Product Description

Berlin 1934. The Nazis have been in power for just eighteen months but already Germany has seen some unpleasant changes. As the city prepares to host the 1936 Olympics, Jews are being expelled from all German sporting organisations - a blatant example of discrimination. Forced to resign as a homicide detective with Berlin's Criminal Police, Bernie is now house detective at the famous Adlon Hotel. The discovery of two bodies - one a businessman and the other a Jewish boxer - involves Bernie in the lives of two hotel guests. One is a beautiful left-wing journalist intent on persuading America to boycott the Berlin Olympiad; the other is a German-Jewish gangster who plans to use the Olympics to enrich himself and the Chicago mob. As events unfold, Bernie uncovers a vast labour and construction racket designed to take advantage of the huge sums the Nazis are prepared to spend to showcase the new Germany to the world. It is a plot that finds its conclusion twenty years later in pre-revolution Cuba, the country to which Bernie flees from Argentina at the end of A Quiet Flame.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1281 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-10
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Review
'Kerr brilliantly evokes the edgy atmosphere of the post-war period in one of the most gripping and accomplished detective novels published so far this year.' --Sunday Times.

'Kerr's period detail is utterly convincing. The way he captures a lost Berlin on the brink of cataclysmic change is in turns poignant and gritty ... the sense of Havana's humid languor masking revolutionary plots rings every bit as true ... what also impresses is Kerr's examination of how a man changes and how he stays the same over twenty years, when the two decades are so desperate and blood-spattered ... this is a sophisticated thriller that brings the war and its aftermath to life' --Independent.

About the Author
Philip Kerr was born in Edinburgh but now lives in London and in Cornwall. He is the author of five other acclaimed Bernie Gunther novels and is acknowledged as one of today's finest thriller writers. Reviewers have compared his work to that of Raymond Chandler and John le Carre.

Customer Reviews

Another Great Episode
This is the latest installment in the Bernie Gunter series. This is what Kerr does best and shows how much of a trailblazer he was in setting his books in 30's Berlin. The last few books have been a combination of 30's Berlin and Gunter's post war career.

This time we find him in Berlin in 1934 and find that he has recently left the Kripo (criminal police), following the assumption of power by the Nazis, and is working as a house detective in Berlin's best hotel - the Adlon. A dead guest is found in a locked room and a Chinese box is stolen from another guest.

Gunter is also asked to help out with a former colleague's nephew, who is starting out as a homicide detective. Unfortunately the unidentified body turns out to be a Jew. Homicide detectives in Nazi Germany were not allowed to investigate the murders of Jews - it was considered to be a service to society that they were dead.

So Gunter decides to investigate. The case leads him to an encounter with senior Nazi officials, an American gangster, a beautiful American journalist and the building of the Olympic Stadium. 30's Berlin is again brought to life with the problems faced by Jews and those who are not happy with the new government. The way in which the Nazi's tentacles are beginning to grip German society are a great read.

Things are not resolved cleanly and the story moves to Cuba in 1954. The main protaganists meet again in Batista's Havana, just after Castro is jailed for a failed attack on a barracks. Gunter meets the journalist and the gangster again and also bumps into the leading mobsters, such as Meyer Lansky.

Gunter is asked to investigate another murder, at the request of the Mob and things are not as straight forward as anyone thinks.

This is another great addition to the Gunter series. Kerr shows why he is considered to be the king of pre-war thriller writing. Where Furst and Downing now walk, Kerr has already been and plotted the way.

Another twisting chapter in the life of Bernie Gunther
Philip Kerr has written another thoughtful and intriguing story following the eventful career of cynical, world-weary Berlin detective Bernie Gunther. Skilfully plotted, the story shifts between the tropical colour and menacing undercurrent of 1950s pre-Castro gangland Cuba, and the heightening social tensions of pre-war Nazi Germany. Kerr's inimitable humour and writing style are keenly in evidence and again find a voice through our Chandler-esque protagonist. Readers new to Bernie Gunther novels will not find the historical setting or the mystery elements to be radically original but this takes nothing away from the brilliant storytelling and dark humour that is often lacking in other historical detective fiction. Familiar Kerr readers will also enjoy the book, particularly for the fleshing out of Bernie's past exploits as House detective of the Adlon in Berlin.Perhaps not the best Bernie Gunther novel, but a worthy addition to the canon.

It just gets better
This series just getst better and better, although it was pretty damn good to start with.