Bernie Gunther
Created by Philip Kerr (1956-)

"Murders were a lot easier to catch before Hitler came to power... for one thing, they weren't so think on the ground as they are now."
-- Bernie in The One from the Other

BERNARD GUNTHER is a former soldier (he fought with the Wehrmacht on the Turkish Front in the first World War) and a ex-cop (an inspector for the Kriminalpolizei) now working as a private eye in the pre-World War II years of Berlin, specializing in the missing persons. Due to the rise of National Socialism, business is coming along nicely, thank you, even if Bernie doesn't seem to be making many friends with the powers that be. These books offer a harsh look at and a hard criticism of Nazism.

Somehow Bernie manages to survive the war, and emerges in the third novel, A German Requiem, re-established as a P.I. in the smug, hypocritical world of 1947 Vienna, with its corruption, its black markets and its prostitution.

The first novel, March Violets ( or l'été de cristal as it was called in France) won the Prix du roman d'aventures 1993. Author Philip Kerr is a Scotsman, but he's certainly done his research. Sharply-drawn characters and an in-your-face history lesson make this one of the very best, and most intriguing historical detective series.

UPDATE

• After fifteen years of critical acclaim, from these pages and elsewhere, for the magnificent standalone trilogy that was "The Berlin Trilogy," Kerr decided to bring back Bernie. The One From the Other (2006) found Bernie managing a failing hotel in the shadow of the Dachau concentration camp, contemplating re-opening his private detective agency in the brave new world of American-occupied Germany, and 2009's A Quiet Flame has Bernie taking it on the lam to Argentina in 1950, falsely accused of being a war criminal

THE EVIDENCE

• "I used to take a satisfaction in protecting society. Now I wouldn't know where to start."
  -- Bernie looks back on his days as a cop, pre-Hitler, in The One from the Other
  
  
• "Everyone was throwing money at me. A thousand marks here, A thousand marks there. I felt like an official in the Reich Ministry of Justice."
  -- Bernie, ibid.
  
  
• "I don't like it one bit. But I'm delighted to see it exhibited without any interference from people who know as little about art as I do... That's democracy, I guess."
  -- Bernie, when asked if he likes a particular piece of modern art, ibid.

NOVELS

• March Violets (1989)...Buy this book
• The Pale Criminal (1990)...Buy this book
• A German Requiem (1991)...Buy this book
• The One From the Other (2006) .. Buy this book
• A Quiet Flame (2009) ...Buy this book

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Merci à Marcel Bernadac for helping fill in some of the details on this one.