A review by tuomosuominen
A German Requiem by Philip Kerr

5.0

"A German Requiem" is as great as the two previous books in the original trilogy, "March Violets" and "The Pale Criminal", although there's a nine year gap between books two and three, WWII has come and gone and the whole of Europe has been smashed to pieces. It's a twisting, dark story set in the ruins of Berlin and Vienna, with a fantastic gallery of German, Austrian, American and Russian characters of which hardly anyone turns out to be who they're supposed to be. In the story, Carol Reed’s The Third Man is being filmed in the ruins of Vienna. Watching the movie provided visuals to the book. A curious detail: in "A German Requiem", Gunther has been married for seven years, meaning he got married in 1940. I can't remember any mention of his wife in "Prague Fatale" (which is set in 1941) or "A Man Without Breath" (set in 1943). Now onwards to book 4 in the series, "The One From the Other" (set in 1949). I haven't been too pleased with books 8 and 9 which were published quite recently. Here's hoping that the original trilogy's spirit carries over the 15 year break it took to publish book 4.