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A review by sydsnot71
March Violets: A Bernie Gunther Novel by Philip Kerr
4.0
I enjoyed this.
It takes many of the tropes of the Hollywood noir and dumps them into Nazi Germany in 1936 so our hero’s principles are tainted by his realisation that he has to do little things - and big things - to carry on living in a society corrupted by the Nazis.
Berlin in 1936 is a city where people disappear and are never found again. Some of them are hiding, others have been swept away into the night and fog.
Bernie Gunther is an ex-cop turned Private Detective. He’s hired by a wealthy business man to track down some jewels stolen when his daughter and son-in-law were murdered. But, of course, there is more to it than that.
Bernie’s investigations get him involved with actresses, the Gestapo and the SS. He gets dragged into conversations with Goering and Heydrich. But still he plods on, finding out things others cannot find, getting thumped on the head and having sex with beautiful women.
It’s plot is suitably Byzantine, it’s characters compromised and corrupted and that makes it a superior entry into the canon of hard boiled detectives.
Definitely worth a read.
It takes many of the tropes of the Hollywood noir and dumps them into Nazi Germany in 1936 so our hero’s principles are tainted by his realisation that he has to do little things - and big things - to carry on living in a society corrupted by the Nazis.
Berlin in 1936 is a city where people disappear and are never found again. Some of them are hiding, others have been swept away into the night and fog.
Bernie Gunther is an ex-cop turned Private Detective. He’s hired by a wealthy business man to track down some jewels stolen when his daughter and son-in-law were murdered. But, of course, there is more to it than that.
Bernie’s investigations get him involved with actresses, the Gestapo and the SS. He gets dragged into conversations with Goering and Heydrich. But still he plods on, finding out things others cannot find, getting thumped on the head and having sex with beautiful women.
It’s plot is suitably Byzantine, it’s characters compromised and corrupted and that makes it a superior entry into the canon of hard boiled detectives.
Definitely worth a read.