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A dark world

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2019

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Bernie Gunther, ex-detective for the Berlin police force, but now a hotel detective, like many Germans of 1934 must tiptoe around the repressive regime of the newly empowered Nazis. Showing insufficient loyalty or questioning their tactics is likely to get one sent to a labor camp. When Bernie meets an attractive US female journalist with an agenda to derail the ’36 Olympics by exposing German atrocities, not to mention an inexplicable death of a Jewish man in his hotel, he knows that he faces an impossible dilemma. Inevitably, his helping these situations puts him into serious jeopardy.

Fast forward to Havana of 1954 where Batista is a dictator and Fidel Castro is in prison. Again, anyone against the regime is dealt with harshly. But Batista has a striking tolerance for crime bosses and gangsters. In a winding journey after the War, Bernie has ended up in Havana. His life is uneventful until he surprisingly runs into the journalist from Berlin, who is in the orbit of the mobsters. Suddenly he is forced to walk a very narrow line when he is offered a job by one of them, where refusal is not an option. Life is virtually never easy for Bernie.

While Bernie is an interesting character, of equal interest is the history of the times. The author manages to bring many well known historical figures into his narrative, although at times the many historical references can seem a bit daunting. It is a dark world in which the author situates Bernie.

Shane

Messy plotting and overdone writing style

Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2018

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I've read some of the earlier Bernie Gunther stories and quite enjoyed them, but not so this one. It read like two stories cobbled together with not very convincing links between the two.
The first part centres on Berlin and very corrupt goings on in the preparation for the Berlin Olympics. Gunther is the house detective at the famous Adlon Hotel and meets there an American gangster, Max Reles, who is very cosy with high ranking Nazis. There is also an American Jewish journalist, Noreen Charalambides, bent on exposing to the world the realities of Nazi oppression of Jews. She and Gunther fall in love and the descriptions of the their attraction and subsequent affair are overblown to the point of being laughable. This exaggerated writing carries over into a near endless stream of "tough guy" similes and metaphors that I found irritating, as they constantly draw attention to the writing style.
The second part of the story moves to Cuba in 1954 where Gunther is living under an assumed name. Both Reles and Noreen turn up in Cuba and while the plots are resolved it's not very convincing. Kerr inserts various real life people including Meyer Lansky and Hemingway-Noreen is living in his house-but this felt like name dropping. I also found the descriptions of the Cuba's buildings slowed the action down.
In short, I found the plotting was contrived and the writing style exaggerated, a very purple version in a Chandleresque vein.

StrongEagle

This book is a great read, as are ll the Bernie Gunther novels

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2018

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Reading Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels is a must if you are an American in today's political climate. This book is a great read, as are ll the Bernie Gunther novels.

Bernie is a Berlin police detective at a time when the Nazis are taking over Germany and expelling Jews. Besides very well done murder mysteries, Bernie is faced with multiple other challenges, for example, how to solve the murder of a Jew when the Nazi authorities have prohibited him from doing so.

Kerr's novels, although fiction, are historical accurate as to time, place, and the Nazis who took over Germany. Reading his novels makes one realize that the kind of authoritarian thuggery that were the Nazis, happens one small step at a time... a riot here, a usurping of rights, there, a seemingly innocuous law passed... until all of a sudden, it's a full fledged police state.

Up to Standard

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2020

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The Bernie Gunther novels are uniformly very good and this is no exception. I suggest reading them in order as they all flow from one to another. In this one Bernie is living under an assumed identity in Cuba at the time of the Castro/Bautista conflict and while that plays a minor role in the story it sets the stage as Bernie rubs shoulders with the noted gangsters of the era as he works to protect his newly-discovered daughter from a bad relationship, ironically related to a misadventure in post war Berlin many years before. If you like historical novels mostly set in pre and post WWII Germany you can't go wrong following Bernie around. The books are extremely well-written and are light-years better than most others. Kerr (now deceased) is in the company of the likes of Joseph Kanon and Alan Furst. Highly recommended.

John Hess

Mixed Feelings

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2019

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The Bernie Gunther series of books are based on an intriguing premise - What would it be like to be a non-political cop in Nazi Germany? I have read several of Phillip Kerr's Gunther books. He is excellent in his research, weaving historical characters into his characters adventures. Each story includes at least one crime, typically with a Jewish victim, and the police procedures are interesting, but not spectacular. However, the author does not hide his disdain for Germans and Christianity, especially the Catholic Church. Sometimes he presents it via Gunther's dialogue, sometimes indirectly via plot, but it is omnipresent in each of the Bernie Gunther books I have read. If this will not bother you, these are interesting reads.

Top reviews from other countries

Ian Thumwood

Cardboard gangsters and a shocking resolution

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 29, 2020

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Phillip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series is so compelling that I have often ordered a new book even before I have finished the one that I had been reading. Prior to picking up this book, I had polished off "The one from the other" which, halfway through in the series, is so good that I cannot imagine it being surpassed. The whole feel for that novel really seemed to capture the feel of the time and the plot ultimately turned out to be about something entirely different from what you initially imagine. It is an exceptional addition to the Bernie Gunther oeuvre. All of this seems a marked contrast to "If the dead rise not" which is so predicable to be bordering on the cliched.

I think that the story started decently enough with Bernie now working at a hotel detective in the luxurious Adlon Hotel. The plot centres around corruption associated with the construction work in preparation for the 1936 Olympic Games and is set two years prior to this event at a point when the Nazi's are starting to get a sinister stranglehold on power. Stretching for over 450 pages, the heroes reposts are as sharp as ever but if all the components were in place in "TOFTO" to make it a "Classic Bernie," they seem strangely absent in this story. The depth of historical research does not seem quite so thorough to begin with yet I think a bigger problem stems from the fact that the "real" villain of the piece is the American underworld crime boss as opposed to the warped and misguided Nazis. Unfortunately, Max Reles is clearly a "wrong 'un" from the moment his character arrives on the page and the hammy dialogue he is given robs the story of the air of authenticity which is apparent in the other books I have read in this series. I feel that the books are so much better when Bernie is embroiled in the machinations of the SS, Gestapo and various other assorted Nazis.

If the story set in 1934 is not one of Bernie's most exciting moments, the last third of the book skips forward twenty years where he now finds himself in pre-revolutionary Cuba. By a quirk of incredible fate, the three main protagonists find themselves reacquainted in Havana albeit the relationships between them subsequently alter from when we last encountered them in Berlin. Plonking Bernie in Batista -era Cuba effectively renders him like a fish out of water yet the weakness of the book is further opened up by the cardboard organised crime bosses (some of whom were genuine) who populate this part of the novel. For a moment, the book ceases to be a thriller as almost seems like a pastiche of "Some like it hot." The chapters set in Cuba almost seem to have been written by a different author with the usual thoroughness lacking and robbing the story of credibility.

Most of the positive reviews of this book stem from an appreciation of the twists at the end of the novel. Although they are nicely summed up in the closing chapter, I had picked up one of these twists almost immediately and whilst the ultimate identity of the killer is a shock from what we know from other novels, Kerr leaves sufficient clues to guess this well before the closing pages.

As disappointing as this book was, it was still difficult to put down. Phillip Kerr's writing style certainly zips along. The debt to Chandler is obvious although I am constantly reminded of Ian Fleming with the writing, especially with regard to the clunky dialogue given to the American protagonists. I was surprised that Bernie was never asked to take a sleep with the fishes! . By and large, I would have to say that Kerr is the better writer and more consistent than Fleming which makes this book all the more of a let down. In my opinion, this paperback feels like it would have been better if the story had perhaps been allowed to unfold in two separate books. Mafia involvement in the casinos of Havana is a familiar trope which might have been better served if Kerr had afforded the story to evolve more and let the plot stew in more detailed research.

Of the six novels I have read so far, I felt this was very atypical and the premise of the story did not match my expectations having previously polished off the likes of "TOFTO," "Prague Fatale," "Prussian Blue" and "The lady from Zagreb" . Without doubt , Bernie Gunther is a great literary creation and Phillip Kerr a writer who was clearly having a great deal of fun putting these plots together. However, the paranoia surrounding the menace of the Nazis does not impose itself to the extent in this novel as in his others given that this was the writer's sphere of authority, I felt that "If the dead rise not" didn't quite match the standard of the other books I have read.

Billyt

Important to read this series from the beginning.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 21, 2018

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My original impression was that these books were rather disjointed, switching from time and place rather haphazardly. However, I persevered because against my better judgement I came to like Bernie Gunther. As I read on I came to appreciate how cleverly constructed this series of books really is. Each book depicts the atmosphere of Nazi Germany through the main character’s experiences whilst telling the story of how this leads to his chaotic 1950’s life. I’m thoroughly hooked half way through the series with neither story complete.

alasdair

Strange one

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 30, 2020

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Hard to decide what genre this book falls into. Not quite a detective story, not quite a observation of life. It has elements of both of these.

Many twists and lots of imagination. Very glad I stuck with it.

I will read the next one of the series, to see if it's more detective, can Philip Kerr 's imagination continue to operate at this level, and because I am enjoying the read.

S Riaz

If the Dead Rise Not

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 20, 2013

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The first part of this novel is set in Berlin, 1934, where we find Bernie Gunther working as house detective at the Adlon Hotel. Mrs Adlon asks Gunther to help her American journalist friend, the beautiful Noreen Charalambides, investigate the death of a Jewish boxer. Of course, Gunther, who is never immune to the charms of a beautiful woman - or the lure of money - agrees. However, their investigation leads them to corruption concerning the preparations for the upcoming Olympic games, American gangsters and escalating Nazi control of all forms of life in Germany. Again, Philip Kerr magnificently recreates the pre-war atmosphere of Germany brilliantly - these books are so atmospheric and full of cameo appearances by real life characters, such as Hess.

In the second part of the book, Gunther does meet up with the main characters again, although it is unlikely he would call many old friends. It is 1954 and he is living in Havana - having left Argentina at the end of the previous novel. Gunther yearns for Germany, although leaving South America (and his deep love of South American music...) is easier said than done. Once again, Noreen needs his help and, yet again, he is unable to refuse her. Also, for a further time, Gunther's skills as a detective are requested when there is a murder and his attempts to live a quiet life seem destined to fail. This is a fantastic addition to a brilliant series - the Bernie Gunther books are stunningly written and I hope there are many more to come.

Kindle Customer

Absorbing and different thriller.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2020

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Another great story in the Bernie Gunther series, this time set in Havana where Bernie is living under an assumed name. Unfortunately for him he is recognised by a gangster intends to make use of his talents. He has also run into an old friend, Noreen and her daughter, which definitely complicates his life. Is there a chance he can put the clock back and take a different path.

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