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41st out of 163 books
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31 voters
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A Quiet Flame (Bernard Gunther #5)
by
Philip Kerr
Philip Kerr returns with his best-loved character, Bernie Gunther, in the fifth novel in what is now a series: a tight, twisting, compelling thriller that is firmly rooted in history.
A Quiet Flame opens in 1950. Falsely fingered a war criminal, Bernie Gunther has booked passage to Buenos Aires, lured, like the Nazis whose company he has always despised, by promises of a n...more
A Quiet Flame opens in 1950. Falsely fingered a war criminal, Bernie Gunther has booked passage to Buenos Aires, lured, like the Nazis whose company he has always despised, by promises of a n...more
Hardcover, 400 pages
Published
March 19th 2009
by Putnam Adult
(first published October 1st 2008)
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I just LOVE Philip Kerr's books! I love Bernie Gunther, I love Kerr's dry wit, his observations on life, his plots, his sub-plots, his other characters, and the endless witty comments. Whenever the story starts, you get sucked in like a vacuum cleaner and you are swept along, powerless to fight back. I don't normally pay full price for a book but with Kerr, I lose the will to argue with myself - it's pointless. My wallet falls out my pocket and I am paying for the book before I know what...more
This series is about Bernie Gunther, a cop in 1930s-40's Berlin who was never a Nazi, always doing what he could from the inside to thwart their efforts. This 5th book is set in Buenos Aires, in 1950, when Evita Peron and her husband gave safe haven, and new identities, to between 5,000 and 8,000 Nazi war criminals, including Goebbels, Himmler, and Mengele (the guy doing medical experiments at Auschwitz.
(In an earlier book, Bernie quit the force and has become a private investigat...more
(In an earlier book, Bernie quit the force and has become a private investigat...more
I don't read Bernie Gunther novels for any purpose other than to have fun. But A QUIET FLAME introduced me to a new subject, the persecution of Jews by the Peronist government of Argentina. It is a sobering subject, which remains controversial and incompletely documented to this day.
In A QUIET FLAME, Bernie has escaped to Argentina to avoid prosecution for his activities as an SS officer during the war. While in Argentina, he is drafted by the local authorities to investigate the di...more
In A QUIET FLAME, Bernie has escaped to Argentina to avoid prosecution for his activities as an SS officer during the war. While in Argentina, he is drafted by the local authorities to investigate the di...more
A Quiet Flame begins with Bernie Gunther -- familiar from the excellent Berlin Noir-trilogy, as well as The One from the Other -- arriving in Argentina in 1950, smuggled out (along with Adolf Eichmann) by the Nazi-resettlement service, ODESSA. His cover is that he is a doctor, but he spills the beans early on, admitting to Juan Perón (whom he meets shortly after his arrival) that he was, in fact, a cop and detective. His reputation precedes him, and he is immediately lured to work for the secret...more
Kerr, Philip. A QUIET FLAME – A Bernie Gunther Novel. (2008). *****. This is the fifth novel featuring Bernie Gunther. I haven’t read the fourth, but the first three comprise what is known as the Berlin Noir Trilogy, and should not be missed. They were: “March Violets,” The Pale Criminal,” and “A German Requiem.” Gunther is now in Argentina, living under an assumed name among other German exiles – most of whom are war criminals. They have been given protection by the Peron government in...more
This book is the latest installment of Kerr's German detective, Bernie Gunther. The Gunther stories began with Kerr’s excellent “Berlin Noir” – which is a collection of three mystery stories set at different points in Bernie’s life (starting from the early 1930s and going through the end of WWII). Now, as a German trying to make his way through the Third Reich, Bernie’s got some tough choices to make – and they're not always good ones. He’s a wise-cracking former policeman who’s fond of booze...more
pal de noël 2010... suite de la trilogie berlinoise...
présentation de l'éditeur :
1950. À la fin de La Mort, entre autres, embarqué sous un faux nom pour l’Argentine avec Adolf Eichman, Bernie Gunther va y retrouver le gratin des criminels nazis en exil. Ayant révélé sa véritable identité au chef de la police de Buenos Aires, il constate que sa réputation de détective l’y a précédé. Une jeune fille est assassinée dans des circonstances atroces, et Bernie se dit que cette a...more
présentation de l'éditeur :
1950. À la fin de La Mort, entre autres, embarqué sous un faux nom pour l’Argentine avec Adolf Eichman, Bernie Gunther va y retrouver le gratin des criminels nazis en exil. Ayant révélé sa véritable identité au chef de la police de Buenos Aires, il constate que sa réputation de détective l’y a précédé. Une jeune fille est assassinée dans des circonstances atroces, et Bernie se dit que cette a...more
Perhaps the weakest Bernie Gunther mystery to date. The flashback style felt especially forced, for some reason. A few good lines, but once again, the web that ensnares Bernie just seems far too convoluted. Maybe I'm just not subtle enough, but the long range goal seems so unlikely in hindsight that it bugs me.
In this one, Bernie has just got off the boat in Argentina, where he was bound at the end of the previous book. He meets the Perons, both Evita and Juan, gets involved in count...more
In this one, Bernie has just got off the boat in Argentina, where he was bound at the end of the previous book. He meets the Perons, both Evita and Juan, gets involved in count...more
This another Bernie Gunther thwiller . The 4 others that i have read were great, fast paced with crackling dialogue and all set in pre war and post war Germany . Bernie is the detective trying to do the right thing in a vicious Nazi state and after the war trying to dig up the remains and trace the nazis who escaped .
This novel takes him to Peron ruled Argentina which welcomed ex Nazis and gave them a hiding place and a new life . The plot also interweaves an unsolved child murder case of ...more
This novel takes him to Peron ruled Argentina which welcomed ex Nazis and gave them a hiding place and a new life . The plot also interweaves an unsolved child murder case of ...more
If you like espionage novels (as I do), especially those set before, during or right after WWII you might just love Philip Kerr. In particular I'm enamored of his Bernie Gunther series.
The'Berlin Noir' trilogy was my introduction to Bernie, a smart, sympathetic detective in Berlin's pre-war police force, and a man who--though contemptuous of the Nazis--can't seem to keep out of their way. Through his eyes we see history in the making, as he brushes up against the roiling politics an...more
The'Berlin Noir' trilogy was my introduction to Bernie, a smart, sympathetic detective in Berlin's pre-war police force, and a man who--though contemptuous of the Nazis--can't seem to keep out of their way. Through his eyes we see history in the making, as he brushes up against the roiling politics an...more
The fifth Bernie Gunther novel by Philip Kerr cuts between an unsolved missing person case in 1932 that was the last one Gunther was involved in as a policeman and his having fled Germany to Argentina at the end of 'The One from the Other.' Once in Argentina Gunther finds himself being employed by a duplicitous policeman in another missing persons case. What is fascinating about this instalment is that it reveals how Gunther came to leave the police force in Germany as the Nazis cemented their...more
Bernie Gunther emigrates to Buenos Aires like a lot of other Nazi's, most of whom are bad Nazi's, not like Bernie, who was a reluctant SS member. He's on the boat with Eichmann, who made an appearance in an earlier volume, and by the time we're done, we have a full calvacade of the Boys of Brazil, only it's Argentina. Not to mention Juan and Eva Peron, a lot of Germans and Jews, and some tango dancers. Kerr is a master plotter, which means I kept turning the pages, which I'd do anyway because by...more
Book 5 in the Bernard Gunther series
This fiction examines Directive 11, a secret order issued in 1938 that bared Jews from entering Argentina and the consequences that derived from it. It also explored the rumour and the strong possibility that a concentration camp existed in a remote part of the country. At the time thousands of Argentina's Jewish citizens had simply disappeared, never to be seen again. Coincidently, in later years, Argentina became a safe haven for Nazis in hiding....more
This fiction examines Directive 11, a secret order issued in 1938 that bared Jews from entering Argentina and the consequences that derived from it. It also explored the rumour and the strong possibility that a concentration camp existed in a remote part of the country. At the time thousands of Argentina's Jewish citizens had simply disappeared, never to be seen again. Coincidently, in later years, Argentina became a safe haven for Nazis in hiding....more
Ex-Berlin detective and unenthusiastic Nazi SS officer Bernhardt Gunther finds himself in Juan Peron's 1950 Argentina. Zelig-like he's met all the top Nazis in Germany and now it's his turn to meet the leadership of the country and all the top former Nazis hiding in Argentina. He asked by Peron's secret service to find a missing child who might have been murdered and eviscerated and asked by a beautiful Argentinian Jew-Catholic to find her disappeared Uncle and Aunt.
I liked Kerr's Be...more
I liked Kerr's Be...more
Just read the first few pages, and already I'm thrilled to be with Bernie again. There are two more books ready after this one. What a comfort.
And so I finished it, and loved Bernie all the more as he now gets closer to my age without loosing his razor blade personality. Of course, in this one he shows caution with that mouth of his, but not always.
Bernie gets off a ship with Eichman, and is immediately taken in by the 'old comrades' and also by a colonel in the secret police to help h...more
And so I finished it, and loved Bernie all the more as he now gets closer to my age without loosing his razor blade personality. Of course, in this one he shows caution with that mouth of his, but not always.
Bernie gets off a ship with Eichman, and is immediately taken in by the 'old comrades' and also by a colonel in the secret police to help h...more
There was so much to enjoy about this book, however 'enjoy' makes the title sound a lighthearted read: it isn't. Bernie is a wise-cracking 'tec now in Buenos Aires, after working as a police detective in 1930's Berlin and fighting in the Ukraine in the war. An unlikely set up, but it allows the author to take us, via Bernie, through the Weimar Republic, Juan and Evita Peron's regime in Argentina and the shady world of the escaped Nazi war criminals. Oh and plenty of other crimes and nasty pie...more
Bernie Gunther har sammen med blant annet Adolf Eichmann komt seg fra Europa til Argentina. Året er 1950, og Gunther blir vel tatt i mot i det nazivennlige Peron-Argentina. Gunther blir hyret inn av det hemmelige politiet for å etterforske et mord på en ung jente. Mordet er nesten identisk med to mord i Tyskland i 1932. Gunther etterforsket det ene som ble begått i Berlin. Som vanlig vikler Gunther seg inn i storpolitikken, og det vrimler av gammelnazister i Argentina. Det blir en spennende og i...more
I really enjoy Philip Kerr's hard boiled Nazi detective, Bernie Gunther. This novel finds him alongside many well known fugitive Nazis in 1950's Argentina. There, while trying to escape his past, he is coaxed into opening one more investigation by the local authorities who know who he really is. What appears to be a standard kidnapping becomes a twisted labyrinth of betrayal and greed, that even Gunther, a former member of the SS, can't believe it all. Along the way, he reflects upon a haunting ...more
This is the first Philip Kerr novel I've read. It's a crime novel told by Bernie Gunther a 1930's Berlin police detective.
The action alternates between Berlin in 1930 and Buenes Aires 1950. A world populated by the soon to be elected Nazis in 1930 and fugitive Nazis in 1950. It's a tale of vice and corruption in which good does not ultimately triumph unfortunately
The author seems determined to educate us in 1930's German and 1950's Argentinian slang, which while informative I found a l...more
The action alternates between Berlin in 1930 and Buenes Aires 1950. A world populated by the soon to be elected Nazis in 1930 and fugitive Nazis in 1950. It's a tale of vice and corruption in which good does not ultimately triumph unfortunately
The author seems determined to educate us in 1930's German and 1950's Argentinian slang, which while informative I found a l...more
Set in 1950 Argentina, where former Berlin policeman Bernie Gunther has been offered a new life by the Perón government. But the detective doesn't have the luxury of laying low when a girl’s murder is discovered to resemble crimes that he investigated in Germany before the war. He also becomes tangled up in an investigation of the disappearance of family members of a beautiful young Jewish woman. The rather grim story involves a number of the war criminals sheltered by Argentina as well as the...more
I've found all of the books in the Bernie Gunther series good, and this one was no disappointment. The war is over, and Bernie has been falsely accused of a Nazi crime, so he is sent to Argentina under a new name to avoid prosecution. Coincidentally, a local police officer(who is aware of Bernie's real identity and some of his more notorious cases in Berlin), asks him to get involved in solving a murder that has similarities to a series of crimes in Berlin in the early 1930s, just before Hitle...more
Philip Kerr has an uncanny ability to make history come alive. I was aware of the fact that many Nazis fled to Argentina after the war, but had no concept of how that was done or what life was like for them there. This book gives the reader an inside look at what Argentina was like in 1950, both in terms of Juan Peron's government and in terms of the Nazis that found harbor there.
As always, I really enjoyed the main character, Bernard Gunther and his combination of morality, survival s...more
As always, I really enjoyed the main character, Bernard Gunther and his combination of morality, survival s...more
Philip Kerr first came to my attention as the author of the Berlin Noir trilogy, where he masterfully created an atmosphere and a set of characters that felt appropriate to Weimar and Nazi Germany.[return][return]Later he went on to produce a number of poor-man's Critchton novels before returning to Germany & his Berlin Noir protagonist Bernie Gunther in 2005 or so.[return][return]Kerr seems to be recovering his knack for the Gunther series. He's dialed sown the wisecracking: although a reader n...more
Bettie
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Shelves:
summer-2011,
noir,
published-2008,
nazi-related,
period-piece,
fraudio,
mystery-thriller,
south-americas,
series,
spies
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Just as I finished Kerr's "The One From the Other" this new title was released the following day. Naturally I had to read it with the continuous story still fresh in my mind. Last we left Gunther, he was on a steam ship escaping from war torn Europe attempting a new life in Argentina. After Gunther arrives his cover as a doctor is quickly blown and he is revealed as a cop/ detective. Bernie is then employed by the police to look into a missing girl case only it seems that the powers th...more
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A Quiet Flame, the sequel to The One from the Ohter finds hard-boiled German detective Bernie Gunther in postwar Argentina, where he's fled because of a case of mistaken identity. He's asked to investigate the murder of a young girl which appears suspiciously similar to a killing that Bernie once investigated in Berlin in 1932. In the course of his investigation, Bernie discovers that life in Argentina isn't as carefree as he's assumed.
In alternating chapters set in Buenos Aires in...more
In alternating chapters set in Buenos Aires in...more
Bernie Gunther may be the perfect noir detective. WWI veteran, honest Weimar cop, forced into PI work by the Nazi seizure of power, conscripted into WWII, mistakenly pursued as a war criminal after unmasking some real ones, and currently on the lam in Argentina, where he's been blackmailed into looking into something distasteful by the Perons. This is an excellent entry in a series at the top of my "honest men in corrupt regimes" collection of mystery novels.
Bernie Gunther is a Berlin policeman before the war, a reluctant SS officer during the war, and a refugee to Argentina after the war. A hard-boiled, anti-nazi, wisecracking detective, he is caught up in machinations of war criminals and corrupt politicians.
This book is an enjoyable detective story as well as being informative about Germany in the late Weimar and during the war. It's a later book in a series about this detective.
This book is an enjoyable detective story as well as being informative about Germany in the late Weimar and during the war. It's a later book in a series about this detective.
The Fifth Bernie Gunther novel moves from Germany to Argentina, just after World War II. While never a Nazi, Bernie has to leave Germany and is granted asylum by the Peron regime. Very soon he is tangled up in another missing persons case, putting him in close contact with Eichmann, Mengele, and of course, the Perons.
As always, Kerr writes a quick moving narrative with historical accuracy.
As always, Kerr writes a quick moving narrative with historical accuracy.
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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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