I love Philip Kerr's books...except for this one. His first three Berlin-based mysteries pulled me in and entangled me in the subtle evils that gradually grew to a holocaust of horror. The strength of his earlier books lay in that he chronicled the small, daily inhumanities inflicted on German and non-Germans alike that eroded the humanity of individual citizens and resulted in the horror that was WW2.

The insight that Kerr gave to the residents of Berlin pre, during, and post WW2 was so convincing I was startled to find he is a modern British author. I actually had to double-check it a few times after reading the Berlin trilogy to convince myself that this person hadn't actually lived through this time period as a resident of Berlin.

I really wanted to love all the post WW2 books, but they seem adrift, unsubstantiated, and desperatly lonely, which seemed fitting for the character and the time period.

However, this book takes the main character to South America, and (at least in my reading) transplants him into a by-the-numbers espionage novel. I was sorely disappointed. The daily details of an individual experiencing an extraordinary situation seemed flat and contrived.

Mr. Kerr, I really, really loved your previous noir novels. Perhaps it's time to retire Bernie Gunter or try a new character? ( )

This story begins in Argentina, 1950, when a small group of German refugees disembark at Buenos Aires having, like so many other Nazis, been given sanctuary by the fascist dictator Juan Peron.

This little party of SS men on the run, including the notorious Adolf Eichmann, and the former Berlin Homicide detective Bernie Gunther, has been provided with new identities and jobs: once lords of creation, some of the German’s resent their decline in status.

Bernie Gunther is not one of them: although he always loathed Hitler and the National Socialists, he is guilt-ridden by the behaviour of his fellow Germans and over the fact he did nothing to stop it. Now he just wants a quiet life.

He is coerced into joining the Argentine secret police and tasked with investigating a murder and a disappearance which mimic the last case he dealt with while in the Berlin police – a case he never solved, being forced to resign when the evidence began to point at Josef Goebbels.

Much of the book alternates between Berlin in 1932 and Buenos Aires in 1050: Gunther’s German investigation took place in an edgy atmosphere of political turmoil, anti-Semitism, decadence and the imminent threat of Nazi control.

The Argentinean police are convinced the recent murder was committed by the same person, now a German war criminal hiding in BA, as the original killing and, in many ways, Bernie’s new investigation mirrors the first one, anti-Semitism and all.

When the gorgeous Anna Yagubsky asks him to use his connections in the secret police to discover what happened to her uncle and aunt, illegal Jewish refugees from Russia, it is his conscience as much as her beauty that persuades him to agree.

It’s not much of a spoiler to reveal that Gunther solves the Berlin murders, 18 years after they occurred: they were committed by Josef Mengele, a medical student back in 1932 but now ‘court’ abortionist to Juan Peron, who enjoys sex with very young girls and, as a Catholic, will not use a condom.

The mystery of the missing girl and the disappeared Jews is also solved, although at great personal cost, and the book ends with Gunther on the run again, this time to Montevideo.

This excellently plotted, well written and superbly crafted story should be of particular relevance to South Africans and the survivors of any repressive regime: for all we might have bleated ‘not in my name’ or ‘we were only following orders’, we are still judged guilty.

The book could be more angst filled and guilt ridden than a stadium of Jews and Catholics all trying to out-guilt each other, but it isn’t. Think Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar with his witty quips. Think Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe and his pithy descriptions. Here we have the best of both.
Quiet Flame is full of laughter, tragedy, pathos and thrills: the history, especially of Argentine’s admiration for the Nazis, is well-researched and startling, and the moral issues worthy of close consideration.

Hitler and his policies tainted Germany and all Germans for decades to come: white South Africans have also been tainted by the apartheid past but we have been very fortunate too – unlike even ‘good’ Germans, we have not had to flee and one cannot help feeling a smidgeon of sympathy for some of the refugees in this excellent book. ( )

The action shifts from 1938 Berlin to 1950 Buenos Aries. It was fascinating to learn about all the Germans who landed in Argentina and all the bad things many of them did there. Especially new to me was the creation of death camps in Argentina, and also the glimpse into the personalities of Eva and Juan Peron. Bernie Gunther is the detective. ( )

This continues the excellent Bernie Gunther series, with the added twist of being set both in Berlin in 1932 and in Buenos Aires in 1950.

From a good review on Amazon UK by G. J. Oxley
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Quiet-Flame-B...

"Ex-Berlin homicide detective/private eye/SS officer Bernie Gunther finds himself in Buenos Aries, Argentina in 1950 (read `The One From The Other' to find out why), a time when Juan Peron's government offered a safe haven for Nazi war criminals. The action switches largely between Berlin in 1932 - and Bernie's last abandoned case as a police officer when the mutilated body of a spastic teenage girl is discovered - and Buenos Aires in 1950 where he is invited to investigate a case with striking similarities.

What appears to be a simple case turns out to be anything but; twist is piled upon twist, and Gunther unwraps layer after layer until the final shocking revelation is revealed.

Once again, this is peopled with real personalities - Juan and Evita Peron, Adolf Eichmann, Joseph Mengele etc. - and blends fiction with conjecture based upon historical fact. It includes a chilling portrait of the man who was third ranked in the SS at the end of World War II, General Hans Kammler; perhaps the most heinous SS officer never to be caught." ( )

I just LOVE Philip Kerr's books! I love Bernie Gunther, I love Kerr's dry wit, his observations on life, his plots, his sub-plots, his other characters, and the endless witty comments. Whenever the story starts, you get sucked in like a vacuum cleaner and you are swept along, powerless to fight back. I don't normally pay full price for a book but with Kerr, I lose the will to argue with myself - it's pointless. My wallet falls out my pocket and I am paying for the book before I know what is happening.

The only two things I found slightly disappointing about this book is that a) it takes place partly in Argentina (I much prefer the books set solely in Germany) and b) the first half of the book switches constantly between 1932 Berlin and 1950 Argentina. This really disorientated me. When I read a book, I like to totally immerse myself in the atmosphere and the characters. Switching between time periods really knocked me out of joint.

The story is that Bernie, posing as a wanted SS fugitive, arrives in Argentina, along with Adolf Eichmann and another SS fugitive, where they are met by an ODESSA representative. They are given shelter, new identities and money but since Gunther decided to pretend to be a doctor, he is taken immediately to see President Peron who has a thing for SS doctors. Gunther decides to reveal his true identity to Peron and his chief of security offers Gunther a job in the SIDE secret police.

Not long after, a murdered girl is found in Buenos Aires and it is eeringly similar to an unsolved murder case that Gunther worked on in 1932, just as the Nazis were about to assume power. Suddenly he has the chance to redeem himself, to kill two birds with one stone. But as he investigates, he realises there is more than meets the eye. He finds out about Directive Eleven, Presidential secrets, Evita, missing children, death camps, SS men who want Gunther dead and a beautiful Russian female Jew that wants Gunther to help her find her parents who went missing near a top secret test site.....

Totally GRIPPING stuff. Buy it and you will LOVE it. Kerr has totally outdone himself with this one. I can't wait to see what he does next with Bernie Gunther. ( )