The novel, which paints a picture of Vienna of the 1950s, contains a crime mystery of a sort. It introduces a gallery of colorful characters struggling to come to grips with the history of their country with its shifting boundaries of wealth and class. Legacy of Ashes flirts with stereotypes as well as melodramatic possibilities that never quite break through. Simple conclusions about the characters' lives or the city they live in may capture part of the truth, but never all the nuances.