The Assassins by Alan Bardos (best novels in english txt) 📗

I'd suggest, 'Archduke of Sarajevo: The Romance & Tragedy of Franz Ferdinand of Austria', by Gordon Brook-Shepherd and, 'The Assassination of the Archduke', by Greg King & Sue Woolmans. 'The Archduke and the Assassin', by Lavender Cassels, covers both sides of the story fairly equally.

Other books I found useful in trying to understand the assassination and the history of Bosnia were, 'Sarajevo', by Joachim Remak, 'Black Lamb and Grey Falcon', by Rebecca West, ‘The Secret of Sarajevo, the story of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie’, by Hertha Pauli, 'Sarajevo, A Biography', by Robert J. Donia, 'The Bridge over the Drina', by Ivo Andric, Borivoje Jevtic quoted in, ‘We Were There: An Eyewitness History of the Twentieth Century’, by Robert Fox, ‘The Balkan Wars: Conquest, Revolution, and Retribution from the Ottoman Era to the Twentieth Century and Beyond’, by Andre a Gerolymatos and 'Bosnia: A Short History', by Noel Malcolm.

I found the following books useful for the history of diplomacy, and the background and events that led to the outbreak of the First World War: 'Thirteen Days: The Road to the First World War', by Clive Ponting, 'August Guns', by Barbara Tuchman, 'The Sleepwalkers, How Europe went to war in 1914', by Christopher Clark, ‘The War that Ended Peace: How Europe abandoned peace for the First World War’, by Margaret MacMillan, 'The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One', by Miranda Carter, ‘The British Diplomatic Service 1815-1914’, by Raymond A. Jones and 'The Origins of the War of 1914 (Vol. 2)', by Luigi Albertini.

Books I enjoyed with reference to Vienna and the Habsburgs were, 'Emperor Francis Joseph, Life Death and the Fall of the Habsburg Empire', by John Van der Kiste, 'The Dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1867-1918', by John W. Mason, 'The Radetzky March', by Joseph Roth, ‘Last Waltz in Vienna’, by George Clare and Count Miklós Bánffy's wonderful, 'Transylvania Trilogy'.  Also, 'Thunder at Twilight: Vienna 1913/1914', by Frederic Morton, which in addition has a good account of the death of Colonel Redl, as has, 'The Second Oldest Profession: Spies and Spying in the Twentieth Century', by Phillip Knightley.

I'd also strongly recommend a trip to Sarajevo. It is an amazing place, still rich with the fusion of Western and Eastern cultures of a bygone age, with the addition of communist era tower blocks. It isn't hard to imagine how it would have felt to be there in 1914, despite the traffic and the damage caused by the siege of the 1990s. The 103 trolley bus from the airport drops you off at the gardens where Gavrilo Princip sat on the morning of the assassination. These gardens are opposite Appel Quay (now called Obala Kulina Bana), Lateiner Bridge and the corner of Franz Josef Street (now called Zelenih Beretki) where the assassination took place. There is a plaque on Schiller’s delicatessen commemorating the assassination. The building is now the Museum of the History of Sarajevo 1878-1918, and contains a small display about the assassination. (Directions to the 103 bus stop can be found in Lonely Planet's guide to the Western Balkans).

The Museum of Military History in Vienna, has the Graf & Stift car in which Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were travelling when they were shot, as part of an exhibit about the assassination which includes three of the assassins’ guns, some of the bombs recovered after their arrest, the chaise longue Franz Ferdinand died on and his blood-stained uniform.

Artstetten Castle where Sophie and Franz Ferdinand are buried, is an incredible place to see. It has a museum established by Sophie and Franz Ferdinand's great-granddaughter, Princess Anita of Hohenberg, and has the feel of walking through a family scrapbook. It has a very good display on the assassination, including the all important official programme of events for the Archduke's visit to Sarajevo and many photographs that I hadn't seen before.

Sophie and Franz Ferdinand's favourite country seat, Konopiste Castle, is also a beguiling place to visit. All three tours of the castle are very good, but tour three is the best, as it takes in Sophie and Franz Ferdinand's private apartments. I tried to identify which bathroom gave the best view of the rose gardens (see Cassels and King & Woolmans), however the trees now obscure everything. Tour three also features a few artefacts from the assassination including the ermine stole and bodice that Sophie was wearing on the 28th June 1914. The bullet that killed Sophie is also displayed.