard and I stopped and started it multiple times before I stuck with it. I should have tried harder my first round because this book was crazy.
First I didn't realize how true it was. It is close to a biography! Reading the author's note.... she went through history, case files, and criminal logs! She uses real names and accounts. It's crazy how twisted the main character (Udo) is. Set in Vienna after WWII and he was the reason Vienna was corrupt. He killed, had multiple wives, started the first gentleman's club and fled multiple countries to avoid prison. Definitely need to read and it'll be one I buy as physical book.
First I didn't realize how true it was. It is close to a biography! Reading the author's note.... she went through history, case files, and criminal logs! She uses real names and accounts. It's crazy how twisted the main character (Udo) is. Set in Vienna after WWII and he was the reason Vienna was corrupt. He killed, had multiple wives, started the first gentleman's club and fled multiple countries to avoid prison. Definitely need to read and it'll be one I buy as physical book.
August 12, 2025
This book is not ready to be published. Too many typo's, use of # and $ signs everywhere. Maybe it has been translated but tenses are incorrect; although I get the distinct impression Amy hasn't been to Vienna (the streets are right, but the desserts aren't).
Terrible amount of jumping about on timelines in countries you don't understand why they are there. 1945 Vienna then 1967 Italy that's a huge jump. Characters aren't charismatic you don't know any of them yet there is a lot of sex. Nothing descriptive, to me this is a first idea of a story which needs bulking out and explaining.
Take is back Amy and finish it please oh and get a good editor too.
Terrible amount of jumping about on timelines in countries you don't understand why they are there. 1945 Vienna then 1967 Italy that's a huge jump. Characters aren't charismatic you don't know any of them yet there is a lot of sex. Nothing descriptive, to me this is a first idea of a story which needs bulking out and explaining.
Take is back Amy and finish it please oh and get a good editor too.
July 30, 2020
Like many others I found this a fascinating true crime story. For all he was a criminal, I couldn’t help but like the main character for all he did and how he used and manipulated the women in his life.
I was eager to read it as I have recently been to Vienna and enjoyed the references to this lovely city.
However ..... like others , I was disappointed by the number of typing and grammatical errors which meant I had to read quite a few sentences again to get the correct sense of the sentence. Shame as it was annoying.
I was eager to read it as I have recently been to Vienna and enjoyed the references to this lovely city.
However ..... like others , I was disappointed by the number of typing and grammatical errors which meant I had to read quite a few sentences again to get the correct sense of the sentence. Shame as it was annoying.
September 25, 2020
The Newly Edited Tag. It's A Lie "This is badged as being newly edited so I shudder to think what state it was in prior to my download, cos' it's in a dire state right now !! Specs should be specks, people watching needs a hyphen, one minute she rightfully capitalises Jag then writes jag on the same page, there are misplaced apostrophes and I reached page 19 and some body lent as opposed to leant and I knew I was in for a total mess of 272 pages and I'm not prepared to do that these days.
I did learn something, though, that Frankie Valli originally recorded "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." I had no idea it was one of his songs !
There really are no other positives, however. I've noticed people on here being accused of trolling that leave 1*. Trust me, I'm no troll, this is in a bloody mess !!
I did learn something, though, that Frankie Valli originally recorded "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." I had no idea it was one of his songs !
There really are no other positives, however. I've noticed people on here being accused of trolling that leave 1*. Trust me, I'm no troll, this is in a bloody mess !!
May 29, 2021
It's a shame, this really interesting character: Udo Proksch and the author couldn't do him justice to write a good book. It was really hard to read.
In the beginning very choppy. Had no idea what was happening. It continued this was. Not sure why but there were many spelling/grammar problems, at first I thought it was a translation but no. It was as if someone had just jotted the story down...
I almost abandoned it. But I didn't.
Please someone else write a book about this guy. A good one please.
In the beginning very choppy. Had no idea what was happening. It continued this was. Not sure why but there were many spelling/grammar problems, at first I thought it was a translation but no. It was as if someone had just jotted the story down...
I almost abandoned it. But I didn't.
Please someone else write a book about this guy. A good one please.
August 17, 2020
Fascinating story
It is a great story, very interesting. This was the first time I heard of Udo. The 4 star rating would have been a 5 for the story but the errors lost a 5 star rating. When I read several pages in a row with numerous errors it was painful to read. The writing was good but there seemed to be an excessive number of typos and grammatical errors that made me wonder if anyone proofread it before printing.
It is a great story, very interesting. This was the first time I heard of Udo. The 4 star rating would have been a 5 for the story but the errors lost a 5 star rating. When I read several pages in a row with numerous errors it was painful to read. The writing was good but there seemed to be an excessive number of typos and grammatical errors that made me wonder if anyone proofread it before printing.
March 16, 2019
It amazes me that Udo Proksch got away with it for as long as he did. Con man really does just mean confidence man, and this book proved it conclusively.
This is a great book and a real trip down karma lane for people who believe in ripping others off where they can. It’s one of the few books I couldn’t put down and had to know what happened next. One of the best books I’ve read in a long time.
This is a great book and a real trip down karma lane for people who believe in ripping others off where they can. It’s one of the few books I couldn’t put down and had to know what happened next. One of the best books I’ve read in a long time.
September 3, 2019
I spent a long time trying to figure out if everything in the book actually happened, and to my horror, it actually did. One star less because it reads more like a biography than a true-crime thriller but still worth your time.
September 3, 2019
The story of Udo Proksch is endlessly fascinating. And though I enjoyed the book until the final page I was left feeling something was missing from this book. It didn't fully resolve for me. I wonder if the real truth will ever be known.
August 15, 2020
A história é baseada em factos reais e é muito interessante.
Porém, o livro está cheio de erros, que inclusive prejudicam a compreensão do enredo. É imperdoável e uma pena. Se fizerem a revisão extensa, vale a pena ler
Porém, o livro está cheio de erros, que inclusive prejudicam a compreensão do enredo. É imperdoável e uma pena. Se fizerem a revisão extensa, vale a pena ler
January 22, 2022
intriguing
A man who came from nothing found a way to rise and shine while dancing through life. I never heard of this man and my only complaint is the ending of this story. The author didn’t quite show us what could have been a brilliant chapter.
A man who came from nothing found a way to rise and shine while dancing through life. I never heard of this man and my only complaint is the ending of this story. The author didn’t quite show us what could have been a brilliant chapter.
September 5, 2019
Great fast paced true crime. Slightly twisted/unbelievable ending.
July 26, 2020
Fascinating tale. However this book should have been proof read before publishing. The grammatical errors were very distracting.
July 28, 2020
Truth is stranger than fiction! Brilliant read.
October 31, 2021
Just a waste of my time…sigh
January 19, 2023
I rarely give up on a book, but couldn't force myself to waste any more time on this. In one place author claims to be a former British barrister; in another, "trained as a barrister," but whichever is correct, if either is, I would expect someone with such a background to have a better grasp of the language. There are so many sentence fragments and run-ons that I found myself repeatedly wondering whether anyone ever edited this book. Then I learned that the book is "independently published," i.e., self-published, which perhaps answers that question. There are also numerous metaphors and similes that simply make no sense. There is probably a good story to be told on this subject, but this author fails to deliver on several levels.
April 13, 2019
The one star review is pure trolling. I can't find one of those sentences in this novel.
If you like fast-moving true-crime thriller based on the true, but actually unbelievable stories you will love Killer Desserts. Udo came to Vienna with nothing and managed to buy the Royal cake shop in Vienna - The Demel. Not content to serve coffee and cakes he turned its second floor into a nightclub. There he invited all the politicians and judges in Vienna. He installed camera's capturing blackmail material to make the powerful his puppets. They in turn covered up a clear and massive insurance fraud which killed six. This is the most fascinating true story crime book I've read. I still can't believe its true.
If you like fast-moving true-crime thriller based on the true, but actually unbelievable stories you will love Killer Desserts. Udo came to Vienna with nothing and managed to buy the Royal cake shop in Vienna - The Demel. Not content to serve coffee and cakes he turned its second floor into a nightclub. There he invited all the politicians and judges in Vienna. He installed camera's capturing blackmail material to make the powerful his puppets. They in turn covered up a clear and massive insurance fraud which killed six. This is the most fascinating true story crime book I've read. I still can't believe its true.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews