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Now in one volume—the first three novels in Philip Kerr’s New York Times bestselling historical mystery series starring hard-boiled detective Bernie Gunther...“A Chandleresque knight errant caught in insane historical surroundings. Bernie walks down streets so mean that nobody can stay alive and remain truly clean.”—John Powers, Fresh Air (NPR)
Ex-policeman Bernie Gunther thought he'd seen everything on the streets of 1930s Berlin. But then he went freelance, and each case he show more tackled sucked him further into the grisly excesses of Nazi subculture. And even after the war, amidst the decayed, imperial splendour of Vienna, Bernie uncovered a legacy that made the wartime atrocities look lily-white in comparison...
This collection includes:
MARCH VIOLETS
THE PALE CRIMINAL
A GERMAN REQUIEM. show less
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I recently had my "hardboiled detective fiction"-deflowering with Raymond Chandler's 'Farewell, my lovely' and it left me hankering for more. I confess, I could have fired up my browser, clicked a few times and had ten more examples of the genre in my possession within the week, but I prefer to stumble upon my books rather that purposefully order them. And so it was with great pleasure that I bought Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir, containing not one but three prime examples. Not only that, but it also satisfied my other literary kink: alternate history and/or urban fantasy set in or around WWII.
The combination sounds odd. I mean, the hardboiled detective immediately brings images of rainy American streets, dank alleyways and the show more ever-present saxophone soundtrack. You wouldn't immediately think: hey, this would work just fine if it were set in 1930s Germany. Or perhaps you would, but I didn't. The thing is, it doesn't just work, it soars. It confiscates a space shuttle and draws a swastika on the moon, so to speak.
Kerr's protagonist Bernhard (Bernie) Gunther is as fallible as they come, a bleeding heart on the dark sliding incline of German society in the late thirties. He keeps his word, he has a weak spot for the ladies and he can't abide by injustice. All the trappings of your classic gumshoe and yet he still feels like a fresh take. Kerr then blends this classic and tragic antihero with very real figures in the history of the Third Reich. People like Arthur Nebe, Reinhard Heydrich, Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler. The plots he weaves kept me guessing for quite a while before I finally figured out whodunnit.
As I said on FB while I was reading these three books in one: this needs to be a movie. And it needs to be a good one or so help me god. show less
The combination sounds odd. I mean, the hardboiled detective immediately brings images of rainy American streets, dank alleyways and the show more ever-present saxophone soundtrack. You wouldn't immediately think: hey, this would work just fine if it were set in 1930s Germany. Or perhaps you would, but I didn't. The thing is, it doesn't just work, it soars. It confiscates a space shuttle and draws a swastika on the moon, so to speak.
Kerr's protagonist Bernhard (Bernie) Gunther is as fallible as they come, a bleeding heart on the dark sliding incline of German society in the late thirties. He keeps his word, he has a weak spot for the ladies and he can't abide by injustice. All the trappings of your classic gumshoe and yet he still feels like a fresh take. Kerr then blends this classic and tragic antihero with very real figures in the history of the Third Reich. People like Arthur Nebe, Reinhard Heydrich, Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler. The plots he weaves kept me guessing for quite a while before I finally figured out whodunnit.
As I said on FB while I was reading these three books in one: this needs to be a movie. And it needs to be a good one or so help me god. show less
Bernard Gunther is an imperfect man in a far from perfect world. As a skilled detective he tries to solve crimes in a newly Nazified Germany only to find that at every turn he comes up against corruption. Speaking out against the regime is increasingly dangerous and Gunther is increasingly led to compromise with the evil around him. In A German Requiem he discovers that even an Allied victory is not sufficient to destroy Nazism. The Western powers are too busy turning against the Soviets to complete the job of hunting down war criminals, especially those who have convincingly faked their own deaths. Intriguing stories with a convincing portrayal of a society fun by fear and threats.
Having recently read and enjoyed Kerr's 2016 "The Other Side of Silence" which stars his detective protagonist, Bernie Günther, I decided to go back to the beginning of the series. Berlin Noir is an omnibus of the first three novels: "March Violets" and "The Pale Criminal" are set just before WW2, and "A German Requiem" just after. They were published 26 years ago and there are now 11 books in the series. The plots are complex, twisted and demand something of the reader (but I like that). The violence feels gratuitous, but then I get the impression these were gratuitously violent days. So it doesn't ring hollow. Kerr wants to spice it up with sexual dalliances, the descriptions of which sometimes border on the silly (but these are show more early books). But the great attraction is reading stories as if from the Other Side. The hero is German, almost a Nazi, speaks Russian better than English (at least in these earlier stories), and looks out at the world with the sensibility of a wounded Berliner. If there is victory here, it is of the human spirit. show less
Review of A German Requiem:
Once again, Berlin private detective Bernie Gunther is up to his neck in grisly intrigue. In the first two books of Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir series, Gunther was a private eye in pre-WW2 Berlin, and his cases brought him into contact with an array of Nazi bigwigs. Now it is Berlin 1947, and the city is awash in ruins, black marketeers, American soldiers and, even worse, Russians. Gunther is hired to try to clear a former friend and current black market operator (and who knows what else?) who is accused of shooting an American occupation officer. The case brings Gunther to Vienna. The twists and turns of the imaginative plot are entertaining, as are the characterizations. Not much in the way of strong women show more here, though, and I did find myself wishing Kerr could have laid off the forced hard-boiled detective story metaphors a bit. But overall this is a very enjoyable detective story set in a fascinating time and place. 3 1/2 stars. show less
Once again, Berlin private detective Bernie Gunther is up to his neck in grisly intrigue. In the first two books of Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir series, Gunther was a private eye in pre-WW2 Berlin, and his cases brought him into contact with an array of Nazi bigwigs. Now it is Berlin 1947, and the city is awash in ruins, black marketeers, American soldiers and, even worse, Russians. Gunther is hired to try to clear a former friend and current black market operator (and who knows what else?) who is accused of shooting an American occupation officer. The case brings Gunther to Vienna. The twists and turns of the imaginative plot are entertaining, as are the characterizations. Not much in the way of strong women show more here, though, and I did find myself wishing Kerr could have laid off the forced hard-boiled detective story metaphors a bit. But overall this is a very enjoyable detective story set in a fascinating time and place. 3 1/2 stars. show less
I'm reading it again. I'll check in with you and let you know how Herr Bernard Guenther, our favorite German PI is doing.
**Update**
I'll be showing my age with this, but I last read this 26 years ago. I picked it back up, as I wanted to read the whole series (Read a few) from start to finish. So, Berlin Noir. Three of the Bernie Guenther books packed into one.
March Violets: Doktor Sixx hires Bernie to find the murderer of his daughter Grete and husband Paul. Bernie gets into all kinds of the master race bullshit. Dead bodies, gangsters, and Jesse Owens triumphing at the Olympics are just a bit of what went down. I give it four stars.
The Pale Criminal: It's now 1938, and in the middle of a sweltering summer. Bernie is called on to show more investigate a series of murders involving young German girls. Guenther is under extreme pressure by the Nazi party to solve them before they are exposed to the public. I would say that this was my favorite story. Five stars.
A German Requiem: Following the fall of Hitler's Germany, Guenther is requested by an old acquaintance in Vienna for assistance. Bernie must get him off the hook for the murder of an American Captain. This story sprinkles all over the place with a pretty detailed yarn and "Chocolady's." Very solid. I say maybe 4.5. I guess, overall four stars.
If you like Phillip Marlowe or Sam Spade, Guenther is your guy. I'm ready to get lost in the remaining books. Herr Guenther is a bad mofo. show less
**Update**
I'll be showing my age with this, but I last read this 26 years ago. I picked it back up, as I wanted to read the whole series (Read a few) from start to finish. So, Berlin Noir. Three of the Bernie Guenther books packed into one.
March Violets: Doktor Sixx hires Bernie to find the murderer of his daughter Grete and husband Paul. Bernie gets into all kinds of the master race bullshit. Dead bodies, gangsters, and Jesse Owens triumphing at the Olympics are just a bit of what went down. I give it four stars.
The Pale Criminal: It's now 1938, and in the middle of a sweltering summer. Bernie is called on to show more investigate a series of murders involving young German girls. Guenther is under extreme pressure by the Nazi party to solve them before they are exposed to the public. I would say that this was my favorite story. Five stars.
A German Requiem: Following the fall of Hitler's Germany, Guenther is requested by an old acquaintance in Vienna for assistance. Bernie must get him off the hook for the murder of an American Captain. This story sprinkles all over the place with a pretty detailed yarn and "Chocolady's." Very solid. I say maybe 4.5. I guess, overall four stars.
If you like Phillip Marlowe or Sam Spade, Guenther is your guy. I'm ready to get lost in the remaining books. Herr Guenther is a bad mofo. show less
Bernie Gunther is a 1930s Berlin cop, then a house detective for a major Berlin hotel, then a private investigator, then a cop again, then in the SS, then a private investigator again. I haven’t read all these books so I don’t know what happens to Bernie in between these careers. However, the ones I have read ( If the Dead Rise Not and the Berlin Noir trilogy) seem gritty and realistic. Author Philip Kerr is from Scotland but the ambiance of prewar Germany, postwar Vienna and pre-Communist Cuba all seem believable.
Gunther is a reasonably honest cop and a reasonably honest German, and is therefore conflicted enough by the rise of Hitler and Nazism to resign from the Berlin Kripo when things start to go bad. His investigations force show more him now and then to work with the likes of Goering and Heydrich, but he’s not enthused about it; when he is later more or less drafted into the SS he successfully applies for a transfer to a combat unit rather than remain in an police unit that’s busy killing Jews. His investigations sometimes seem a little too facile; crucial information falls into his lap and there are seemingly unrelated crimes that end up being tied together (but they advance the story). In the tradition of American pulp detectives, just about every woman Bernie encounters is a knockout who falls into his bed when the opportunity presents – probably a bit more often than actually happened in 1930s Germany. Then again when things are going to hell around them humans do have a tendency to seek solace in bed; I remember reading about an immense increase in sexual activity among the Russians during the “purge trials” in the 1930s so maybe it’s realistic.
[SPOILERS FOLLOW]
Most of Bernie’s cases end poorly by his standards; he can’t save the persecuted or see justice done – unless he sidesteps justice; he’s not adverse to the summary execution of an SS doctor involved in serial killings who he knows will be turned loose if he lets him go, and the later murder of a Havana mob boss. I know next to nothing about 1930s Berlin slang; Kerr’s use (a cop is a “bull”, a criminal is a “spinner”, a prostitute is a “snapper”, a handgun is a “lighter”) seems OK. I find no egregious errors in history or technology (at one point Bernie carries a “9mm Mauser” sidearm as a detective, which seems rather clumsy, even if it’s a Red 9 Bolo; at another he watches a “mechanized division” parade through the streets of Berlin in 1938, although the Wehrmacht didn’t have any “mechanized” divisions then (there were Panzer divisions in 1938, and motorized (not mechanized) divisions, and “light” divisions, but nothing corresponding to the Western idea of a “mechanized” division.) OTOH, when Bernie uses a silenced revolver, it’s a M1895 Nagant, about the only revolver you can put a silencer on and expect it to work; and in 1948 Vienna while investigating on behalf of an old acquaintance who’s a black marketer and involved in a complicated mystery, Bernie comes a film crew making (although the title isn’t given it’s clear what the movie is) The Third Man, which is about a man who gets involved on behalf of an old acquaintance who’s a black marketer and involved in a complicated mystery.
Have to read the rest of these; Bernie has more adventures on the Russian front and in South America. Recommended but not if you’re in the mood for something cheery and uplifting. show less
Gunther is a reasonably honest cop and a reasonably honest German, and is therefore conflicted enough by the rise of Hitler and Nazism to resign from the Berlin Kripo when things start to go bad. His investigations force show more him now and then to work with the likes of Goering and Heydrich, but he’s not enthused about it; when he is later more or less drafted into the SS he successfully applies for a transfer to a combat unit rather than remain in an police unit that’s busy killing Jews. His investigations sometimes seem a little too facile; crucial information falls into his lap and there are seemingly unrelated crimes that end up being tied together (but they advance the story). In the tradition of American pulp detectives, just about every woman Bernie encounters is a knockout who falls into his bed when the opportunity presents – probably a bit more often than actually happened in 1930s Germany. Then again when things are going to hell around them humans do have a tendency to seek solace in bed; I remember reading about an immense increase in sexual activity among the Russians during the “purge trials” in the 1930s so maybe it’s realistic.
[SPOILERS FOLLOW]
Most of Bernie’s cases end poorly by his standards; he can’t save the persecuted or see justice done – unless he sidesteps justice; he’s not adverse to the summary execution of an SS doctor involved in serial killings who he knows will be turned loose if he lets him go, and the later murder of a Havana mob boss. I know next to nothing about 1930s Berlin slang; Kerr’s use (a cop is a “bull”, a criminal is a “spinner”, a prostitute is a “snapper”, a handgun is a “lighter”) seems OK. I find no egregious errors in history or technology (at one point Bernie carries a “9mm Mauser” sidearm as a detective, which seems rather clumsy, even if it’s a Red 9 Bolo; at another he watches a “mechanized division” parade through the streets of Berlin in 1938, although the Wehrmacht didn’t have any “mechanized” divisions then (there were Panzer divisions in 1938, and motorized (not mechanized) divisions, and “light” divisions, but nothing corresponding to the Western idea of a “mechanized” division.) OTOH, when Bernie uses a silenced revolver, it’s a M1895 Nagant, about the only revolver you can put a silencer on and expect it to work; and in 1948 Vienna while investigating on behalf of an old acquaintance who’s a black marketer and involved in a complicated mystery, Bernie comes a film crew making (although the title isn’t given it’s clear what the movie is) The Third Man, which is about a man who gets involved on behalf of an old acquaintance who’s a black marketer and involved in a complicated mystery.
Have to read the rest of these; Bernie has more adventures on the Russian front and in South America. Recommended but not if you’re in the mood for something cheery and uplifting. show less
Collection of three novels about Bernie Gunther, a Berlin detective, working various mysteries during the 1930s and 40s. I greatly enjoyed the setting - I am not familiar enough with it to say whether or not it is entirely accurate to reality, but the author's portrayal was interesting to read. The stories were told entirely through Gunther's perspective, & I think he made for a compelling protagonist. While certainly not perfect, he had a strong sense of morals & a dry sense of humor. There were many other characters in these stories - so much so that I occasionally had trouble keeping track of them all. The stories themselves were often a bit heavy - this makes sense, given the setting, but could occasionally be somewhat difficult to show more read. However, I overall enjoyed this collection show less
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- Canonical title
- Berlin Noir
- Original title
- Berlin Noir (March Violets / The Pale Criminal / A German Requiem) (March Violets / The Pale Criminal / A German Requiem)
- Original publication date
- March Violets (1989) (1989); The Pale Criminal (1990) (1990); A German Requiem (1991) (1991)
- People/Characters
- Bernie Gunther
- Important places
- Berlin, Germany; Vienna, Austria
- Important events
- World War II
- Quotations
- You can tell a lot by a client's shoes. That's the only thing I've picked up from Sherlock Holmes.
"Wealth does have its obligations." So does an outside toilet, I thought.
I had seen bigger stones, but only in photographs of the pyramids.
That this goddess should be married to the gnome sitting in the study was the sort of thing that bolsters your faith in Money. Frau Six was tall and blonde and as healthy-looking as her husband's Swiss bank account. - Blurbers
- Rushdie, Salman
- Original language
- English
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Statistics
- Members
- 1,914
- Popularity
- 11,085
- Reviews
- 42
- Rating
- (4.13)
- Languages
- 9 — Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 27
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 14