Book discussion group

Just finished the book, The Fig Eater by Jody Shields, her first novel. It was a fascinating book. Strong sense of place, providing the reader with a good description of Vienna in 1910. The protagonist is the wife of the Investigator, who has brought her into his case, a murder of an eighteen year young woman in a Volksgarten, I think was the name. Basically it is a city park with statues. His investigation is the basis of the story, but Elizabeth ( I know I spelled it wrong from the book) takes over the story as she draws in more characters to help solve this mystery for her. I believe this strong attraction to her is told in the beginning of the story when she totally engrossed herself in the nursing of one of her servants, whom later died. She has no children, her life revolves around her husband, and this fascination only draws her closer to him, but it seems that she is distancing herself from him through the story. Their marriage is presented in interesting clips, her spying on him, and he likewise. Theirs is a physical relationship, with not too much intellectual intimacy I think. I liked the book, I like descriptive poetic language, but I know that language is the strong draw for me. I found the story interesting, pacing good, finished the first quarter of the book the first evening, and I wanted to get back to it. The turn off for some in our book group perhaps was the sexual content of the book, the perverseness of some characters. I only took this to be an aspect of the Freudian culture of Vienna. I also was captivated by the gypsy lore, and the superstitions of the characters, the tarot cards, and the mutilation of the grave site. Reminds me of the Gothic romances I would read in the 70's. My draw to some books lately is the fascination of other people, other women in differing times or locations. I like just the difference of what it means to be human in our world, today or yesterday.