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johnlway's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
sebren's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
muggsyspaniel's review against another edition
3.0
In all honesty I probably wouldn't have read this particular book had I not had the collected trilogy edition. The first two didn't do it enough for me to have forked out for an additional book but as I had it anyway I reasoned I may as well see how the trilogy ends.
Unfortunately I felt the quality dipped slightly from the second, all three books are 3 stars but this was a low 3. The occasional references to Carol Reed's The Third Man didn't help. The Third Man showed exactly how a late 40's, Vienna set thriller should be done and reading A German Requiem made me want to watch The Third Man more than it made me want to finish A German Requiem. That's not to say it wasn't a tightly plotted thriller with good moments just like it's predecessors, it's just that much of it seemed forced. Bernie, despite all his woes, is still a wise cracking detective which lessened the impact of the descriptions of post war life in Germany/Austria. And those sex scenes still keep turning up the corners of the pages like a stale pub sandwich. Oh and that reminds me, there are still a load of those annoying Chandler inspired similes shoehorned in like so many calloused heels...
I think from now on Bernie Gunther is going to have to get along without me.
Unfortunately I felt the quality dipped slightly from the second, all three books are 3 stars but this was a low 3. The occasional references to Carol Reed's The Third Man didn't help. The Third Man showed exactly how a late 40's, Vienna set thriller should be done and reading A German Requiem made me want to watch The Third Man more than it made me want to finish A German Requiem. That's not to say it wasn't a tightly plotted thriller with good moments just like it's predecessors, it's just that much of it seemed forced. Bernie, despite all his woes, is still a wise cracking detective which lessened the impact of the descriptions of post war life in Germany/Austria. And those sex scenes still keep turning up the corners of the pages like a stale pub sandwich. Oh and that reminds me, there are still a load of those annoying Chandler inspired similes shoehorned in like so many calloused heels...
I think from now on Bernie Gunther is going to have to get along without me.
jmeston's review against another edition
4.0
So interesting to rejoin Bernie after the war. Having picked up fluent Russian and Catholicism. Some of the violence made me gasp/wince. Belinsky was particularly intriguing. As was the afterword.
jlmb's review against another edition
3.0
The third in the Bernie Gunther series and far less appealing than the first two books. The third book occurs in 1947, nearly 10 years after the second book. That's quite a gap in the narrative. The reader learns near the beginning of the book a condensed version of Gunther's last 10 years - joining the SS under duress, requesting a transfer to the Eastern Front once he realized how sweeping the mass murders of the final solution were, being captured by the Russians & sent to a POW camp, escaping the camp & making it back to Berlin just as the war is ending. Oh yeah, and apparently he got married at some point. I found it very discombobulating as a reader to suddenly be following a markedly different main character than the one I had last read about. I would have preferred if the author had continued his series in a more linear fashion. Certainly there was enough material! Maybe the author just couldn't wait to start writing about the German reconstruction?
The plot of this book is also markedly different than the first two. While the others were more traditional mysteries with a small dose of creepy Nazism thrown into the mix, this book read more like a John Le Carre thriller - and I don't much care for John Le Carre thrillers. A very convoluted plot about American, German & Russian spies in Vienna. The "mystery" for Bernie consisted of finding out why an ex colleague had been framed for the murder of an American soldier. Eh. Ok. I'd care more if it was a friend of Bernie's, rather than a jerky ex-cop who had committed terrible atrocities on the eastern front. I honestly didn't care why he was framed and the conclusion of the book was just sort of blah for me.
I still haven't totally given up on this series since the first two were so good. I'll just take a bit of a break and read some other books and then go back to Gunther once the disappointment of this book lessens in my mind.
The plot of this book is also markedly different than the first two. While the others were more traditional mysteries with a small dose of creepy Nazism thrown into the mix, this book read more like a John Le Carre thriller - and I don't much care for John Le Carre thrillers. A very convoluted plot about American, German & Russian spies in Vienna. The "mystery" for Bernie consisted of finding out why an ex colleague had been framed for the murder of an American soldier. Eh. Ok. I'd care more if it was a friend of Bernie's, rather than a jerky ex-cop who had committed terrible atrocities on the eastern front. I honestly didn't care why he was framed and the conclusion of the book was just sort of blah for me.
I still haven't totally given up on this series since the first two were so good. I'll just take a bit of a break and read some other books and then go back to Gunther once the disappointment of this book lessens in my mind.
speesh's review against another edition
4.0
A German Requiem felt the most subtly complex and thoughtful of the three (so far) in the Bernie Gunther series. Actually the third in the series, and more often than not sold in a trilogy with March Violets and The Pale Criminal, it actually feels a little like a summing up, as if it could well have been the final book in a trilogy if he didn’t get the go-ahead to carry on. I found it gelled very well with another book about the period just after the Second World War I was reading at the time, called Savage Continent. Not as savage as some of the stuff in that, it does recreate the feeling there must have been about at the time very well indeed as far as I can see. The story seems more of an overview of the situation many Germans and many in Europe found themselves in at the time (I’ll rule out Great Britain from this, as the threat of Nazis left behind and/or Communist take-over from the East was not really a major concern in Birmingham B31, where my family were at the time). But the feeling of uncertainly there must have been, comes over well. Of hoping for the best, but realising you did that before the war and look what happened there. Of wanting to get rid of the old Nazi system, but maybe thinking that at least that was better than what the Russians had on offer. All comes over very well.
There are - again - a few too many, too forced similes (I have no idea how many were common currency at the time, I’m guessing he’s researched it appropriately enough). Yes, I’ll go along with that they were used during the period, but not all in the same sentence or paragraph. Gets a bit "get on with it!” Fortunately, while being mostly the perpetrator of these sins against understanding, Bernie Gunther manages to come out of it as a really strong, admirable character. Exactly as I guess Kerr wants him to be. The sudden fast forward to 1947 is a little confusing sometimes at the start. I had a ponder a few times as to why he didn’t go into Gunther’s wartime exploits. I came up with - that they would have been largely what has been done and described many times (in other books) before. And too limiting, if he set out in black and white what Gunther got up to, it would be hard to drag in things from his wartime past, in future novels (of which there are many). Some of what happens does get revealed when appropriate and it all feels right and proper doing it that way.
I’ve grown to like and respect Bernie Gunther more and more as the series goes on. I'm not saying this is going to beat David Downing's series, but it's coming very close.
All this and more: Speesh Reads
There are - again - a few too many, too forced similes (I have no idea how many were common currency at the time, I’m guessing he’s researched it appropriately enough). Yes, I’ll go along with that they were used during the period, but not all in the same sentence or paragraph. Gets a bit "get on with it!” Fortunately, while being mostly the perpetrator of these sins against understanding, Bernie Gunther manages to come out of it as a really strong, admirable character. Exactly as I guess Kerr wants him to be. The sudden fast forward to 1947 is a little confusing sometimes at the start. I had a ponder a few times as to why he didn’t go into Gunther’s wartime exploits. I came up with - that they would have been largely what has been done and described many times (in other books) before. And too limiting, if he set out in black and white what Gunther got up to, it would be hard to drag in things from his wartime past, in future novels (of which there are many). Some of what happens does get revealed when appropriate and it all feels right and proper doing it that way.
I’ve grown to like and respect Bernie Gunther more and more as the series goes on. I'm not saying this is going to beat David Downing's series, but it's coming very close.
All this and more: Speesh Reads
stevemozza's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
traveller1's review against another edition
4.0
A well written and solid detective story, set amidst the grim and harsh world of post-war Germany and Austria. Our hero is now a former Russian POW, eking out a marginal existence in the ruins of Berlin as, again, a private detective. Suddenly, he is offered a small fortune to prove that a former associate did not in fact murder a US officer. This case leads Gunther to Vienna, and a mess of intrigue, between the US and the Soviets, and his fellow Germans.
The story does suffer just a tad from the 'wrap it all up at the end, with lots of exposition' syndrome, but understandably so. I found the story depressing. The sense of loss and hopelessness of life in Europe at that time, with the background suffering of refugees and survivors, came through all to well. Recommended.
The story does suffer just a tad from the 'wrap it all up at the end, with lots of exposition' syndrome, but understandably so. I found the story depressing. The sense of loss and hopelessness of life in Europe at that time, with the background suffering of refugees and survivors, came through all to well. Recommended.
darwin8u's review against another edition
3.0
An obvious homage to Greene's [b:The Third Man|48800|The Third Man|Graham Greene|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1348591613s/48800.jpg|791313]. It was good Nazi noir, just not amazing.