The One from the Other (Bernard Gunther, #4)

by Philip Kerr

These people are crazy. Religious fanatics.”

“So are you, aren’t you?” “No, we’re just fanatics. There’s a difference. We don’t expect God to be pleased if we blow someone’s head off. They do. That’s what makes them crazy.”

They say that insanity is merely the ability to see into the future. And if we knew now what we’ll know then, it would probably be enough to make any of us scream. In life the trick is all about keeping the two separate for as long as possible.

Baron von Starnberg didn’t like the communists. That much was plain from our surroundings. If I’d lived there I wouldn’t have liked the communists either. Not that I did like the communists. But having very little myself, I had more in common with them than with the baron, who had so much.

“It’s by Kandinsky,” she said, without batting a garden rake of an eyelash. “He was

one of the most influential artists of his generation.” “And who were his influences? Johnnie Walker? Or Jack Daniel’s?” She smiled. “There,” I said. “I knew you could do it if you tried. Which is more than I can say for Kandinsky.” “Some people like it,” she said. “Well, why didn’t you say so? I’ll take two.”

Most of the jaundice in his eye was reserved for a large woman sitting on one of the other chairs. I say large but I really mean fat. That’s what happens when you’ve been married for a while. You stop saying what you mean. That’s the only reason people ever stay married. All successful marriages are based on some necessary hypocrisies. It’s only the unsuccessful

ones where people always tell the truth to each other.

In peacetime everyone just worries that if you kill someone it will leave a dreadful mess on the carpet. Worrying about the mess on the carpet and whether it matters is the only real difference between war and peace.”

“The locals are about as affable as a cold pitchfork.” “They’re really quite friendly when you get to know them,” he said. “Funny. That’s the same thing people say after their dog has bitten you.”

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” I said. “That’s my advice.” “It’s bad advice, Herr Gunther,” she said. “Think about it. All those veterinary bills if the nag is no good. And let’s not forget what happened to those poor dumb Trojans. Maybe if they had listened to Cassandra instead of Sinon they might have done just that. If they’d looked the Greek gift horse in the mouth they would have seen Odysseus and all his Greek friends huddled inside.” She smiled. “Benefits of a classical education.”

sylvan

After my own experiences on the Russian front, I came

to believe human beings were capable of an unlimited degree of inhumanity. Perhaps that—our very inhumanity—is what makes us human most of all.

The essence of deception is not the lie that’s told but the truths that are told to support it.