A Quiet Flame

by Philip Kerr
386 pgs  (Bernie Gunther series #5)

A Quiet Flame is the fifth book in Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series, a series I started reading 11 years ago, but one that for some reason, I've allowed six years to pass since I last read a book in it. It features Bernie Gunther, a German police detective and current private investigator, who served as an SS Officer in Dachau during WWII. He's led a complicated life, due in part to his sympathies for the Jews and his opposition to the Nazi party, even while he served as an officer in it.

As the book begins, Bernie leaves Germany for Argentina in 1950, where he's seeking exile from his home country. But it doesn't take long for his past to begin playing a role in his present once again. His reputation as one of the best homicide detectives in Germany becomes known to the authorities in Buenos Aires, and he soon finds himself recruited to help in the investigation of the murder of a 15-year-old girl. The murder bears a striking resemblance to two unsolved murders Bernie investigated in Berlin back in 1932. So, Bernie begins investigating other Germans now living in Argentina, specifically, those who played an active role in the atrocities of the War.

Bernie's investigation uncovers dark secrets in Argentina, and not just those being hidden by the former Nazi officers who fled there. High-ranking officials in Argentina also have secrets they're willing to kill to protect, and Bernie's investigation threatens them.

A Quiet Flame is another solid book in the series. It was a good reminder to me of why I started reading the series in the first place, and it also encouraged me to read the next book, sooner rather than later.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Prayer

by Philip Kerr
409 pgs

Gil Martins is an FBI agent in Houston who works in the Bureau's domestic terrorism unit, investigating cases of extremism and domestic terrorism. Gil grew up a Catholic in Ireland but now considers himself a staunch atheist. A transition that has alienated him from his wife and young son.

Now, dealing with the recent separation from his family and a career path that seems to have stagnated, Gil has his core beliefs (or lack of beliefs) shaken as he begins investigating the deaths of several prominent and vocal atheists across the country. Each one died in a unique and seemingly unconnected way. But while investigating them he listens to the confession of a woman who claims to have been involved in killing each one using the power of prayer.

Is there truly power in prayer? And if so, is it feasible that that power could be used for anything other than good? That's the premise of Kerr's first standalone novel in many years.

I really wanted to like this book when I began reading it. It started strong and looked promising for about the first two thirds of the story. Then the wheels fell off and the story degenerated into a disappointing farce. By the end it seemed more like Kerr was intentionally just trying to be controversial rather than authoring a mystery novel.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Hitler's Peace

by Philip Kerr
448 pgs



In the winter of 1943 Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in Teheran to discuss the war efforts. With the Allied forces having won key victories over Hitler recently, it was becoming obvious that they

would eventually win the war and the Big Three were meeting to discuss the opening up of a second front to the west of Germany as well as their eventual post-war plans for Europe.

Philip Kerr takes the events leading up to that conference, along with the meeting itself, and uses them as a backdrop for his alternative history story of espionage, backdoor politics, and an attempt by an SS general to assassinate the Big Three. 

 

Just as I have with some of his other books, I found Hitler's Peace just good enough to keep me interested and reading on, but never so good as to suck me in and lose myself in the story. Kerr seams content to move his stories along at a meandering pace most of the time. His characters, both the fictional and non-fictional ones in this story lack any real depth and likeability. I'd recommend the book primarily to those with a strong interested in WWII history, as it does offer up a fairly interesting alternative version of one of its key events, but not to those looking for a compelling read that will keep you up late at night eagerly turning pages.  

 

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The One from the Other

The One from the Other by Philip Kerr

Before I had ever picked up one of Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther books, I had read and enjoyed all of his stand-alone books. It's probably a good thing it happened that way. The first three books featuring the acerbic private investigator Bernie Gunther were interesting, but not that entertaining. If I had started with them, I probably would have quite reading Kerr awhile ago.

It'd been fifteen years since the last Gunther book by the time The One from the Other came out and I think the hiatus was good for the series. This one is noticeably better and I enjoyed it much more. There are four more books already published, and another set for 2013 and thanks to this one, I'm looking forward to reading each of them. I've also heard that Tom Hanks has been trying to acquire the rights to the books for an HBO series.

This one begins in Germany in 1949 and finds Bernie a broken and defeated man. His wife has been hospitalized following a nervous breakdown and Bernie has given up the PI business to run his late-father-in-law's hotel in Dachau. One night two America officers stop by the hotel and and set off a series of events that bring Gunther back to his old self.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

A German Requiem

A German Requiem by Philip Kerr

In this his third book featuring Bernie Gunther, the ex-Police Officer, now private investigator, Philip Kerr picks up a few years after the conclusion of The Pale Criminal. World War II has ended and Germany is now the occupied country. Germans are having to deal with the different zones controled by The United States, England, the Soviet Union, and France. On top of that, a new kind of war is simmering, the Cold War. And the Soviets have begun the process of isolating the eastern zone under their control.

Amidst this new climate, Bernie Gunther has been hired to try to find the true killer of an American soldier. The story is a typical crime mystery and as I said when I reviewed its predecessor, Gunther is not the most endearing protagonist in the genre. But Kerr's way of describing that part of the world during such a dark period in history keeps me continually intrigued with this series.

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

The Pale Criminal

The Pale Criminal by Philip Kerr

The Pale Criminal is the second book in Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy that he wrote back in the late '80s and early '90s. The trilogy features Bernie Gunther, a former cop who now makes a living as a private detective in Germany in the late 1930s. After writing these first three books, Kerr changed direction and showed his range by writing several stand-alone novels in the genres of science fiction, historical fiction, and thriller. In 2006 he returned to his beginnings and has since written four more books featuring Gunther.

Young girls are going missing and later turning up dead and brutalized in Berlin. None of the victims have been Jewish and all of them fit the Aryan stereotype tauted by Hitler's regime as the master race. Bernie Gunther, is forced back into working for the German police by the SS because the case surrounding the missing girls seems to be leading nowhere.

Gunther is an intriguing character. He's crass, politically incorrect, and has his vices. But underlying those characteristics is a man who will take any steps necessary in order to see that the guilty are punished, whether they're a Nazi or a Jew, and that the innocent are protected regardless of who they are as well.

The plot is gritty and at times a little slow in unfolding. But it does an excellent job of creating the type of atmosphere I would imagine existed in Germany at that time in history. I enjoyed it but would not recommend it to those of a sensitive nature.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆