Rate this book

Berlin Noir: March Violets; The Pale Criminal; A German Requiem (1993)

by Philip Kerr(Favorite Author)

4.25 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Penguin

review 1: When I begin to feel like finishing a book is a chore, I know it is time to put it aside. I had read quite a few good reviews of this series, so it was quite a disappointment hat I really didn't care for it much. First of all, the first 2 books of the series are set in pre WW2 and wartime Nazi Germany. Although I learned some interesting things about life during the Nazi regime, in the end it was a little too much Nazi for me. As a writer, Kerr relies heavily on metaphors and many of them don't we really work. The mysteries at the core of these books as well as Bernie Gunther, the detective protagonist, never really grabbed me.
review 2: Besides being a brisk and entertaining read, these three great spy-slash-detective novels also offer a unique way to explore ... moreone of history's weirdest and most horrible societies: Nazi Germany in the lead up to WWII. All the usual elements of a good noir are here -- sex, cynicism, rainy streets, deadly puzzle pieces, guns, and good suits -- this time set against the massive and sinister backdrop of humanity's most important historical event. The main character, Bernie Gunther, serves as our unsteady moral compass in a decidedly amoral time (the first two books go from 1936 to 1939, and then pick up in 1948 for Book 3) as he gets mixed up not only with local police and hoodlums, but the Gestapo, the SS, and, eventually, much bigger and more powerful institutions, as well. They take unexpected, unsentimental turns and, even if the last installment wraps up more neatly than I might have preferred, you could hardly blame author Philip Kerr for giving 800-plus pages of ambiguity something more solid to lean against in the end. less

Download links for: Berlin Noir: March Violets; The Pale Criminal; A German Requiem

Advertising