The One from the Other

The One from the Other is the fourth novel in Kerr's series based on a one-time Berlin based detective, Bernie Gunther. Kerr spins out an entertaining and complex yarn based on the pursuit of Nazi war criminals and the efforts of various organizations to assist in their escape from organs of justice, both official and unofficial. Kerr's style is reminiscent of crime novelists like Raymond Chandler, particularly his indulgence in the use of similes that are equally colorful and outrageous. That said, his plot is intricately woven, and his characters expertly drawn. I can't get into too much detail without giving away the game. I will observe that very few individuals, nations, and non-government entities come off as having any integrity, show more and there is no shortage of resources enlisted in helping war criminals escape from occupied Germany and Austria. By way of a tease Kerr introduces the reader to Adolf Eichmann in a lengthy prologue and brings him back into the narrative at the end of the novel.

This is the eighth book ibn the Bernie Gunther series that I have completed, and I've found them all to be excellent reads. If you are a reader of detective fiction and historical novels, you will enjoy Philip Kerr's fiction. show less

Absolute quality.
Well written and researched atmospheric descriptive with superb characters throughout. Bernie Gunther is one of my all time favourite Detectives clever fearless and so funny, mostly witty one liners but occasionally laugh out loud. Original with plenty of surprises and twists to keep my ageing brain struggling to catch up.
Completely and utterly recommended.

The action is mostly set in 1949 and post-war Bernie Gunther is running a failing hotel near Dachau. Unsurprisingly business does not boom and with his wife hospitalised in the long-term, Gunther goes back to his old pre-war profession running a private detective agency. His first two cases lead him on the familiar route of tracing missing people, but then plunge him into a scenario that threatens his life and ultimately drives him out of Germany forever.
Of the many novels in this series that I've read now, this one has probably been the weakest. Chronologically speaking this is the 4th BG novel, but to be honest reading them in order is not necessary. I started with the original trilogy (Berlin Noir) and have picked up the rest in show more random order. In this one I found the plot just a little too unlikely (depending on a lookalike), the writing less rich and Gunther to be neither a hero or his usual anti-hero self. show less

I've read seven of this excellent series so far and really enjoyed them all. Oddly I thought I had read them in their written order, but this one, # 4, managed to evade me until now. Now I understand why # 5 takes place in Argentina. But it doesn't matter, partly because the written order and the chronological order are not the same and, mainly, because Kerr is such a good writer that he tells you what you need to know for each book, within the flow of each story, without wasting pages on the back story,
This story tells us a lot about Germany and Austria after WW2 and, as ever, Bernie Gunther is not totally in tune with the powers that be. It starts with Bernie running (or not) a hotel in Dachau, but not for long. Soon he is back as a show more private detective and that is where his troubles begin as again his principles get in the way of his self interest.
The plot flows seamlessly and speedily with ODESSA, the CIA and Haganah all adding to Bernie's problems. Kerr's attention to carefully researched background is compelling and never gets in the way of his excellent storytelling and there are lots of very clever pieces of wordplay to enjoy.
Yes, there is an slight resemblance to Phillip Marlowe, but in a reverential way as opposed to being too influential.
I have found Philip Kerr's other non-series books to be rather patchy in quality but I have no hesitation in recommending the Bernie Gunther series. show less

It was a surprise to discover, only paragraphs into the first chapter of this book, that the author was set on combining humour with the holocaust. There can't be many books which have married up those two unlikely bedfellows, but here we have Bernie, private detective, sometime hotelier and member of the SS, going into battle with ex-Nazis, corrupt "Amis", "Ivans" and a welter of bewildering acronyms, wisecracking throughout.

Bernie never felt properly German to me - he seemed to have come through the war years with remarkably little baggage like it had all washed over him leaving barely a mark. No matter - he was excellent company, even if I did occasionally wish he would admit he was up Shits Creek without a paddle and feel a bit show more sorry for himself instead of being so unreasonably resilient. What I loved most of all were the hilarious sketches of characters, and the humorous asides (..."German doctors have always regarded themselves as being as important as God. Indeed, it's probably worse than that. God probably thinks he's a German doctor.")

The plot was complicated with many a twist and turn, the sort of thing I could easily see becoming a film. Also the sort of thing I could imagine unravelling if you got it into lab conditions and scrutinised it through a microscope. There had to be a simpler (but far less entertaining) way of the bad guys achieving their aims. And of course there's the bit where those same bad guys take you painstakingly through the hows and whys of everything in an unlikely (but believe me, very very necessary) way. I arrived at the final page with a broad idea of what happened, and given my track record at following books like this, that's very positive. show less

Les femmes mènent Bernie Gunther par le bout du nez. Je ne me souviens pas que ce fut si évident dans les trois premiers épisodes.

La guerre est finie. Les procès de Nuremberg sont passés, Bernie est hotelier à Dachau. Mais il y a encore du travail pour un détective entre les personnes disparues, les escouades israélienne et les criminels de guerre s'enfuyant en Amérique du Sud sous de fausses identités aimablement fournies par la CIA, le Vatican et les gouvernements sud-américains.

A very welcome return to the Berlin Noir series for Kerr. It may be that I've become jaded, but the fourth installment seems to be a distinct falling-off from the first three.

For one thing the wisecracking now seems relentless, and somehow the plotting seems a bit more like the action novels Kerr has published during the long layoff between books 3 and 4.

The difference probably boils down to the fact that the Germany of the first three novels held a fascination for both Kerr and for the reader. Adenauer's Germany doesn't seem to cut it.

Not that the novel is bad--just not up to the standards of the first three.