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varunob's review against another edition
2.0
In Smolensk, Russia, some twenty kilometres from the city centre, there is a forest that goes by the name of Katyn. Those interested in the Second World War will know Katyn’s significance; for those who might not, the forest is the site where the Soviet intelligence agency the NKVD executed approximately twenty-two thousand Poles (armed forces personnel, government officials, aristocrats, and civilians) in the summer of 1940. Three years later, when the area was under the Nazis as a result of the gains made during Operation Barbarossa, the Reich announced the discovery of the mass graves. The USSR immediately heaped the blame on the Nazis. And didn’t take kindly to an International Red Cross Commission investigation being conducted in the matter. At the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials in 1945-46, the Soviets tried and failed to punish the Nazis in the dock for Katyn. Half a century later, as the USSR crumbled, Soviet responsibility for the mass murder in Katyn was acknowledged for the first time.
The late Philip Kerr chose, for Bernie Gunther’s ninth adventure, the backdrop of the discovery of the mass graves in Katyn. A Man Without Breath sees Bernie dispatched by Minister for Propaganda Joseph Goebbels to investigate the mass graves and prove the involvement of the Soviets, which would wreck the Allied alliance.
As is Bernie’s penchant, he can’t help but stick his finger in another pie – the Hitler assassination plot by aristocratic Prussian Wehrmacht officers. After he averts one that is about to go horribly wrong, he becomes pally with a couple of the conspirators, an association that links him indirectly with Abwehr chief Admiral Wilhelm Canaris.
At the same time as Bernie’s investigation, bodies start to pile up (as they do in all the novels of the series), and Bernie decides to stick his finger into this pie as well.
The first thought that comes to mind about AMWB is that it’s a bulky piece of work. Reading it is no sprint either, and though the details are interesting and Kerr’s style keeps you engaged for the most part, one does find it tiring to wait for the novel to get going. It’s also the first time I found the ending very unconvincing for a Bernie Gunther novel. Yes, the climaxes usually require a fair amount of suspension of logic, but not to this scale. All in all, despite the setting and some of the fun parts, a disappointment of a novel.
The late Philip Kerr chose, for Bernie Gunther’s ninth adventure, the backdrop of the discovery of the mass graves in Katyn. A Man Without Breath sees Bernie dispatched by Minister for Propaganda Joseph Goebbels to investigate the mass graves and prove the involvement of the Soviets, which would wreck the Allied alliance.
As is Bernie’s penchant, he can’t help but stick his finger in another pie – the Hitler assassination plot by aristocratic Prussian Wehrmacht officers. After he averts one that is about to go horribly wrong, he becomes pally with a couple of the conspirators, an association that links him indirectly with Abwehr chief Admiral Wilhelm Canaris.
At the same time as Bernie’s investigation, bodies start to pile up (as they do in all the novels of the series), and Bernie decides to stick his finger into this pie as well.
The first thought that comes to mind about AMWB is that it’s a bulky piece of work. Reading it is no sprint either, and though the details are interesting and Kerr’s style keeps you engaged for the most part, one does find it tiring to wait for the novel to get going. It’s also the first time I found the ending very unconvincing for a Bernie Gunther novel. Yes, the climaxes usually require a fair amount of suspension of logic, but not to this scale. All in all, despite the setting and some of the fun parts, a disappointment of a novel.
sunsoar25's review against another edition
3.0
I've never read any of the other Bernie Gunther novels, but this one sounded good and I won a copy through the Goodreads First Reads program. The opening was excellent and so was the first half. It was palpably chilling and I turned the pages like there was no tomorrow. The second half of the book was still very good, but there were a few aspects that caused the story to drag and tonal not quite match up with the first half. The ending seemed to come much too quickly as well, if you read it you'll see what I mean.
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