Field Gray Audiobook By Philip Kerr cover art

Field Gray

A Bernie Gunther Novel

 Preview
Get this deal Try for $0.00
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm PT.
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just $0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible Premium Plus.
1 audiobook per month of your choice from our unparalleled catalog.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Field Gray

By: Philip Kerr
Narrated by: Paul Hecht
Get this deal Try for $0.00

$14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offers ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm PT.

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $22.35

Buy for $22.35

Get 3 months for $0.99 a month

Philip Kerr crafts a thrilling chapter from his critically acclaimed Bernie Gunther series. In Field Gray, Bernie finds himself imprisoned in 1954—and told he can either work for French intelligence or he can hang. Accepting his new job, Bernie begins interviewing POWs returning from Germany. And things get interesting when he meets a French war criminal and member of the French SS who has been posing as a German Wehrmacht officer.

Listen to more Bernie Gunther titles.©2011 Philip Kerr (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Mystery Private Investigators Suspense Thriller & Suspense War & Military Military War Exciting Imperialism

Editorial reviews

In his international pursuit of Erich Mielke (the real-life head of the Stasi), Bernard Gunther enters the employment of Reinhard Heydrich (the infamous Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, whose own assassination in Prague inspired a Hollywood movie directed by Fritz Land from a script by Brecht). Ostensibly a German mercenary, Gunther is in fact second cousin to the wise-cracking cynics of Raymond Chandler's world: even his name is shortened to ‘Bernie’ in recognition of his true literary nationality. His pursuit soon takes on secondary importance as the narrative morphs into a string of entertaining set-pieces framed by an increasingly fractured narrative that jumps from '41 to '54, Cold War to WWII, Berlin to Cuba to New York. This sense of dislocation ads to the ambiguity that surrounds Gunther: As he tells and retells his story to various interrogators from the CIA and the Stasi, the listener has to make up his or her own mind about the reliability of his point of view and the extent of his culpability.

It’s a brave choice by Philip Kerr to ask us to engage with a character that occupies moral ground as grey as the army uniform described in the title. He's not helped by the often uneasy mixture of the wise-cracking tone demanded by the conventions of hardboiled noir and the very real history that, at times, overwhelms the story. Cynical quips and the Holocaust don’t mix all that well. Field Gray is packed with background information, and the dialogue is at its weakest when characters speak a little too extensively about the historical background, as if Kerr is trying to cram in every last scrap of his research.

However, these flaws are redeemed in this recording by the perfect marriage between voice and character as presented by Paul Hecht. His voice (reminiscent of Philip Baker Hall) is rich in regret and his crumpled world-weariness matches Bernard Gunther's embattled defensiveness. Here is a character who constantly has to justify his compromised choices to interrogators that have been untouched by the hard choices made necessary by war, and Hecht’s delivery is just right for a defendant who has seen things that his prosecutors can hardly dream of. Even within the context of his unique voice, Hecht manages to color it with light and shade so that the supporting characters are more than just background voices. This is a voice you’ll want to listen to. Dafydd Phillips

People who viewed this also viewed...

January Window Audiobook By Philip Kerr cover art
January Window By: Philip Kerr
Research Audiobook By Philip Kerr cover art
Research By: Philip Kerr
Prague Fatale Audiobook By Philip Kerr cover art
Prague Fatale By: Philip Kerr
Historical Accuracy • Complex Plot • Exceptional Narrator • Engaging Protagonist • Intriguing Storyline • Deep Reading

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
Kerr is probably one of those writers that you either really like or really don't like. His books on Audible benefit from good narrators (Paul Hecht is as delightful as John Lee once you get used to him) as well as interesting historical plots. I have no idea how accurate his Nazi world is, but it makes for enjoyable listening. Gunther is hard not to like as a hero because he so often turns out to be incredibly vulnerable. In this book Gunther gets a little out of his element, or maybe it is Kerr and his experimental style that goes a bit awry. Nevertheless, Kerr still delivers and Bernie does not disappoint.

A Bit Awry but Still Worth a Listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The book jumps around and the descrption of the places are narrow. I just could not get into the book.

Easy listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book covers the period's of 1930's, 40's and 50's in Germany. Paul Hecht does a great job of narration. This book looks at WWII from the view of a German policeman. It is very interesting and the treatment of German POW by the Russian was accurately portrayed in the story. I found myself checking up on various events described in the book to see how historically accurate they were. I must say the ending of the book took me by surprise. I was going straight and the story took a big turn. Exciting. This was my first Phillip Kerr book.

Field Gray

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Any additional comments?

Anyone who is interested in the history of midcentury Europe cannot fail to learn a lot and enjoy by following the career of Berlin policeman Bernie Gunther from the 1920s through 1950sthrough a series of novels by Philip Kerr.

Historical fiction at it's best

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Don't start with Field Gray, save it for after you have listened to the preceding volumes in the "Bernie Gunther" detective series. Kerr's creation is an engaging, wryly comic, and morally challenging character. Paul Hecht's reading deeply and unobtrusively captures the spirit of Gunther, as well as the many adversaries Kerr pits against him in this expansive, complex, but eminently clear political detective story, steeped in a history no one should have the pleasure of forgetting about. Field Gray is as much a warning as it is a retelling about the depths of inhumanity in which humanity can so easily lose itself.

So far, the best in a masterful series

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews