Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Paladin

(28,724 posts)
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 12:56 PM Apr 2013

Anybody familiar with Phillip Kerr's novels, featuring Bernie Gunther?


I'm reading the latest one, "A Man Without Breath," and I'm impressed.

The setting is wartime Berlin, 1943. Bernie Gunther is a police detective, trying to solve murders and stay alive, while dealing with problems from the Gestapo and Goebbels' propaganda ministry. Dark, sardonic stuff; imagine a detective story, set in that "Cabaret" nightclub. My favorite passage, so far, discussing the dysfunctional remnants of the justice system in Germany:

"By the winter of 1943, you found your laughs where you could, and I don't know how else to describe a situation in which you can have an army corporal hanged for the rape and murder of a Russian peasant girl in one village that's only a few kilometers from another village where an SS special action group has just murdered twenty-five thousand men, women and children."

Tough, well-written stuff.
3 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Anybody familiar with Phillip Kerr's novels, featuring Bernie Gunther? (Original Post) Paladin Apr 2013 OP
Love those books MountainLaurel Apr 2013 #1
I'll probably read more of this series. Paladin Apr 2013 #2
"A Man Without Breath": No.13 on this week's NY Times Best Seller list..... (nt) Paladin May 2013 #3

MountainLaurel

(10,271 posts)
1. Love those books
Tue Apr 30, 2013, 03:44 PM
Apr 2013

I've got Prague Fatale checked out of the library right now.

Have you read Alan Furst's spy novels from the same period?

Latest Discussions»Culture Forums»Fiction»Anybody familiar with Phi...