Winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award 2009.
A new Bernie Gunther mystery see’s the plot split between Nazi Germany and then moving on to pre-revolution Cuba. Not only are these books great detective novels they are also a fascinating insight into some of the most fraught historical periods of recent times. Brilliant!
'One of the greatest anti-heroes ever written' LEE CHILD
As Berlin prepares for the 1936 Olympic Games, Bernie is caught between violently opposing factions in a story that comes full circle in 1950s' Cuba.
Berlin 1934. The Nazis have been in power for just eighteen months but already Germany has seen some frightening 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. Two bodies are found - one a businessman and the other a Jewish boxer. As Bernie digs to unearth the truth, he discovers a vast labour and construction racket designed to take advantage of the huge sums the Nazis are spending to showcase the new Germany to the world. It is a plot that finds its dramatic and violent conclusion twenty years later in pre-revolutionary Cuba.
‘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
‘One of the great achievements of contemporary crime fiction’ Observer
Author
About Philip Kerr
Philip Kerr was born in Edinburgh in 1956, and lived in London. He is the author of March Violets, The Pale Criminal, A German Requiem, A Philosophical Investigation, and Dead Meat. He has also edited two anthologies. In 2011 Philip Kerr was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library, awarded to an author for a body of work. He sadly passed away in March 2018.
Maxim Jakubowski's view on BERNIE GUNTHER...
A German cop who has moved from the Nazi 1930s to the post-war period, with mixed loyalties but a strong sense of duty which often gets him into trouble. A QUIET FLAME was his 5th outing andIF THE DEAD RISE NOT appeared next in September 2009.