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A review by michaelnlibrarian
A German Requiem by Philip Kerr
4.0
I have already read #1 and #2 from this detective series, as well as #7. I have decided it makes sense to make the (slight) effort to read these in order rather than jumping around.
It is impossible to know if there were Germans, Russians, or Americans who thought as the characters in this book (or his others) are described as doing but it doesn't seem impossible. This sort of detective fiction, with characters and a setting from a different country (or here, countries) than the author and set in the past is probably inaccurate in different ways that a native would object to, but the characters are good and the story is good. It seems Kerr goes to some trouble to base some aspect of the larger situation that the story takes place in on historical events.
The Bernie Gunther books are not police procedurals in the usual way - for one thing, usually he is acting as a detective, not part of the police, but also the characters mostly change from book to book - there isn't some continuing cast of characters to get to know (not so far, anyway). I think that makes it a little harder as a reader to get into each book, but it allows Kerr to set up widely different situations for each book. Each novel is entirely first person following around Bernie; there aren't any separate plot lines with other characters.
Book #1 the Bernie character had something of an almost snarky tone in parts but this eased up after the first book. I'm glad I gave the series a chance and have read more.
It is impossible to know if there were Germans, Russians, or Americans who thought as the characters in this book (or his others) are described as doing but it doesn't seem impossible. This sort of detective fiction, with characters and a setting from a different country (or here, countries) than the author and set in the past is probably inaccurate in different ways that a native would object to, but the characters are good and the story is good. It seems Kerr goes to some trouble to base some aspect of the larger situation that the story takes place in on historical events.
The Bernie Gunther books are not police procedurals in the usual way - for one thing, usually he is acting as a detective, not part of the police, but also the characters mostly change from book to book - there isn't some continuing cast of characters to get to know (not so far, anyway). I think that makes it a little harder as a reader to get into each book, but it allows Kerr to set up widely different situations for each book. Each novel is entirely first person following around Bernie; there aren't any separate plot lines with other characters.
Book #1 the Bernie character had something of an almost snarky tone in parts but this eased up after the first book. I'm glad I gave the series a chance and have read more.