quippe | Entries tagged with philip kerr

The Blurb On The Back:

France, 1956. Bernie Gunther is on the run. If there’s one thing he’s learned, it’s never to refuse a job from a high-ranking secret policeman. But this is exactly what he’s just done. Now he’s a marked man, with the East German Stasi on his tail.

Fleeing across Europe, he remembers the last time he worked with his pursuer: in 1939, to solve a murder at the Berghof, Hitler’s summer hideaway in the Bavarian Alps. Hitler is long dead, the Berghof now a ruined shell, and the bizarre time Bernie spent there should be no more than a distant memory.

But as he pushes on to Berlin and safety, Bernie will find that no matter how far he thinks he has put Nazi Germany behind him, for him it will always be unfinished business. The Berghof is not done with Bernie yet.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The twelfth in Philip Kerr’s BERNIE GUNTHER SERIES is another tightly plotted historical thriller masterpiece split between two equally tense timeframes that sees the cynical-but-honest cop reflect on an investigation that pitched him into the heart of the Nazi elite where he was forced to choose between finding the truth and preserving his own life. The 1956 timeline appears to refer back to THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE, which I hadn’t read but which you don’t need to in order to follow this story because it’s essentially a framing device for the 1939 investigation. It was interesting to see Korsch return from THE PALE CRIMINAL and Kerr shows how the War and subsequent events have shaped both of them and removed any room for sentimentality between them. As always, Kerr’s use of real historical characters is superb with their cruelty, venality and frailty spill out across the page. The mystery is tightly written and although the culprit could be argued to come out of nowhere, it does fit in with the overriding themes and plotlines. The book ends with the promise of a fresh start for Bernie and I will definitely be checking out what happens to him next.

PRUSSIAN BLUE will be released in the United Kingdom on 4th April 2017. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

In the bitter winter of 1947, as the Russian Zone closes around the ruined city, Berliners live on fear and dubiously earned PX goods. So when an enigmatic Russian colonel asks private eye Bernie Gunther to go to Vienna, where his ex-Kripo colleague Emil Becker faces a murder charge, Bernie doesn’t hesitate for long. And Vienna is a different world: prosperous, peaceful, the gracious hostess to the Powers’ proliferating bureaucracies, her buildings and consciences almost rebuilt. Not the aptest haven for a black-marketeer and war criminal – but despite Becker’s unsavoury past, Gunther is convinced that the shooting of an American Nazi-hunter is one crime he didn’t commit.

Gradually, Gunther discovers that Vienna is a mistress of hypocrisy, her smug facades masking the lethal duplicity of another war. Communism is the Americans’ new enemy, and with the Nuremberg trials over, some strange alliances are being forged against the Red Menace – alignments that make many wartime atrocities look lily-white by comparison.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The third in Philip Kerr’s BERNIE GUNTHER SERIES is a complex historical thriller that effectively draws on the psychological, physical and political effects of World War II on victors and losers alike and the dubious alliances that came about during the first sparks of the Cold War but the female characters are thinly characterised (and almost all prostitutes) and I didn’t believe in Gunther’s new Catholic faith. I enjoyed the contrast between Vienna (which is rebuilding) and Berlin (a shattered wasteland where people do whatever they have to in order to survive) and the espionage elements are well handled with Bernie caught between the Russians and Americans who are flexing their way towards Cold War hostilities but I wished the relationship with his wife, Kirsten, was as subtly drawn. We learn practically nothing about them or how they met, all that matters is Bernie’s inability to cope with her prostitution. Indeed almost every female character in this book is a prostitute and while that no doubt went on, it’s a shame that they’re all so one-dimensional. Also shoe-horned in is Bernie’s prison camp conversion to Catholicism, which came out of nowhere and seemed to be introduced to keep the plot going. For all this though the gripping plot (involving dead Nazis and an appearance from another of Gunther’s old colleagues) and feel for the period means I’ll definitely check out the next in this series.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

It is September 1938. In a sweltering heat wave, the German people anxiously await the outcome of the Munich conference, wondering if the Fuhrer will plunge Europe into another war.

Private investigator Bernhard Gunther, formerly of Kripo – the Berlin criminal police – is hired by a rich widow to find out who is blackmailing her, an investigation in which he finds himself exploring the crankier side of modern German medicine and psychotherapy. Meanwhile, a brutal serial killer stalks the streets of Berlin, and Kripo, embarrassed at having been caught framing an innocent Jew for the murders, is not above using a little blackmail to obtain Gunther’s racially unbiased services to catch the real culprit. Boldly asking for the temporary rank of Kommissar, Gunther finds that a murder hunt for a perverted criminal soon escalates beyond all his predictions.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The second in Philip Kerr’s BERNIE GUNTHER SERIES is another note perfect, twisting historical noir thriller that takes you to the heart of the rivalries permeating the Nazi regime and the lengths that the fervent anti-semites would go to further their own agenda. The historical research really shines through the story with Kerr throwing in details of the neighbourhoods and architecture together with enough slang to add atmosphere and authenticity. I particularly admired the way Kerr draws together the different plot strands in the story (including some links back to MARCH VIOLETS) and Gunther’s own character significantly develops – his guilt at the corruption in the Nazi regime and feeling of helplessness to do anything about it. I wished that the female characters had been as well developed but they’re largely on the periphery and while this is partly because that was what it was like at the time, it’s still a shame that neither Frau Lange or Hildegard Steininger (the mother of one of the victims) had more to do beyond the stereotypical mother/whore roles (particularly Steininger who’s little more than a sex object). That said, I did enjoy the book and I’ll definitely check out the next one in this series.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Bernhard Gunther is 38-years-old, a veteran of the Turkish Front, and an ex-policeman. He’s also a private eye, specialising in missing persons, which means that he’s a very busy man. Because this is Berlin 1936, and people have a nasty habit of disappearing in Hitler’s capital.

A cluster of diamonds sets Bernie off on a new case – diamonds and a couple of bodies. The daughter and son-in-law of Hermann Six, industrialist millionaire and German patriot, have been shot dead in their bed and a priceless necklace stolen from the safe. As Bernie pursues the case through seedy Berlin nightclubs, the building sites for the new autobahns, and even the magnificent Olympic Stadium where Jesse Owens is currently disproving all the fashionable racist theories, he’s led inexorably into the cesspit that is Nazi Germany, travelling the murky paths from the police morgue where missing persons usually end up to, finally, Dachau itself.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Philip Kerr’s debut novel is a crackling historical noir crime thriller (the first in a trilogy that later became a series) that goes to the heart of Nazi Germany and exposes the cynicism and corruption running throughout it. Gunther is a great character – a hard boiled detective in the Philip Marlowe mould – whose disillusionment with the Nazi regime led him to leave the police before he was pushed but whose smart mouth puts him in dangerous situations. I really enjoyed the depiction of 1936 Berlin – Kerr has clearly done his research and there’s a lot of detail about the geography and architecture that adds to the atmosphere – a section set in Dachau is particularly chilling. I also enjoyed the incorporation of real people from history – especially Goerring who managed to be menacing and sinister but also vaguely ridiculous – and the dynamic between Gunther and his ex-colleagues gives the book an edge but also works to propel the plot forward. It’s a shame that the female characters aren’t so well drawn – I had hopes for Inge Lorenz, a journalist forced out by Nazi policy that wants women to be wives and mothers only – but Kerr abruptly breaks her storyline off without warning and she is largely reduced to being a sex object for Gunther (although I am hoping this will be revisited in the next book). The mystery itself twists and turns neatly and with plenty of pace and while there’s plenty of violence (including sexual violence) it fits into the story rather than being gratuitous. All in all I thought this was an entertaining read and will definitely check out the sequel.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.