Prussian Blue (A Bernie Gunther Novel) Hardcover – April 4, 2017

In 1956, former Berlin Police Commissar Bernie Gunther, under an alias, lived and worked on the French Rivera as a hotel concierge. It was October. The hostelry had seen their finale for the season. In a ruse, head of East Germany’s Stasi, General Erich Mielke, lured Bernie to a restaurant for dinner.Five months earlier, on the Riviera, Mielke set Bernie up in a sting to protect East Germany’s deeply embedded spy in MI5. However, there was still a loose end, English spy and double agent, Anne French, who had fled to the southeast coast of England. In order for Bernie to remain alive, Mielke demanded he eliminate her. But Bernie realized he would also be a loose end if he carried out Mielke’s order. On a train bound for England, Bernie fought his way out of the Stasis’ tight grip and leapt from the train. To make sure Bernie was caught, Mielke’s minion, Friedrich Korsch, murdered the train’s policeman. Hence, Bernie became a cop killer. A desperate, hunted fugitive in France, with no support.Seventeen years earlier, in April 1939, Bernie recalled his previous life as Commissar of Berlin, Germany’s Police. He had been ordered by General Heydrich to investigate a murder in Obersalzberg for Hitler’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Martin Bormann. Dr. Karl Flex, an engineer, had been murdered in the Berghof on the terrace of Hitler’s mountain retreat. Bormann commanded Bernie find the killer immediately before Hitler returned for his fiftieth birthday. Bernie’s assistant, at that time, was none other than the thuggish, Friedrich Korsh.In flash backs, Bernie recalled how Mielke reminded him of Martin Bormann. Both were brutal criminals, power-hungry, and avaricious.Bernie was tough-minded, committed, and tenacious, like a dog with a bone. He had a way of getting under your skin. He ‘shot from the hip’ with quips that were witty, insightful, or inflammatory. Yet Bernie was not a member of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, nor an extremist or racist. He was empathetic and humane. In 1939, his assistant, Detective Friedrich Korsch wanted them to quit and leave Obersalzberg. Korsch remarked, “They (Nazis) all think their best arguments come from the barrel of a gun. You don’t know when it’s in your own interest to stop.” Hitler’s upper echelon, desensitized Nazis in Obersalzberg, hated Bernie’s intrusion and abrasiveness. He would find out secrets that were best kept hidden. On his return to Homburg and the Schlossberg Caves, Bernie realized there was nothing new under the sun.Author, Philip Kerr, is masterful in writing Prussian Blue in flash backs. The novel has a good story that is thrilling and full of suspense. It parallels Bernie Gunther being down on his luck and hunted in the fall of 1956 and, in April 1939, he is the successful Commissar of Berlin Police, who hunts down the suspect that committed a murder on Hitler’s estate.I like that Kerr always gives you a slice of German history before and after World War II. Although the book is fiction, Kerr interweaved in the notorious men and women, who were in Hitler’s circle. He provided factual information and updates you on their demise in the Author’s Note and Acknowledgments.There is no doubt a sequel will follow. I gave this book five stars.

The is in the Bernie Gunther series. If you are already reading the series you know the protagonist and what the structure is like. If you are new to the series - you are probably better off digging up the first few novels so you'll get a better sense of what is occurring. In brief, the main character Bernie Gunther was a pretty good detective in pre-WW2 Berlin. Good as in, he was not overtly crooked and good in the sense he opposed Hitler and the Nazis and could see the disaster to come. He is not a classic hero however because in the end he goes along to get along, so he can save himself and various friends, wives and colleagues. He serves in various capacities in the Nazi police infrastructure and later survived into post-WW2 West Germany.The structure of the novels typically has two plot streams - one in the current time frame (usually post-war late 1940-1950 Europe, Cuba or South America) and one in the past - pre-WW2 and WW2 Germany. In the past Gunther ends up investigating murders and mayhem with actual historical figures popping in and out. This is really one of the strengths of the works - well researched and clever time lines that are all indeed plausible. In the post-war present Gunther is trying to survive and live a quiet life with his head down but the past often surfaces to drag him back. There is usually a common thread or character(s) linking the two plot streams: old comrades, enemies and friends. One of the strengths is the depiction of the "villains". They are not stupid - they can be frankly evil and horrifying but many are quite sly and devious - so the reader and Bernie need to have their wits about them.In this current novel, Gunther is sent to sort out a mysterious shooting death on a balcony of a villa in Berchtesgaden - where Hitler frequents. This is in the period just before the outbreak of WW2. He is under a deadline to solve the murder and produce a satisfactory solution before Hitler visits. In the present, an old enemy from the previous entry in the series has come to strong arm him into doing a crime - something Bernie does not want to do, so he goes on the run. The two plots become linked as the person Bernie hunts in the past leads him to a place in the present where he seeks sanctuary.It is one of the better entries and again, the research background is excellent with little twists like the less well known use of amphetamines.

A great read.

Kerr is a new discovery for me and a joy. The first twist to his thrillers is that they are set in nazi Germany, or post war still affected by nazi past, amazingly well researched. His nazi loathing detective has to survive in this world. Not only does he survive, but against his will finds himself working with top nazis often, because he is a great detective. While Bernie Gunther survives, he is continually faced with terrible moral dilemmas. His battles with his conscience make the reader suffer for him, but his attitude towards women probably don’t, very pre me too, but we can forgive him for his age is a pre me too age. Gripping, historically fascinating - every book includes detailed info. About the true facts it is partly based on - and on a human level, often very moving.

Da série do detive Bernie Günter atuando na segunda grande guerra.O autor como sempre em seus romances, retrata algo de verídico.Muito bom o conteúdo descrito

I always look forward to any new novels by Philip Kerr. His Bernie Gunther novels all leave me with the hope that there will be more to come. Prussian Blue did not disappoint, in fact I think it is one of Kerr’s best novels. Bernie is getting older but I hope Kerr can find some way to prolong his existence. Well done, Philip Kerr!

I was intrigued by the covers of these books and the extremely positive reviews made me ever more tempted. However, after a few initial chapters set in 1956, I thought that this was going to be a pulp fiction novel that would be difficult to get through. A little way in, the story reverts back to 1939 and instead of the hero being on the run in France from the Stasi, here he is plunged into the evil and corrupt political world of Nazi Germany. I had initially been sceptical of crime writers, considering them the little more than airport fiction writers and have tended to steer away from them in favour of more literary authors such as Iain McEwan, William Boyd and Kate Atkinson. My bias was initially swept away by Reginald Hill's excellent Dalziel & Pascoe books but Philip Kerr is now a writer that I would add to this list. Turning back the clock to 1939, the novel immediately goes up a number of gears and from then on is impossible to put down. Although I love history, I tend to lose interest post-1918 and any mention or the Nazis or Communism is generally something I find off-putting. This novel is largely successful because the whole premise is built upon some incredible background research. Gunther may be something of a stock character, the laconic and put upon anti-hero but he is a likeablecharacter and the perfect literary device for exploring the criminal under-belly of the Nazi hierarchy. With Gunther assigned to investigate a murder in Hitler's Bavarian retreat the premise for the thriller, the author cleverly evokes a world of suspicion and mistrust where solving the crime is not as important as getting a result. The plot was not obvious but to be brutally honest, the pleasure in reading this book stems from the authentic feel of the era. Real characters and events permeate this novel and whilst it if fair to say that this was a page-turner that will have you racing towards the conclusion, the strength of this book rests in it's portrayal of the "banality of evil." Simply, it feels authentic.There are a few deluded "good" characters in this book who are still in thrall of Hitler if not all of his colleagues. For me, it was the odd details such as the paranoia surrounding Hitler's dislike of smoking that add credibility to this novel. I found this book impossible to put down with the diversion of the chapters in 1956 eventually grabbing my attention as the book reached it's conclusion although it did not explain how a former colleague ended up becoming a villain.The book is well crafted yet very readable. I felt that Kerr was creative enough to evoke a world that I had no interest in previously but which fascinated in it's depiction of the corruption of the Nazi's in a more human level as opposed to being comic book villains worthy of Indiana Jones. Under Kerr's pen, the world of Nazi Germany resonates with more recent events with the fabrication of recent history being something that Trump shares with Hitler. Kerr is a brilliant writer.All in all, in my opinion the positive reviews of this book are truly merited and the negative reviews can be dismissed. After a rather brutal and unpleasant beginning, this book snaps in to gear and was compelling enough to have meordering a second novel when this one was little more than a quarter of the way through. The only startling thing about this book was that Gunther has not materialised either on screen or in a TV series. In the past the Nazis have been portrayed as almost ridiculous yet in the craftsmanship of Kerr's brilliant writing and thorough research, a more credible interpretation emerges which illustrates the cynical fashion under which standard police investigations mutated in to something political and sinister. Phillip Kerr's Bernie Gunther is a real find.