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6th out of 115 books
—
73 voters
A German Requiem (Bernard Gunther #3)
by
Philip Kerr
The disturbing climax to the Berlin Noir trilogy
Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels have won him an international reputation as a master of historical suspense. In A German Requiem, the private eye has survived the collapse of the Third Reich to find himself in Vienna. Amid decaying imperial splendor, he traces concentric circles of evil and uncovers a legacy that makes t...more
Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels have won him an international reputation as a master of historical suspense. In A German Requiem, the private eye has survived the collapse of the Third Reich to find himself in Vienna. Amid decaying imperial splendor, he traces concentric circles of evil and uncovers a legacy that makes t...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
August 29th 2006
by Penguin Books
(first published 1991)
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The third of the series featuring Bernie Gunther. WWII has now been lost, and miraculously Bernie has survived -- miraculously because, having been co-opted into the SS, he was able to escape having to participate in that organization's crimes only by volunteering for combat. Now, a PI in Berlin once more, he's wondering if his wife is giving blowjobs to occupying Americans for money and gifts when he's hired by a Russian officer to try to produce the evidence that will save a convicted murderer...more
It’s 1947 and with the Nazis being defeated, the now married Bernie Gunther has gone back to being a private detective in Berlin. (Assigned to the SS during the war, Bernie quickly requested a transfer to a combat unit. This action was taken at some personal risk, since the SS heads considered this a form of desertion, but his request was granted.) In this entertaining third volume of Philip Kerr’s series, a Soviet colonel hires Bernie to go to Vienna to look for evidence that can free Emil Beck...more
This is the final book of the Berlin Noir trilogy, and in my opinion it is the best of the three books. It is 1947 and Bernie Gunther is back in the private investigation business after a stint in a Russian POW camp. He is hired by a former Kripo "colleague" who is being held in an American military prison in Vienna on a trumped up murder charge. He thinks Bernie can get him off. Bernie travels to Vienna, leaving his wife behind (I think this is the first appearance for his wife, Kristen) and ge...more
Book 3 is "Requiem", which takes place after the war, mostly in Vienna. In many ways it is the least sexist and yet somehow falls flat to me. Again a lot of intricate plotting, but It's not hard to follow. This one moves right into Dashiell Hammett's nameless detective, even referring to various of his books again.
Here's a quote that feels to me much like a rewrite of the end Sam Spade speech from "The Maltese Falcon" where he tells the girl why he has to do things the way he does. This is from...more
Here's a quote that feels to me much like a rewrite of the end Sam Spade speech from "The Maltese Falcon" where he tells the girl why he has to do things the way he does. This is from...more
This one felt more like a history lesson than a noir thriller, Bernie Gunther basically behaving like a tour guide through post war atrocities than as a German Marlowe.
There's some kind of convoluted plot involving multiple parties with dubious morals and an elastic sense of who is working with/for whom, there's so much back stabbing and double crossing going on simply serving as a stream of red herrings and the padding out of the book to it's longer than previous entries page count.
The blurb ta...more
There's some kind of convoluted plot involving multiple parties with dubious morals and an elastic sense of who is working with/for whom, there's so much back stabbing and double crossing going on simply serving as a stream of red herrings and the padding out of the book to it's longer than previous entries page count.
The blurb ta...more
The third in the Bernie Gunther series and far less appealing than the first two books. The third book occurs in 1947, nearly 10 years after the second book. That's quite a gap in the narrative. The reader learns near the beginning of the book a condensed version of Gunther's last 10 years - joining the SS under duress, requesting a transfer to the Eastern Front once he realized how sweeping the mass murders of the final solution were, being captured by the Russians & sent to a POW camp, esc...more
Interesting crime novel that manages to transcend mediocrity by using Nazi Germany as the background setting. The way Kerr portrays the third Reich, or in this case it’s remains, is brilliant as it gives us a clue of how life might have been back than (something most history books fail to do as they are too preoccupied with the bigger characters and not the common people). If you don’t have some slight knowledge of Nazi Germany however or are eager to learn about it, the novel loses much of its...more
Another excellent spy mystery/thriller featuring private investigator Bernie Gunther. This third book skips forward several years--the past book was in 1936, before WWII...this one is in the late 40's. Bernie, now married and living in war-ravaged Berlin in his bombed-out house, is approached to travel to Vienna to investigate a murder and attempt to clear one of his former police colleagues. The money is definitely right, so he does so, and ends up in a long and twisted plot--or several plots--...more
Mr Kerr manages to add something "adhesive" to the text before it even gets to the publisher. By the time you get your hands on it not only are you unable to put it down but, like good illicit substances, you have to keep coming back for more. This is the Third time I have read this book.
This time I am really enjoying my fix: As I get swept up in the story something wonderful is occurring. I am enjoying the challenge of finding the next 'homage' to Graham Greene's The Third Man. I won't say anyt...more
This time I am really enjoying my fix: As I get swept up in the story something wonderful is occurring. I am enjoying the challenge of finding the next 'homage' to Graham Greene's The Third Man. I won't say anyt...more
Has there ever been a bad novel set in Vienna? If so, I've yet to read it. The sense of decaying opulence, of faded grandeur set against the unpleasant wartime history and the obsessive politeness of the residents are all milked here to good effect as Bernie Gunther takes centre stage against the murky espionage and shifting alliances of post-war power struggles. He escapes Berlin and a tottering marriage to take up the case of a wrongly accused former colleague, but he becomes submerged in the...more
My least favorite of the three Bernie Gunther novels I've read thus far. Too many coincidences to glue together a plot as transparent as tracing paper. Plus, I am wearying of the needless sacrifice of innocent women caught up in high stakes games. I'd be okay if they were actors in the whole thing, but they just turn up as molls looking to survive by sex. Probably more realistic, but still, a bit tiresome.
Bernie is still a great character and Kerr manages to keep him marching through the swirlin...more
Bernie is still a great character and Kerr manages to keep him marching through the swirlin...more
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Je dois avouer que je suis assez déçu de ce troisième tome de la trilogie berlinoise. Le deux premiers étaient quand même assez bons et avaient une ambiance que j'aimais beaucoup. Avec ce troisième tome, j'ai l'impression d'avoir perdu cette ambiance. De plus, l'histoire était ennuyante par moments. J'ai eu beaucoup de difficulté à embarquer. Tout le livre fait allusion aux maladies transmissibles sexuellement. Un moment donné ça comment à en devenir achalant. Je ne suis pas encore certain de li...more
Aug 11, 2011
Stein Roar
added it
Den tredje boken i Berlin Noir trilogien foregår i Wien rett etter andre verdenskrig. Gunther, som nå er tilbake som privatdetektiv, får oppdraget med å hjelpe sin gamle kollega Emil Becker som er anklaget for mord på en amerikansk offiser. Kerr gir oss et meget detaljert og godt bilde av etterkrigstidens Berlin og Wien. To byer som er sterkt preget av de fire seierherrenes deling av de to byene. Her blir det spionasje og jakt på gamle nazister. Meget bra skrevet og meget spennende!
Mysteries have always been one of my favorite forms of historical fiction because of their ability (when well written) to provide a glimpse of life in another time, place, etc while still being entertaining but not insulting your intelligence. Kerr does so wonderfully here with post-WWII Berlin/Vienna, slipping in additional information about the Soviet POW camps, postwar espionage and hypocrisy among the governmental bodies involved, and the atrocities on all sides that came at the end of the w...more
This book is a suspenseful, tightly plotted historical noir set mostly in Vienna 1947. Kerr makes nice use of the conventions of detective fiction, a cynical, world-weary hero, a couple mysterious, beautiful women, various shady characters of doubtful trustworthiness. His use of the noir genre is particularly effective set in this time period and used to explore the many shades of guilt and loyalty that existed in the aftermath of WWII.
Bernie Gunther, good-guy Berlin detective, is at it again, this time in Post-WWII Vienna. Bernie snags a case of a wrongly accused bad guy, who is about to swing for a crime that he didn't commit. Post-war Vienna is run by the allied powers (they didn't all pack up until 1955) and is full of intrigue, black marketing and chocoladies.
Philip Kerr provides his usual dense plot with tons of characters, casual murders and the usual genre-specific simile fest. What comes through loud and clear though...more
Philip Kerr provides his usual dense plot with tons of characters, casual murders and the usual genre-specific simile fest. What comes through loud and clear though...more
I really enjoyed Kerr's first two Gunther novels, but this one was a little underwhelming. The central mystery was tangential to the story most of the time, and there were a couple of wanton scenes of torture that were not in keeping with Kerr's previous works. The setting was nicely reminiscent of the Third Man, but Kerr went out of his way to point this out--actually weaving the filming of the movie into the story. I will likely give the rest of this series a try, but hope that it is an improv...more
This entire Berlin Noir series are standout detective thrillers. A lot has happened to Bernie between the second book in the series and the end of the trilogy. He's married, had a brief stint in the SS, escaped from a soviet prison. Through all that, not much could surprise this cynic-- until he is called to Vienna to help an old acquaintance. There he finds more familiar faces, all of whom he thought were dead.
This time we find Bernie in Berlin and Vienna after the war. What happened since before the war is vaguely alluded to without much detail. The plot is still horribly complicated but what makes the value of the book is the atmosphere. Post war Germany and Austria are very well rendered and it is unusual to see it from the eye of a German. Of course Kerr makes it up as he is not German and not of that generation but he must have done a lot of research.
A German Requiem finds the detective Bernhard trying to live in postwar Berlin. Caught between the Americans and the Russians, he willing leaves for Vienna to investigate the murder of an American officer, ostensibly by a former co-worker in Berlin. Vienna is lively with crime and espionage and former Nazis and Bernhard is just as quick with his tongue and his fist.
Mar 19, 2012
Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides
marked it as decided-not-to-read
Recommended to Snail in Danger (Sid) by:
found in the library's free books bin
Shelves:
mystery-genre
I forget exactly when I looked at this — a few years ago — but the squalor and grittiness of the author's depiction of post-war Berlin, while probably not inaccurate, was very wince-inducing. (There are many scenes where the protagonist wonders if his wife is having sex for money with American soldiers because that's how poor they are. Very distasteful.)
The conclusion to Kerr's "Berlin Noir" trilogy does not disappoint. Though I would have preferred a deeper look into war-scarred Berlin as opposed to the war-scarred Vienna that most of the novel takes place in, this is still a quality mystery read. I'm pretty into the series so far and it looks like I'll be reading all Bernie Gunther books at some point.
PI Bernie Gunther of post-war Berlin is a Marlowe-type shamus. Lots of Chandler metaphors, quips, and atmosphere. The hard-boiled element is there. Bernie goes to Vienna where he tangles with the Yanks, Brits, "Ivans", French, and Austrians. Shifty alliances and twists drive the plot. Great, intelligent read with first-rate writing. A must for any PI genre fans.
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Bernie Gunther is sent to Austria to solve the mystery of the murder of an American soldier in postwar Vienna. The Russians are thrown in for good measure. As usual the story is filled with moral ambiguity and fascinating twists and turns. Bernie is in his usual morally corrupt/heart of gold state and the writing is amazing.
Set in Berlin after WWII – The war is over and Berlin has been carved up by the allies. Bernie is married and eking out a living as a PI. Bernie is hired by a Soviet officer to clear the name of a German marketer being held for the murder of a US officer. Some old Nazi friends turn up too with surprising results.
Best book in the series so far. Bernie Gunther is a Berlin detective in 1947, following the end 2nd World War. The book is the third in the series following the Pale Criminal and March Violets. This book is a lot clearer about the message it wants to put across, and the characters are more convincing.
The portrayal of women still leaves something to be desired, but I guess you can't have it all.
The portrayal of women still leaves something to be desired, but I guess you can't have it all.
Kerr for me is superb. Excellent characters, top notch research, amazing grasp of imaginative plot. Take Marlowe, as in the 1930LA PA not the Elizabethan play write, drop into Germany circa 1933 onwards and away you go. If you like gripping thrillers with a twist. Bring this home.
The war's over... and Gunther is back being a PD. The action shifts to Vienna... where he's asked to rescue an old friend... except he's sucked into the post-war intrigues of the 4 powers and those looking for -- or hoping to use -- former SS and Gestapo members.
This is another mystery about a fictional German, but not a Nazi, detective who appears in books which take place at various times. This one takes place in Berlin and Vienna in the late 1940s. This is an excellent series and it is a quick read.
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Kerr has published eleven novels under his full name and a children's series, Children of the Lamp, under the name P.B. Kerr.
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But I read all three in a kind of frenzy so they've all...more
Feb 15, 2012 04:41am