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A review by ridgewaygirl
Field Grey by Philip Kerr
3.0
Philip Kerr wrote a brilliant trilogy published in an omnibus edition as Berlin Noir about a detective in the hardboiled tradition. Bernie Gunther had a talent for witty banter that got him punched more often than not, an independent spirit and an eye for the ladies. The twist? Bernie lived and worked in Berlin in the 1930s and 40s, where survival often depended on one's ability to toe the line and no one's hands were clean.
He smiled without smiling--the sort of expression a snake has when it opens its mouth to swallow something whole. He was smaller than me, but he had the ambitious look of a man who might eventually swallow something larger than himself.
Field Gray is the seventh installment in the Bernie Gunther series. It's different from the earlier books, which concentrated on single cases or discrete series of events, and can be read as a stand alone novel. It takes Bernie from Cuba in 1954, back to the days of World War II and beyond, as Bernie tries to survive the attentions of everyone from General Heydrich to the CIA, from Paris in 1940 to a Soviet prison camp.
While the scope of the story is larger than before, Kerr still writes with his characteristically noir style. The plot, however, has grown in scope and intricacy. It's a ride as fast and as twisty as a roller coaster.
He smiled without smiling--the sort of expression a snake has when it opens its mouth to swallow something whole. He was smaller than me, but he had the ambitious look of a man who might eventually swallow something larger than himself.
Field Gray is the seventh installment in the Bernie Gunther series. It's different from the earlier books, which concentrated on single cases or discrete series of events, and can be read as a stand alone novel. It takes Bernie from Cuba in 1954, back to the days of World War II and beyond, as Bernie tries to survive the attentions of everyone from General Heydrich to the CIA, from Paris in 1940 to a Soviet prison camp.
While the scope of the story is larger than before, Kerr still writes with his characteristically noir style. The plot, however, has grown in scope and intricacy. It's a ride as fast and as twisty as a roller coaster.