The Girl and the Gravedigger A Novel

By: Oliver Pötzsch

Published by HarperCollins Publishers, 2026-02-24

When the mummified remains of a famed Egyptologist are discovered in the Vienna art museum, Inspector Leopold von Herzfeldt reunites with gravedigger Augustin Rothmayer to excavate the city's dark underbelly in this thrilling historical mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hangman's Daughter and The Gravedigger's Almanac.

Vienna 1894. Augustin Rothmayer, the oddball gravedigger from Vienna's Central Cemetery, is approached by Inspector Leopold von Herzfeldt with an unusual favor: he needs Augustin to teach him everything he knows about preserving a dead body, information vital to a new investigation.

Opening an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus, employees of Vienna's Museum of Art History have discovered the well- (and quite recently) preserved body of Alfons Strössner, famed professor of Egyptology. Some believe that the professor was the victim of an ancient curse. But neither Rothmayer nor von Herzfeldt give credence to such superstitious rumors. They are certain it was murder.

The trail to unmask a killer leads them to fin-de-siecle Vienna's unscrupulous upper class and to some eccentric and unusual places, including "mummy parties" and human zoos. An engrossing and twisting historical mystery, The Girl and the Gravedigger once again brings turn-of-the-century Vienna to life in all its glitter and grime.

Translated from the German by Lisa Reinhardt