March Violets (original 1989; edition 1989)

I really struggled with March Violets, despite the fact that I usually love crime and thriller novels set in the 1930s and 40s. Philip Kerr is clearly a talented writer, who has created an interesting and believable character in private detective, Bernard Gunther; investigating the suspicious death of a steel magnet’s daughter and her husband in Berlin at the time of the 1936 Olympics, I really wanted to get into the story, but I found too many distractions to make this a smooth read. Kerr creates an excellent sense of time and place, everything sounds and feels believable and realistic, but the heavy use of acronyms, abbreviations and the Nazi obsession with a myriad of different levels of military and civilian law enforcement, meant I was constantly puzzling to understand their relative significance in the overall story. In the end, I simply went along for the ride, not bothering whether I knew which department was which, and which or who was who. Perhaps an understanding of German and knowledge of the Nazi organisation would have helped. Don’t think I’ll be reading the other two books in this trilogy, despite liking Gunther and his sardonic humour.
© Koplowitz 2012 ( )

Bernie Gunther investigates the murder of the daughter of one of German’s wealthiest industrialists while the 1936 Summer Olympics play out in Berlin. Gunther is an ex-policeman that thought he had seen everything, but becoming a freelance Private Investigator has found him being sucked into the horrible excesses of Nazi subculture.

This is classic hard-boiled/noir fiction; it has the hard-hitting detective, a fast-paced plot and the everyday violence you come to expect. But this time that everyday violence comes in the forms of anti-Semitisms and the Nazi regime. The Nazi German backdrop is a great location for noir novel and makes for a whole cast of strong and interesting characters.

While the plot does need some polish, as it’s not a very strong crime plot, the interference from the Kripo and Gestapo did a great job of masking the flaws. March Violets reminds me a lot of Fatherland by Robert Harris with the concept but for me March Violets concept was much better just not as well executed.

The over used metaphors and attempts at humour really took away from the richly developed backdrop and while at times it did drag on a little, I really found myself enjoying this book. I’m not sure how well Philip Kerr researched this novel but the way he portrayed Nazi Germany felt right in my mind; the strong police state trying to play nice for the Olympic games and then the inability or unwillingness of ordinary Germans to try stop the crimes or injustices, while spending most of their time worrying about the coming war.

March Violets is the first in the Berlin Noir series and based on this book, I’m looking forward to reading the next two books. Not sure if I will continue the series after that but I will start with them. Bernie Gunther is a great protagonist with his hard hitting ways that seem like they will land him in a KZ (Konzentrationslager or Concentration camp). I’m glad I picked this book up, while there are some weak points, like I said before, they seem to be easily missed with everything else happening in this book. Well worth reading for pulp fans, it’s a fresh take on this genre.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/03/24/book-review-march-violets/ ( )

This novel is set in the 1930's in Nazi Germany. Bernie Gunther is a private investigator and an ex cop. He is brought in to investigate a double murder and robbery of jewels. The father of the murdered girl is a steel magnate and he is the one who brings in Bernie to investigate the crime. In his investigation Bernie unravels a more complicated puzzle concerning some important documents and betrayal. He gets into trouble with the authorities and gets away.

This gives an insight into Nazi Germany leading into the Second World War. The novel reads like a classic American detective fiction. So anyone who is a fan of that should read this. Otherwise it's just ok. ( )

Hardly anything can outdo 1936's Nazi Germany as a mood setter of a crime-noir novel. Three years after Hitler won the elections the stifling of freedoms is firm, concentration camps are already established, jews, gypsies and gays suffer incrementally abridged civil rights, Gestapo and SS take over the police and army, the competent old hands are pushed aside.

Bernie Gunter, a private detective in Berlin, gives us the peering eyes of the intelligentsia and the black humor of the concealed dissent, now that it is obvious that Germany is in the grip of a dictatorship.

The case that he labors to solve involves a rich industrialist's daughter, a playful movie star, and a coterie of brutals of the underground world. The increasing complications open for Bernie, and us, the doors of the upper Nazi echelon.

Layering the grotesque transformation of a society strained by the dictatorship with the timeless forces of vice and crime is the genius of this book. A very enjoyable read. ( )

This was the first of the Bernie Gunther series. I've read many of the rest so it's interesting to get a view of how the series started.

Kerr certainly got much better as time went on. ( )