These are the first three novels in Kerr's Bernie Gunther series and are among the best-written, most fascinating histroical novels I've ever read. Gunther is an immensely talented, tough and honest detective trying to do his job under the Nazi regime, which inevitably has corrupted even non-political crime - only as it turns out in this series, every crime is political in Nazi Germany. Gunther has an immense talent for the telling jibe, and the repartee between Gunther and Nazis like Goering is both hilarious and terrifying, and conducted at Mach-1 speed. The periodd etail is perfect. Gunther is Philip Marlowe in far worst circumstances than Marlowe could ever even have imagined. You will tear through this trilogy (and the four Gunther novels that follow it) like almost nothing you have read before.