Field Grey: A Bernie Gunther Mystery (Bernard Gunther, #7)

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Field Grey: A Bernie Gunther Mystery (Bernard Gunther #7)

4.01 of 5 stars 4.01 · rating details · 1,074 ratings · 166 reviews

'A man doesn't work for his enemies unless he has little choice in the matter.' So says Bernie Gunther. It is 1954 and Bernie is in Cuba. Tiring of his increasingly dangerous work spying on Meyer Lansky, Bernie acquires a boat and a beautiful companion and quits the island. But the US Navy has other ideas, and soon he finds himself in a place with which he is all too famil...more

Paperback, A Bernie Gunther novel, 384 pages

Published 2011 by Quercus (first published October 28th 2010)

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Apr 26, 2011 Jason rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: promotional-copy, 2011, reviewed

Field Gray is about the experiences of a Berlin police detective, Bernie Gunther, who becomes entangled in a web of espionage and deceit after being captured by the Red Army in 1945, serving hard time in a Russian POW camp, deflecting back to Germany, escaping to Cuba, being captured by the CIA, and finally being forced to serve for French Intelligence, which ultimately lands him back to his original starting point in Berlin in 1954. Sound interesting? Absolutely! And I felt this novel had such...more Field Gray is about the experiences of a Berlin police detective, Bernie Gunther, who becomes entangled in a web of espionage and deceit after being captured by the Red Army in 1945, serving hard time in a Russian POW camp, deflecting back to Germany, escaping to Cuba, being captured by the CIA, and finally being forced to serve for French Intelligence, which ultimately lands him back to his original starting point in Berlin in 1954. Sound interesting? Absolutely! And I felt this novel had such tremendous potential at the start, with Gunther hiding out in an exotic location (Havana) and being blackmailed into taking a mysterious woman (an undercover assassin!) on a boat to Haiti. But quite literally, the action ends there. And that is page 19. The next 300+ pages has Gunther in the hands of one set of interrogators or another, as he is captured before reaching Haiti. So the reader learns his backstory from 1931 through to the present (which is 1954) as he answers questions from whichever holding cell he happens to be in at the time. Therefore, most of the novel is a frame story in that sense. But the problem is, Gunther is just a leaf blowing in the wind. He makes no decisions regarding his own fate, and relates to his past experiences in such a way that there is very little room for the reader to feel emotionally connected to the character or his experiences. At one point, I just stopped caring what happens to him anymore. The last 50 pages finally becomes interesting again as Gunther gets himself involved in a plot to help the French capture a wanted traitor while simultaneously tricking them into helping the Americans capture their wanted criminal—a ruthless Stasi communist who regularly appears throughout Gunther’s backstory (and actually existed in real life). For the first time in the novel, Gunther finally does something. But to get there, you have to suffer through the rest, and that includes the introduction of countless names (I counted over 60 names in the first 100 pages), ninety percent of which have absolutely nothing to do with the course of the novel’s events. It just makes one feel disconnected to Gunther and his plight.

The good thing about this novel is that the author is actually an excellent writer. Lots of sharp humor, lots of wit. Gunther is a wise-cracking gem, and his retorts often evoke an internal giggle. It is also an historical novel in the sense that Gunther’s story takes place amidst events which seem to be depicted pretty accurately, from the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party through to the end of the War and the Nuremberg Trials. That is definitely interesting. But I think this is also supposed to be a spy thriller. Only, where is the thrill?(less)

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Mar 24, 2013 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mystery, noir, germany, russia, france, world-war-2, espionage, historical-fiction

I love the pitch perfect tone in this noir tale set largely in Germany over the period from the 30’s to the 50’s. If you define noir in terms of a cynical, loner detective hero who seeks justice in an environment of pervasive corruption, the lead character Bernie Gunther’s struggle to maintain some kind integrity as a homicide inspector amid the extremist forces of Nazi, Communist, and capitalist factions before, during, and after World War 2 puts this series in the position of classic noir in s...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Oh dear oh dear. Why do I put myself through it? Another gripping read about our old friend Bernie, who once again is in a hole and, owing to his capture by the Americans, has to relate his war time exploits. It was never going to be an easy read, I knew that. However when a book makes you look at your sons and wonder what kind of men they will grow into, then you know that it packs a hell of a punch.

There are some weaknesses, Bernie has to be uninvolved in the worst of the fighting and war crim...more

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Apr 23, 2011 Diane Wallis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've read at least 2 in the series and this was a welcome addition to March Violets and A German Requiem. Why haven't I read A Pale Criminal? I shall soon. Philip Kerr's novels about Bernie Gunther are perfect for those of us who love thrillers about Germany, the lead-up to WWII, the war itself and the aftermath. Both sides of the story are revealed and Gunther is hard-boiled, realistic and a good(ish) guy in the very best German tradition. Never a Nazi, he does object to the post-war American a...more

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May 12, 2012 Rob Kitchin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Field Grey is the seventh Bernie Gunther novel. In my view it’s one of the best crime series presently being written. The last book – If the Dead Rise Not – was probably the weakest book in the series (despite winning the CWA Ellis Peters award for historical crime fiction), but Field Grey is a real return to form. In fact, I think it’s the strongest of the seven. It is a big book linking together parts of Bernie’s life between 1931 and 1954 and a connected set of events and actors in Germany, F...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Ruth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-historical

C2010: It was refreshing to get back to a book that is so well written. Poor old Bernie – he really has been through the mill and is certainly no hero in the truest sense of the word. “I get like that myself at times: you’re born alone and you die alone and the rest of the time you are on your own.” In this particular episode, Bernie came across as the archetypical grumpy old man who is missing his home, “The sky was too blue and the cars too shiny: the sea was too much like glass and the banana...more

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Feb 25, 2012 KarenC rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to KarenC by: Edgar nomination

Shelves: better_than_tv, edgar_nominees_2012, historical_fiction, spies, suspense, police

Diappointed that I missed previous books in this series. Struck me as an "old fashioned" spy novel of the Cold War period. While central character Bernie Gunther is not a spy, he gets mixed up with several from all of the World War II allied countries plus Germany. The plot is a believeable recounting of Gunther's WWII history, trying to remain a police detective surrounded by military agendas and intrigues.
The time frame goes back and forth between Gunther's current predicament in 1954 and his...more

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Jun 30, 2011 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: heart-of-darkness, noir

He still tells a few jokes but by this point in this series he occupies a landscape so hellish that their about as warming as chuckles in the torture room, this series removes all pretensions of detective novel for a more extensive look and a reexamination of this period of history. The monstrosity of the French concentration camps (in place at the start of the war read Koestler’s Scum of the Earth), the idiotic and murderous insanity of Operation Barbarossa, the murderous onslaught of the Red A...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Graham Powell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bernie Gunther just wants to be left alone. Wanted for war crimes he didn't commit back in post-WWII Germany, forced to flee from Argentina after he discovers a few uncomfortable facts, he's now living under an assumed name in Cuba, splitting his time between the casinons and the bordellos. Even in Havana he can't find peace, as a secret policeman named Quevedo strong-arms him into turning informant.

So a little boat trip to Haiti seems like a good idea. Especially with a companion like Melba, be...more

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May 25, 2011 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-mainstream

Kerr, Philip. FIELD GRAY. (2011). ****.
This is Kerr’s latest episode in the espionage adventures of Bernie Gunther, a one-time detective in Nazi Germany. Gunther is the epitomy of the anti-hero. He was a detective on the Berlin police force from the early 1930s, but, except for a brief period in 1940, never believed in Hitler’s plan for a greater Germany and its 1,000-year Reich. The time is now 1954 and Bernie is working for a U.S. agency keeping tabs on Meyer Lansky and his interests in Cuba...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, mystery

I fell for Bernie Gunther (and Phillip Kerr) from the moment I started March Violets, and have been following Bernie's exploits ever since.Gunther is a man true only to himself and his own rather twisted morality, yet for some reason you can't help but like him. He is also a complete contradiction - an SS officer who despises the Nazis, a POW of the Russians who refuses to be cowed and a man with no qualms about double-dealing people he cares for to reach his own ends. This is especially true in...more

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Jan 10, 2012 Kurt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Is this the end of the Bernie Gunther series? I can't imagine there is any more ground to cover for this resourceful and well-traveled survivor of the decades surrounding WWII. Never a Nazi, not quite a hero, and too often the mission mule for a wide range of politically motivated honchos (and even some American, Cuban, and Argentinian gangsters), this man has seen it all. What could possibly be left for him to overcome? I enjoyed the story, but it bogged down a bit in the third quarter (lots of...more

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Nov 12, 2011 Ian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is my second Philip Kerr book after his science fiction novel which I liked but not nearly as much as this. Field Grey is just a fine historical thriller. I kept thinking about Alan Furst who I consider the master of pre-war thrillers which are notable for their detail and accuracy. Field Grey brings the same eye for detail and historical accuracy except that it is built around the central and recurring character, Bernie Gunther in Kerr's series of 1930's-1940's thrillers set mostly in Germ...more

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Apr 07, 2011 William Bentrim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Field Gray by Phillip Kerr

This is apparently the 7th Bernie Gunther novel. I haven’t read any of the others. This one deals with a pre-WWII vintage ex-policeman who is tangled in a web of duplicity that permeates Europe after WWII.

Bernie is awash in a sea of trouble that is primarily not of his making. He seems helpless to chart his own course in a world that was changed so dramatically before, after and during World War II. One of the more interesting things about this book is that it forces y...more Field Gray by Phillip Kerr

This is apparently the 7th Bernie Gunther novel. I haven’t read any of the others. This one deals with a pre-WWII vintage ex-policeman who is tangled in a web of duplicity that permeates Europe after WWII.

Bernie is awash in a sea of trouble that is primarily not of his making. He seems helpless to chart his own course in a world that was changed so dramatically before, after and during World War II. One of the more interesting things about this book is that it forces you to concede that as United States citizens, we are not always right or in the right. I clearly recall doing a paper on the Vietnam war back in 1965 time frame. We were told to have at least 10 sources and only two could be books authored by Americans. That was rather eye opening for a committed ROTC participant in 1965. I discovered that historically, Vietnam had been a quagmire for invaders for centuries. I also discovered that we were totally committed to repeating many of the same mistakes that were made by prior invaders. Invaders is used intentionally for that is apparently how the common people in Vietnam saw Americans.

This book re-ignites some of that skepticism. Bernie does not perceive the British, French or Americans as radically different than the Russians. This forces you to ponder your history. I’m reasonably well read and sadly much of what Bernie Gunther felt in this book could be substantiated.

Kerr writes a very thought provoking novel that is not overly entertaining. It is a good story, rather dark and overtly political. Political in that Kerr seems to have nothing good to say about any government. It does seem that all governments lie to both the world and to their own people. You just have to pick up the paper or log on to the web to be bombarded with deceit. I found the book depressing, not terribly enlightening but well worth reading. I also found that the book made me feel somewhat reassured that, at least, I live in a country whose government lies less to us than most. I am comfortable that is true in that no one in the government seems to be able to keep a secret so that has to inhibit rampant lying that has no consequences or at least I hope so.

I recommend the book.
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Apr 14, 2011 Zohar - ManOfLaBook.com rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

“Field Gray” by Philip Kerr is a fictional novel taking place alternatively between the 1931 and mid 1954, mostly in Berlin. The book is 7th novel starring Bernie Gunther.

The past of Bernie Gunther catches up with in 1954 Cuba while doing work for mobster boss Meyer Lansky. Even though this anti-Nazi PI survived the Nazi régime and a soviet POW camp it seems his history won’t leave him alone.

Landing in the US prison of Guantánamo and later in New York City, Bernie is interrogated by the FBI abo...more

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May 17, 2011 Elli rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biographical-fiction, germany, historical-fiction, international, intrigue, political, racial-overtones, world-war-2

It's not a spoiler to say that the book opens with it's protagonist leaving Cuba with a run-away wanted criminal whom he has been rather blackmailed to take along. It's been a give-and-through quite a number of this Bernie Gunther series. Well, he's caught pretty quickly and the book takes him and us through a number of prisons and his memories of various periods and places during the war and before detailed, for him it was a number of interrogators looking for his identification and spy service...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Bernie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ww2-crime-fiction

Philip Kerr’s hero Bernie Gunther has been living a very nice life in Cuba. His adventures always have him beholden to someone. They are invariably unscrupulous or is some shady police officer. He has a knack for finding these people. Or he somehow comes to their attention.
This time he has fallen foul of the Americans or Amis as he likes to call them. He finds himself coerced and doing someone else’s bidding.
The time span for this novel covers the period of 1930’s, through to 40’s and 50’s. Ker...more

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Sep 07, 2011 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bernie Gunther is an ex-Berlin cop, an honest cynic who was forced into the SS but never joined the Nazi Party. In fact, he hates Nazis and Communists equally. It's 1954 - Gunther is living quietly in Cuba, doing a little work for Meyer Lansky, when he is picked up by the U.S. Navy and lands in prison in Guantánamo. He's taken off to prison at Governor's Island in NYC to be interrogated, then to Landsberg Prison in Germany. In each prison he is questioned about his service in WWII, especially ab...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another in the series about Bernie Gunther, the Berlin detective during the Nazi era who was always a German but never a Nazi. In this episode, he is dealing with the Cold War aftermath in the 1950s and is essentially forced into working for the Americans to finger a man who was a murderer in the 30s and is now in charge of the East German secret police. There are no heroes here - spies and counterspies, people with good motives but bad methods, everyone is flawed. No one who was a German of any...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: colin-read

Many years ago I read and thoroughly enjoyed the Berlin Noir trilogy which introduced the world weary pre-war German detective Bernie Gunther. I went on to read other books by Philip Kerr, but it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I realised that he had resurrected Bernie Gunther for a new series of adventures, and so I am still catching up with the books. Field Grey finds Bernie still in Cuba in 1954, but not for long. Intercepted by the Americans he is spirited back to Europe where a comp...more

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May 06, 2012 Francis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Philip Kerr comes highly recommended, so being a natural sceptic I started this book with some trepidation.

Now, having read the book, I fully understand why so many have raved about this series and raved about the main character Bernie Gunther. His morality is shaped by his experience and in his case his experience is as an intelligence officer for the Germany during WWII. As a result, his soul is in constant conflict because his circumstances often pit morality and pragmatism in opposite corner...more

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Feb 08, 2011 Alistair rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i have read several of the bernie gunther novels and will probably read a few more because they are exciting , fast moving , full of wise cracks and seem historically accurate as well as full of atmosphere .
like the others this one is centred on nazi germany and WW11 and in fact is more spy thriller than crime thriller .
not quite as good as the Berlin trilogy which are the best gunther stories but with the same emphasis on the moral dilemmas faced by a good cop in a bad world , i particularly l...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Toni Osborne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Also published under the title “Field Grey”

Book 7 in the Bernie Gunther mystery series

In this story Bernie Gunther reflects on his past, the good the bad and the ugly. Trying to outrun his shadows has resulted in a lonely life; his personal and political associations have left him a man with a trouble conscience. This is one of Mr. Kerr’s darkest and most complex novels I have read so far.

In the prologue, set in 1950s Cuba, Bernie is living the good life under an assumed name when his life is ch...more Also published under the title “Field Grey”

Book 7 in the Bernie Gunther mystery series

In this story Bernie Gunther reflects on his past, the good the bad and the ugly. Trying to outrun his shadows has resulted in a lonely life; his personal and political associations have left him a man with a trouble conscience. This is one of Mr. Kerr’s darkest and most complex novels I have read so far.

In the prologue, set in 1950s Cuba, Bernie is living the good life under an assumed name when his life is chattered once again by a local policeman who questions his true identity. In haste, Bernie attempts to leave Cuba by boat however he is intercepted by an American patrol and is taken to Guantanamo Bay for interrogation by the CIA. The intense questioning forces Bernie to eventually reveal his past, his war time activities under Heydrich as an SS field officer and his pre-war association with Eric Mielke prove to be a gold mine of information for his interrogators. He is eventually flown to Berlin to face the music and is given a simple choice: work for the French intelligence or hang for murder. His task is to meet POW’s returning to Germany and finger one particular French war criminal he is familiar with. With this we learn of another period in Bernie’s past as a German POW in Russia and how it comes back to haunt him.

This seventh novel is set in Cuba, a Soviet POW camp, Paris and Berlin, it is a fast-paced and quick-action thriller. Bernie is portrayed as a pawn in a deadly game of espionage by various spy agencies of the Cold War era. The chapters are peppered with strategically placed flashbacks from 1931 to 1946, including events that occurred during the actual war years (all the other books took place before or after the war). Mr. Kerr paints a powerful picture of the struggles of the 1930s, the war and divided post-war Berlin.

“Field Gray” is a brilliantly written novel full of details, a mix of fast-talking, hardboiled crime and historical events delivered in Gunther’s ironically humorous monologue. I am a huge fan of Mr. Kerr’s ability to stir one’s emotions page after page and can only imagine what it must have been like to have lived during such a troubled time.(less)

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Mar 17, 2011 Evelyn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The most recent book (7th) in the Bernie Gunther series.

It's still 1954 (the year in which the last installment of the series ended) and Gunther is caught escaping from Cuba, trying to get away from the criminal syndicate he works for, and the Cuban intelligence officer who is trying to blackmail Gunther into acting as his spy within the syndicate. Gunther ends up in American hands (and an American jail), interrogated as a Nazi war criminal. I won't give anything away, but kudos to Kerr for kee...more

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Nov 09, 2011 John Gaynard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What saved the book for me was the way Kerr ranged over the whole German POW experience after WWII. At times, this did slow the plot down, but it provided the reader, who wishes to learn more about those terrible times, with important source material. The Nazis had it coming to them, for the bloodshed they brought to Eastern Europe, but Kerr's novel shows the terrible cost the whole German people paid for making a pact with the devil.

Some people have criticised Bernie Gunther's perceptions of th...more

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Oct 28, 2010 James rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, military-thriller

Another Bernie Gunther thriller. Love this series so it pains me to say that this one is really a little weak. The story starts with Bernie in Cuba and of course very soon getting into trouble with the authorities whereupon he is passed around different spy organizations over the next years with flashbacks to earlier times to provide background to the plot. The style remains chandlerish but found myself always constantly bemused by the story in part because the plot is complex but more because t...more

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Apr 22, 2011 Pam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First, 4 stars because I truly love Bernie Gunther. Re this book - Philip Kerr has always just alluded to Bernie's Life and Times durng the war. Now we KNOW, and how! This did become somewhat relentless for me ..way too much evil and more evil; could this be so? And only good Bernie (intersting that I still think that way dispite all the evidence presented contrary) for us to hang on to. I finally had to start skimming when I hit pg 350 or so (out of 431) but maybe that was just the company he w...more

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Oct 26, 2011 Bobthekelpie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the latest in the Bernie Gunther series, which for most people started with the Berlin Noir trilogy. I have been increasingly disappointed with the series and this latest is no exception. Starting in 1954, it switches back and forth between the 30s, 40s and 50s, leaving it feeling a bit disjointed and haphazard. It got somewhat confusing, and I found that I had to keep rereading sections in order to make sense of them. It also seemed to run out of steam, which it shares with the series a...more

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Sep 04, 2011 Phillip Ramm rated it 4 of 5 stars

There's nothing quite like the Nazis and those Commie Ruskies, not to mention the duplicitous Americans getting the bitter end of Bernie Gunther's tongue (again). Kerr's hero's cynical attitude and politically incorrect banter (from our perspective - although most of his attitudes are what we might arrogantly call modern) make you wonder why he doesn't get beaten up more often (as if that were possible). Kerr's historical research is always impeccable and his plot has Gunther on rollicking fligh...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Peter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, germany, history, politics, thriller

Philip Kerr's writing tends to intrigue me but his series featuring Bernie Gunther, a German Private Investigator during the time of the Nazi madness, grabs me the most. This, the latest in the Gunther series (the 7th) is set in the 1950s in the later days of the de-nazification of Germany and the solidification of the cold war. There's a lot of twisted politics and some real nice snarkiness about the Soviet Union, the Americans, the 'unrepentant Nazis' and the emergence of a new way of understa...more

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Field Grey: A Bernie Gunther Mystery (Bernard Gunther #7)

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