Berlin Noir: March Violets, The Pale Criminal, A German Requiem (Bernie Gunther, 1-3)

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The first part, which is considerably longer than the second, takes place in Berlin in 1934, during the time that Bernie worked as a house detective at the Adlon Hotel. A German Requiem opens in 1947, in a devastated Berlin, Bernie is again a private detective living day to day and watching his wife romance US soldiers.

The first three in the Bernie Gunther series, March Violets, The Pale Criminal and A German Requiem are true crime classics that transport readers to the rotten heart of Nazi Berlin, and introduce the cynical, wise-cracking private eye who sought justice within it. The Olympic Games are about to start; some of Bernie's Jewish friends are beginning to realize that they should have left while they could; and Gunther himself has been hired to look into two murders that reach high into the Nazi Party. Since then he has written and published ten universally lauded Bernie Gunther novels, and is currently working on his eleventh. They are also a lot of fun with plenty of wisecracks and knowing cultural references(Third Man and Casablanca among the allusions), but for those in love with neat, puzzle like mysteries and happy endings need to travel elsewhere as these are grim.

The woman is Noreen Charalambides (she of the matching sable hair and coat), a Jewish American journalist whom Bernie meets through Hedda Adlon. The Berlin Noir trilogy is wholly true to the classic genre popularized by Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

The mysteries are first-rate hard-boiled stuff, with plenty of fistfights and other manly action, as well as twisting plots full of double-crosses and surprises.Having lived in Germany, and knowing how truly the majority of Germans regret the rise of the Nazis, it would be enlightening to understand exactly how they consolidated power. On a recent trip to the library, I saw that they were having a donated book sale - five for a dollar. Her hair, which she wore in a bun, was also sable-colored, and, I imagined, every bit as nice to stroke [as her sable coat].

But then he went freelance, and each case he tackled sucked him further into the grisly excesses of Nazi sub-culture.And at some point a black woman appears in the book (a maid of german lady) and you can feel how the main character does not think this person is equal to him. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. But the Berlin of Philip Kerr’s stories is a character in the books – a personality as complex and troubled as his private-investigator protagonist.