Series Review
Chasing Murderers in the Most Murderous Regime in History: Nazi-Occupied Europe
Berlin cop Bernie Gunther leaves the police force before the Nazi's can throw him out and sets up shop as a P.I. investigating missing persons, mainly Jews. In each of the nine novels in the Bernie Gunther Mystery Books series, Bernie finds himself in the middle of a well-known historical event including the Night of Long Knives, Kristalnacht, the 1936 Olympics and the post-war search for Adolf Eichmann.
Dark doings in a dark time written with noir flair and a keen eye for historical detail
An outstanding series of crime novels. Noir doesn't get blacker or better than this. Kerr writes extremely well. If you can stand the depravity and the violence, these are riveting tales of one man's attempt to survive a living nightmare and still retain a shred of decency. I can't put them down.
Series Guide
Read these mysteries in any order. For a "big" novel--spanning 20 years--choose Field Gray (#7).
Book Summaries
Below, a list of the Bernie Gunther crime novels, in order of publication:
Bernie slogs through the depraved depths of Nazi culture from sex clubs to concentration camps.
In the days before Kristalnacht, Gunther tracks a killer of young girls in the ranks of the SS.
A Russian secret policeman sends Bernie on a search for a murderer in post-war Berlin and Vienna.
Berlin Noir (1993, Bernie Gunther Mystery Books #1, #2 and #3)
Omnibus edition includes March Violets (#1), The Pale Criminal (#2) and A German Requiem (#3).
On the hunt for a former concentration camp commandant in post-war Munich
Falsely accused of war crimes, Bernie flees with Adolf Eichmann to Argentina and finds the same ruthlessness, venality and corruption he hoped to leave behind.
It's 1954 and Bernie is living an uneventful life in Havana, Cuba--until he encounters a gangster he first met long ago in Nazi Germany.
Field Gray (2010, Bernie Gunther Mystery Books #7)
Bernie is in prison, first in Guantanamo, Cuba then in Germany, and tells the story of his horrific experiences on the Eastern front.
In 1941, Bernie goes to Prague, Czechoslovakia at the behest of the odious Reinhard Heydrich who fears assassination.
1943. Bernie is sent to the Katyn Forest near Smolensk, Russia to investigate a possible war crime, one that the Nazis hope to turn into anti-Russian propaganda.