Serial misogynist?, 19 Jun 2008
I'm not a huge fan of detective or crime stories. I've read a few of the modern crop. Starring world weary cops/forensic pathologists/police photographers etc who are so much better than their incompetent colleagues, yet drink like fishes at a curry contest and get off with every woman they meet. John Actor plays Monkfish etc. Yawn. But a detective in Nazi Germany? That sounded interesting: historically intriguing, and ethically too. A policeman floundering in a corrupt society, full of the echoes of history.

Unfortunately, what I found were all the usual clichés, plus a lot worse. Unreal dialogue, plentiful name-dropping: oh yes, and a low ranking detective who talks back to the likes of Heydrich, Himmler, and Göring.

Dialogue is often nonsensical. Like when Bernie agrees with Heydrich not to humiliate Himmler in front of his SS subordinates - and then goes on to do just that. Plot devices are daft too: Bernie begs an armed assassin to shoot him in the head, not the stomach, as it'll save him a lot of pain (and thereby impresses us with Bernie's knowledge of the foibles of certain WWI era firearms). As if the assassin would give a damn. Talk about a crow-bar plot.

Furthermore, there's an unpleasant tendency towards misogyny in these books. They glory in it. Admittedly men are killed in the stories, too. But Kerr seems rather hung up on plotlines involving the graphic torture and mutilation of women. I think it's just a tad sick that all three of these books recycle the same misogynistic theme. But that's just me I guess, eh?

And the final story: German Requiem. A cringe-inducing knock-off of The Third Man (though Kerr seems to be under the impression that it's his work that is the better of the two). Apparently German Requiem is about a `scandal that makes the wartime atrocities pale in comparison'. All I can say is the atrocities committed by both sides during the war were rather more shocking than Kerr's petty storyline.

You want a real feel for history then read Len Deighton's masterful spy series: Game, Set, and Match; Hook, Line and Sinker; and Faith, Hope, and Charity; Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1945. They positively drip the stuff. History, that is.

And then read Bomber.

Highly recommendable :), 30 Mar 2008
I can highly recommend anyone who is interested in German and European history and want to have a interesting read at the same time.

I am at the same time an amateur expert on the period, and I have not found a single historical or geographical mistake, which is not the case with Alan Fursts "Night Soldiers", which I have also reviewed on this site.

All the Berlin Noir stories should be made into films :))

forgton your German history?, 22 Mar 2008
Supberb triple thirllers,If you have forgoten your german history 1937 onwards.This three books will remind you. Wonderfull detective stories interwoven with true facts from that terrible era from before ,during and after the second world war. Brillant read for teenagers or uni students that dont know much about this time, it might just show them genocide is not just a modern subject. Waiting on amazon delivering the next in the series so as to read them in order. Hurry up amazon.
Peter Anderson Milton of Campsie Scotland

A German Sam Spade, 16 May 2007
Bernie Gunther is an ex Kripo (German CID) officer working as a private detective in pre and post war Berlin. He is tough, cynical and wisecraking, but also honest and decent. In fact he is Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe transplaned from California to Germany. Bernie's job brings him into contact with historical figures like Himmler, Goering and Artur Nebe, the real life wartime head of the German Kripo.

Philip Kerr is one of those writers who can transplant you into a different world, in this case pre and post war Germany. In doing so he has created a number of slang terms which I do not know if they are real German slang but it does not matter as they sound right.

Berlin Noir contains three out of four Bernie Gunther novels, March Violets, The Pale Criminal and German Requiem. The first of these also concerns the German Rings who Mafia like controlled crime in pre Nazi Berlin. The Rings were destroyed by more violent criminals, the Nazis.

The Pale Criminal has Bernie recruited back into the Berlin Police in order to catch a serial killer who may be linked to the ruling Nazi Party. German Requiem moves to post war Berlin and Vienna with refences to the Third Man.

All three stand up in their own right and Mr Kerr can be congratulated on coming up with a new idea and for being able to create a milleu as well as being able to plot and write very well indeed.

Bernie Gunther is welcome and different addition to the ranks of fictional dectectives

A knight without armor in a savage land, 20 Nov 2006
"A good story cannot be devised it has to be distilled." Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler was a master at taking a plot and distilling it into a taut, splendid story. Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett, pretty much invented the "hard-boiled detective". So, when a writer, in this instance Philip Kerr, comes along who is repeatedly compared to Raymond Chandler comes along, I can't resist seeing for myself. I'm happy I picked up Berlin Noir and, even if Kerr is not quite Chandler, his stories are so well written that he need not be embarrassed by the comparison.

Berlin Noir consists of three Kerr novels, "March Violets", "The Pale Criminal", and "German Requiem". They each feature Kerr's exquisitely drawn detective Bernie Gunther. If you've read Hammett, Cain, or Chandler, Gunther is instantly recognizable. He's a tough ex-cop now working as a private eye. He's bitter and cynical and sees the corruption all around him. He also has an eye for the ladies as well as a taste for booze. But for all his flaws he lives up to a certain code; he knows the world isn't black and white but he has his own moral compass and lives by it - for the most part.

What distinguishes Gunther from Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe is location. Gunther is a German, and instead of Los Angeles, he makes his base in Berlin. The three stories are set in 1936 (March Violets"), 1938 ("Pale Criminal"), and 1947 (the aptly named "German Requiem") against the backdrop of the rise and fall of Hitler's Nazi Germany. He left the Berlin police once the force became nothing more than a tool of the new regime. The time and setting are perfect for a genre in which shades of grey dominate the palette. Gunther is tasked with solving crimes while navigating the Byzantine-maze of inter-party rivalries, many of which are deadly.

I was fascinated by Gunther and the world Kerry paints for him. I usually take a break in between books that are part of a series but I couldn't do that with the three stories in Berlin Noir. They are all well-crafted and suspenseful. Although Kerr is clearing paying homage to his genre the stories are original and not generic. In other words Kerr is not the literary equivalent of an Elvis-impersonator. He has written these stories within the confines of a genre but has not sacrificed his own voice. The plots are complex but not so complex that they cannot be followed. With each story the personality of Gunther becomes a bit clearer so that by the time the reader is finished with them, Gunther is really a fully-formed and very believable character.

Kerr has just published a new Bernie Gunther novel entitled "The One from the Other". I am about one third of the way through it. It is an excellent sequel made all the more enjoyable by having read "Berlin Noir". Highly recommended. L. Fleisig

Serial misogynist?, 19 Jun 2008
I'm not a huge fan of detective or crime stories. I've read a few of the modern crop. Starring world weary cops/forensic pathologists/police photographers etc who are so much better than their incompetent colleagues, yet drink like fishes at a curry contest and get off with every woman they meet. John Actor plays Monkfish etc. Yawn. But a detective in Nazi Germany? That sounded interesting: historically intriguing, and ethically too. A policeman floundering in a corrupt society, full of the echoes of history.

Unfortunately, what I found were all the usual clichés, plus a lot worse. Unreal dialogue, plentiful name-dropping: oh yes, and a low ranking detective who talks back to the likes of Heydrich, Himmler, and Göring.

Dialogue is often nonsensical. Like when Bernie agrees with Heydrich not to humiliate Himmler in front of his SS subordinates - and then goes on to do just that. Plot devices are daft too: Bernie begs an armed assassin to shoot him in the head, not the stomach, as it'll save him a lot of pain (and thereby impresses us with Bernie's knowledge of the foibles of certain WWI era firearms). As if the assassin would give a damn. Talk about a crow-bar plot.

Furthermore, there's an unpleasant tendency towards misogyny in these books. They glory in it. Admittedly men are killed in the stories, too. But Kerr seems rather hung up on plotlines involving the graphic torture and mutilation of women. I think it's just a tad sick that all three of these books recycle the same misogynistic theme. But that's just me I guess, eh?

And the final story: German Requiem. A cringe-inducing knock-off of The Third Man (though Kerr seems to be under the impression that it's his work that is the better of the two). Apparently German Requiem is about a `scandal that makes the wartime atrocities pale in comparison'. All I can say is the atrocities committed by both sides during the war were rather more shocking than Kerr's petty storyline.

You want a real feel for history then read Len Deighton's masterful spy series: Game, Set, and Match; Hook, Line and Sinker; and Faith, Hope, and Charity; Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1945. They positively drip the stuff. History, that is.

And then read Bomber.

Highly recommendable :), 30 Mar 2008
I can highly recommend anyone who is interested in German and European history and want to have a interesting read at the same time.

I am at the same time an amateur expert on the period, and I have not found a single historical or geographical mistake, which is not the case with Alan Fursts "Night Soldiers", which I have also reviewed on this site.

All the Berlin Noir stories should be made into films :))

forgton your German history?, 22 Mar 2008
Supberb triple thirllers,If you have forgoten your german history 1937 onwards.This three books will remind you. Wonderfull detective stories interwoven with true facts from that terrible era from before ,during and after the second world war. Brillant read for teenagers or uni students that dont know much about this time, it might just show them genocide is not just a modern subject. Waiting on amazon delivering the next in the series so as to read them in order. Hurry up amazon.
Peter Anderson Milton of Campsie Scotland

A German Sam Spade, 16 May 2007
Bernie Gunther is an ex Kripo (German CID) officer working as a private detective in pre and post war Berlin. He is tough, cynical and wisecraking, but also honest and decent. In fact he is Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe transplaned from California to Germany. Bernie's job brings him into contact with historical figures like Himmler, Goering and Artur Nebe, the real life wartime head of the German Kripo.

Philip Kerr is one of those writers who can transplant you into a different world, in this case pre and post war Germany. In doing so he has created a number of slang terms which I do not know if they are real German slang but it does not matter as they sound right.

Berlin Noir contains three out of four Bernie Gunther novels, March Violets, The Pale Criminal and German Requiem. The first of these also concerns the German Rings who Mafia like controlled crime in pre Nazi Berlin. The Rings were destroyed by more violent criminals, the Nazis.

The Pale Criminal has Bernie recruited back into the Berlin Police in order to catch a serial killer who may be linked to the ruling Nazi Party. German Requiem moves to post war Berlin and Vienna with refences to the Third Man.

All three stand up in their own right and Mr Kerr can be congratulated on coming up with a new idea and for being able to create a milleu as well as being able to plot and write very well indeed.

Bernie Gunther is welcome and different addition to the ranks of fictional dectectives

A knight without armor in a savage land, 20 Nov 2006
"A good story cannot be devised it has to be distilled." Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler was a master at taking a plot and distilling it into a taut, splendid story. Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett, pretty much invented the "hard-boiled detective". So, when a writer, in this instance Philip Kerr, comes along who is repeatedly compared to Raymond Chandler comes along, I can't resist seeing for myself. I'm happy I picked up Berlin Noir and, even if Kerr is not quite Chandler, his stories are so well written that he need not be embarrassed by the comparison.

Berlin Noir consists of three Kerr novels, "March Violets", "The Pale Criminal", and "German Requiem". They each feature Kerr's exquisitely drawn detective Bernie Gunther. If you've read Hammett, Cain, or Chandler, Gunther is instantly recognizable. He's a tough ex-cop now working as a private eye. He's bitter and cynical and sees the corruption all around him. He also has an eye for the ladies as well as a taste for booze. But for all his flaws he lives up to a certain code; he knows the world isn't black and white but he has his own moral compass and lives by it - for the most part.

What distinguishes Gunther from Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe is location. Gunther is a German, and instead of Los Angeles, he makes his base in Berlin. The three stories are set in 1936 (March Violets"), 1938 ("Pale Criminal"), and 1947 (the aptly named "German Requiem") against the backdrop of the rise and fall of Hitler's Nazi Germany. He left the Berlin police once the force became nothing more than a tool of the new regime. The time and setting are perfect for a genre in which shades of grey dominate the palette. Gunther is tasked with solving crimes while navigating the Byzantine-maze of inter-party rivalries, many of which are deadly.

I was fascinated by Gunther and the world Kerry paints for him. I usually take a break in between books that are part of a series but I couldn't do that with the three stories in Berlin Noir. They are all well-crafted and suspenseful. Although Kerr is clearing paying homage to his genre the stories are original and not generic. In other words Kerr is not the literary equivalent of an Elvis-impersonator. He has written these stories within the confines of a genre but has not sacrificed his own voice. The plots are complex but not so complex that they cannot be followed. With each story the personality of Gunther becomes a bit clearer so that by the time the reader is finished with them, Gunther is really a fully-formed and very believable character.

Kerr has just published a new Bernie Gunther novel entitled "The One from the Other". I am about one third of the way through it. It is an excellent sequel made all the more enjoyable by having read "Berlin Noir". Highly recommended. L. Fleisig


Christmas Can Be Murder, 02 Jan 2008
This is a collection of three Christmas mystery novellas written by three great cozy writers. Starring their series sleuths, they stand alone well enough to be entertaining for any cozy fan looking for some light reading in December.

Up first is the title story. "Candy Cane Murder" by Joanne Fluke finds Hannah Swenson playing Santa's helper, literally, at the Lake Eden Inn. Wayne Bergstrom, owner of a local department store, is doing his annual good deed playing Santa for the underprivileged kids in the area. But when leaving the party a little while later, she follows a trail of candy canes to find Wayne's body in a snow bank. Who would want Wayne dead? For a novella mystery, this one is fairly complex. Any of Hannah's numerous fans will love this story. It's a cozy Christmas offering and includes 8 cookie recipes, 2 drink recipes, and 2 quiche recipes.

Next comes "The Dangers of Candy Canes" by Laura Levine. I'm a fan of Laura's books so was thrilled to find another story starring freelance writer Jaine Austen. When one of Jaine's clients, Seymour Fiedler of Fiedler on the Roof Roofers, is sued for wrongful death, he hires Jaine to put down her pen and solve the crime. Seems that Garth Jankin fell off his recently reroofed house while decorating for his neighborhood's annual Christmas decorating contest. Since Garth had numerous enemies, Jaine quickly decides that the tiles were loosened. But who would do something like that? As with the books, this story is very funny. A sub-plot about Jaine volunteering with a group that mentors underprivileged girls almost slows the story down at times. But in the end this is a fun read.

Even though she's a staple of the cozy sub-genre, I have never read Leslie Meier before. I changed that with the third story, "Candy Canes of Christmas Past." This story takes us back in time to the first Christmas that series star Lucy Stone spent in Tinker Cove, Maine. Lucy is trying to deal with her husband's project, fixing up their home. So when town librarian Miss Tilly is nice to Lucy, Lucy looks for some way to repay her new friend. And that's how she begins trying to uncover the circumstances surrounding Miss Tilly's mother's death almost 50 years before. This story is as much about Lucy's struggles to fit into a new town and live in an old house as it is about the mystery. In fact, this was the weakest mystery of the book by far. But I liked the characters and plan to read the first in the series soon. This story includes 2 recipes, bringing the total for the book to 14.

If you love cozies and want to book to put you in the Christmas mood, this is the book for you. Pick it up and enjoy today.

A Bit of Seasonal Fun with Familiar Old Friends..., 17 Dec 2007
This `Christmas Special' is made up of three seasonal novellas written by well known cosy-crime authors:

The first of these is `Candy Cane Murder' by Joanne Fluke. In this story Hannah, the owner of `The Cookie Jar', is helping out at a Christmas Charity event when the man playing Santa is found dead. As you would expect Hannah tries to help solve the murder with the help of her sisters, mother and boyfriend Norman. This is a nice novella, very Christmassy and will be a great seasonal fix for those who enjoy the novels in this series. The other good thing about it is that is doesn't really interfere with the `love triangle' element of the series which means that it isn't essential that you read it before the next full length novel is out in the spring.

The next novella is `The Dangers of Candy Canes' by Laura Levine. I hadn't read anything by this author before and so it came as a nice surprise. The lead character, Jaine Austen, is a freelance writer and part-time sleuth. She is asked to investigate the death of a man who has fallen from a roof whilst putting up his Christmas decorations. Jaine finds that a number of the neighbours take the competition very seriously, but would anyone take it seriously enough to kill?
The heroine of this story is really likeable and the plot of the novella was good even though it was short. A great taster of a series that I will be going back to!

The last novella in this edition is `Candy Canes of Christmas Past' by Leslie Meier. I have to say that I haven't read any of Meier's previous novels although I am aware of them. I have to say that this was the most disappointing novella of the three although it might be a nice seasonal taster for fans of the series. Lucy Stone thinks back to a mystery that took place when she first arrived at Tinker's Cove, twenty years ago. The plot is flimsy and I couldn't really relate to the characters so not one for me!

Despite my feelings about the last novella, the edition as a whole is good value for money and will make pleasant light reading for the holidays. Recommended.

Serial misogynist?, 19 Jun 2008
I'm not a huge fan of detective or crime stories. I've read a few of the modern crop. Starring world weary cops/forensic pathologists/police photographers etc who are so much better than their incompetent colleagues, yet drink like fishes at a curry contest and get off with every woman they meet. John Actor plays Monkfish etc. Yawn. But a detective in Nazi Germany? That sounded interesting: historically intriguing, and ethically too. A policeman floundering in a corrupt society, full of the echoes of history.

Unfortunately, what I found were all the usual clichés, plus a lot worse. Unreal dialogue, plentiful name-dropping: oh yes, and a low ranking detective who talks back to the likes of Heydrich, Himmler, and Göring.

Dialogue is often nonsensical. Like when Bernie agrees with Heydrich not to humiliate Himmler in front of his SS subordinates - and then goes on to do just that. Plot devices are daft too: Bernie begs an armed assassin to shoot him in the head, not the stomach, as it'll save him a lot of pain (and thereby impresses us with Bernie's knowledge of the foibles of certain WWI era firearms). As if the assassin would give a damn. Talk about a crow-bar plot.

Furthermore, there's an unpleasant tendency towards misogyny in these books. They glory in it. Admittedly men are killed in the stories, too. But Kerr seems rather hung up on plotlines involving the graphic torture and mutilation of women. I think it's just a tad sick that all three of these books recycle the same misogynistic theme. But that's just me I guess, eh?

And the final story: German Requiem. A cringe-inducing knock-off of The Third Man (though Kerr seems to be under the impression that it's his work that is the better of the two). Apparently German Requiem is about a `scandal that makes the wartime atrocities pale in comparison'. All I can say is the atrocities committed by both sides during the war were rather more shocking than Kerr's petty storyline.

You want a real feel for history then read Len Deighton's masterful spy series: Game, Set, and Match; Hook, Line and Sinker; and Faith, Hope, and Charity; Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1945. They positively drip the stuff. History, that is.

And then read Bomber.

Highly recommendable :), 30 Mar 2008
I can highly recommend anyone who is interested in German and European history and want to have a interesting read at the same time.

I am at the same time an amateur expert on the period, and I have not found a single historical or geographical mistake, which is not the case with Alan Fursts "Night Soldiers", which I have also reviewed on this site.

All the Berlin Noir stories should be made into films :))

forgton your German history?, 22 Mar 2008
Supberb triple thirllers,If you have forgoten your german history 1937 onwards.This three books will remind you. Wonderfull detective stories interwoven with true facts from that terrible era from before ,during and after the second world war. Brillant read for teenagers or uni students that dont know much about this time, it might just show them genocide is not just a modern subject. Waiting on amazon delivering the next in the series so as to read them in order. Hurry up amazon.
Peter Anderson Milton of Campsie Scotland

A German Sam Spade, 16 May 2007
Bernie Gunther is an ex Kripo (German CID) officer working as a private detective in pre and post war Berlin. He is tough, cynical and wisecraking, but also honest and decent. In fact he is Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe transplaned from California to Germany. Bernie's job brings him into contact with historical figures like Himmler, Goering and Artur Nebe, the real life wartime head of the German Kripo.

Philip Kerr is one of those writers who can transplant you into a different world, in this case pre and post war Germany. In doing so he has created a number of slang terms which I do not know if they are real German slang but it does not matter as they sound right.

Berlin Noir contains three out of four Bernie Gunther novels, March Violets, The Pale Criminal and German Requiem. The first of these also concerns the German Rings who Mafia like controlled crime in pre Nazi Berlin. The Rings were destroyed by more violent criminals, the Nazis.

The Pale Criminal has Bernie recruited back into the Berlin Police in order to catch a serial killer who may be linked to the ruling Nazi Party. German Requiem moves to post war Berlin and Vienna with refences to the Third Man.

All three stand up in their own right and Mr Kerr can be congratulated on coming up with a new idea and for being able to create a milleu as well as being able to plot and write very well indeed.

Bernie Gunther is welcome and different addition to the ranks of fictional dectectives

A knight without armor in a savage land, 20 Nov 2006
"A good story cannot be devised it has to be distilled." Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler was a master at taking a plot and distilling it into a taut, splendid story. Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett, pretty much invented the "hard-boiled detective". So, when a writer, in this instance Philip Kerr, comes along who is repeatedly compared to Raymond Chandler comes along, I can't resist seeing for myself. I'm happy I picked up Berlin Noir and, even if Kerr is not quite Chandler, his stories are so well written that he need not be embarrassed by the comparison.

Berlin Noir consists of three Kerr novels, "March Violets", "The Pale Criminal", and "German Requiem". They each feature Kerr's exquisitely drawn detective Bernie Gunther. If you've read Hammett, Cain, or Chandler, Gunther is instantly recognizable. He's a tough ex-cop now working as a private eye. He's bitter and cynical and sees the corruption all around him. He also has an eye for the ladies as well as a taste for booze. But for all his flaws he lives up to a certain code; he knows the world isn't black and white but he has his own moral compass and lives by it - for the most part.

What distinguishes Gunther from Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe is location. Gunther is a German, and instead of Los Angeles, he makes his base in Berlin. The three stories are set in 1936 (March Violets"), 1938 ("Pale Criminal"), and 1947 (the aptly named "German Requiem") against the backdrop of the rise and fall of Hitler's Nazi Germany. He left the Berlin police once the force became nothing more than a tool of the new regime. The time and setting are perfect for a genre in which shades of grey dominate the palette. Gunther is tasked with solving crimes while navigating the Byzantine-maze of inter-party rivalries, many of which are deadly.

I was fascinated by Gunther and the world Kerry paints for him. I usually take a break in between books that are part of a series but I couldn't do that with the three stories in Berlin Noir. They are all well-crafted and suspenseful. Although Kerr is clearing paying homage to his genre the stories are original and not generic. In other words Kerr is not the literary equivalent of an Elvis-impersonator. He has written these stories within the confines of a genre but has not sacrificed his own voice. The plots are complex but not so complex that they cannot be followed. With each story the personality of Gunther becomes a bit clearer so that by the time the reader is finished with them, Gunther is really a fully-formed and very believable character.

Kerr has just published a new Bernie Gunther novel entitled "The One from the Other". I am about one third of the way through it. It is an excellent sequel made all the more enjoyable by having read "Berlin Noir". Highly recommended. L. Fleisig


Christmas Can Be Murder, 02 Jan 2008
This is a collection of three Christmas mystery novellas written by three great cozy writers. Starring their series sleuths, they stand alone well enough to be entertaining for any cozy fan looking for some light reading in December.

Up first is the title story. "Candy Cane Murder" by Joanne Fluke finds Hannah Swenson playing Santa's helper, literally, at the Lake Eden Inn. Wayne Bergstrom, owner of a local department store, is doing his annual good deed playing Santa for the underprivileged kids in the area. But when leaving the party a little while later, she follows a trail of candy canes to find Wayne's body in a snow bank. Who would want Wayne dead? For a novella mystery, this one is fairly complex. Any of Hannah's numerous fans will love this story. It's a cozy Christmas offering and includes 8 cookie recipes, 2 drink recipes, and 2 quiche recipes.

Next comes "The Dangers of Candy Canes" by Laura Levine. I'm a fan of Laura's books so was thrilled to find another story starring freelance writer Jaine Austen. When one of Jaine's clients, Seymour Fiedler of Fiedler on the Roof Roofers, is sued for wrongful death, he hires Jaine to put down her pen and solve the crime. Seems that Garth Jankin fell off his recently reroofed house while decorating for his neighborhood's annual Christmas decorating contest. Since Garth had numerous enemies, Jaine quickly decides that the tiles were loosened. But who would do something like that? As with the books, this story is very funny. A sub-plot about Jaine volunteering with a group that mentors underprivileged girls almost slows the story down at times. But in the end this is a fun read.

Even though she's a staple of the cozy sub-genre, I have never read Leslie Meier before. I changed that with the third story, "Candy Canes of Christmas Past." This story takes us back in time to the first Christmas that series star Lucy Stone spent in Tinker Cove, Maine. Lucy is trying to deal with her husband's project, fixing up their home. So when town librarian Miss Tilly is nice to Lucy, Lucy looks for some way to repay her new friend. And that's how she begins trying to uncover the circumstances surrounding Miss Tilly's mother's death almost 50 years before. This story is as much about Lucy's struggles to fit into a new town and live in an old house as it is about the mystery. In fact, this was the weakest mystery of the book by far. But I liked the characters and plan to read the first in the series soon. This story includes 2 recipes, bringing the total for the book to 14.

If you love cozies and want to book to put you in the Christmas mood, this is the book for you. Pick it up and enjoy today.

A Bit of Seasonal Fun with Familiar Old Friends..., 17 Dec 2007
This `Christmas Special' is made up of three seasonal novellas written by well known cosy-crime authors:

The first of these is `Candy Cane Murder' by Joanne Fluke. In this story Hannah, the owner of `The Cookie Jar', is helping out at a Christmas Charity event when the man playing Santa is found dead. As you would expect Hannah tries to help solve the murder with the help of her sisters, mother and boyfriend Norman. This is a nice novella, very Christmassy and will be a great seasonal fix for those who enjoy the novels in this series. The other good thing about it is that is doesn't really interfere with the `love triangle' element of the series which means that it isn't essential that you read it before the next full length novel is out in the spring.

The next novella is `The Dangers of Candy Canes' by Laura Levine. I hadn't read anything by this author before and so it came as a nice surprise. The lead character, Jaine Austen, is a freelance writer and part-time sleuth. She is asked to investigate the death of a man who has fallen from a roof whilst putting up his Christmas decorations. Jaine finds that a number of the neighbours take the competition very seriously, but would anyone take it seriously enough to kill?
The heroine of this story is really likeable and the plot of the novella was good even though it was short. A great taster of a series that I will be going back to!

The last novella in this edition is `Candy Canes of Christmas Past' by Leslie Meier. I have to say that I haven't read any of Meier's previous novels although I am aware of them. I have to say that this was the most disappointing novella of the three although it might be a nice seasonal taster for fans of the series. Lucy Stone thinks back to a mystery that took place when she first arrived at Tinker's Cove, twenty years ago. The plot is flimsy and I couldn't really relate to the characters so not one for me!

Despite my feelings about the last novella, the edition as a whole is good value for money and will make pleasant light reading for the holidays. Recommended.


Good holiday read, 13 Aug 2008
If you like quirky, short, crime stories, then this is the book for you. Unfortunately, I bought it because we are going to Vegas later this year and I thought it would increase my excitement about going. Instead it kind of made me nervous and hope it's not as horrible as some of these stories make out! Great for a holiday read when you don't want to expend too much time or energy reading.

Serial misogynist?, 19 Jun 2008
I'm not a huge fan of detective or crime stories. I've read a few of the modern crop. Starring world weary cops/forensic pathologists/police photographers etc who are so much better than their incompetent colleagues, yet drink like fishes at a curry contest and get off with every woman they meet. John Actor plays Monkfish etc. Yawn. But a detective in Nazi Germany? That sounded interesting: historically intriguing, and ethically too. A policeman floundering in a corrupt society, full of the echoes of history.

Unfortunately, what I found were all the usual clichés, plus a lot worse. Unreal dialogue, plentiful name-dropping: oh yes, and a low ranking detective who talks back to the likes of Heydrich, Himmler, and Göring.

Dialogue is often nonsensical. Like when Bernie agrees with Heydrich not to humiliate Himmler in front of his SS subordinates - and then goes on to do just that. Plot devices are daft too: Bernie begs an armed assassin to shoot him in the head, not the stomach, as it'll save him a lot of pain (and thereby impresses us with Bernie's knowledge of the foibles of certain WWI era firearms). As if the assassin would give a damn. Talk about a crow-bar plot.

Furthermore, there's an unpleasant tendency towards misogyny in these books. They glory in it. Admittedly men are killed in the stories, too. But Kerr seems rather hung up on plotlines involving the graphic torture and mutilation of women. I think it's just a tad sick that all three of these books recycle the same misogynistic theme. But that's just me I guess, eh?

And the final story: German Requiem. A cringe-inducing knock-off of The Third Man (though Kerr seems to be under the impression that it's his work that is the better of the two). Apparently German Requiem is about a `scandal that makes the wartime atrocities pale in comparison'. All I can say is the atrocities committed by both sides during the war were rather more shocking than Kerr's petty storyline.

You want a real feel for history then read Len Deighton's masterful spy series: Game, Set, and Match; Hook, Line and Sinker; and Faith, Hope, and Charity; Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1945. They positively drip the stuff. History, that is.

And then read Bomber.

Highly recommendable :), 30 Mar 2008
I can highly recommend anyone who is interested in German and European history and want to have a interesting read at the same time.

I am at the same time an amateur expert on the period, and I have not found a single historical or geographical mistake, which is not the case with Alan Fursts "Night Soldiers", which I have also reviewed on this site.

All the Berlin Noir stories should be made into films :))

forgton your German history?, 22 Mar 2008
Supberb triple thirllers,If you have forgoten your german history 1937 onwards.This three books will remind you. Wonderfull detective stories interwoven with true facts from that terrible era from before ,during and after the second world war. Brillant read for teenagers or uni students that dont know much about this time, it might just show them genocide is not just a modern subject. Waiting on amazon delivering the next in the series so as to read them in order. Hurry up amazon.
Peter Anderson Milton of Campsie Scotland

A German Sam Spade, 16 May 2007
Bernie Gunther is an ex Kripo (German CID) officer working as a private detective in pre and post war Berlin. He is tough, cynical and wisecraking, but also honest and decent. In fact he is Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe transplaned from California to Germany. Bernie's job brings him into contact with historical figures like Himmler, Goering and Artur Nebe, the real life wartime head of the German Kripo.

Philip Kerr is one of those writers who can transplant you into a different world, in this case pre and post war Germany. In doing so he has created a number of slang terms which I do not know if they are real German slang but it does not matter as they sound right.

Berlin Noir contains three out of four Bernie Gunther novels, March Violets, The Pale Criminal and German Requiem. The first of these also concerns the German Rings who Mafia like controlled crime in pre Nazi Berlin. The Rings were destroyed by more violent criminals, the Nazis.

The Pale Criminal has Bernie recruited back into the Berlin Police in order to catch a serial killer who may be linked to the ruling Nazi Party. German Requiem moves to post war Berlin and Vienna with refences to the Third Man.

All three stand up in their own right and Mr Kerr can be congratulated on coming up with a new idea and for being able to create a milleu as well as being able to plot and write very well indeed.

Bernie Gunther is welcome and different addition to the ranks of fictional dectectives

A knight without armor in a savage land, 20 Nov 2006
"A good story cannot be devised it has to be distilled." Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler was a master at taking a plot and distilling it into a taut, splendid story. Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett, pretty much invented the "hard-boiled detective". So, when a writer, in this instance Philip Kerr, comes along who is repeatedly compared to Raymond Chandler comes along, I can't resist seeing for myself. I'm happy I picked up Berlin Noir and, even if Kerr is not quite Chandler, his stories are so well written that he need not be embarrassed by the comparison.

Berlin Noir consists of three Kerr novels, "March Violets", "The Pale Criminal", and "German Requiem". They each feature Kerr's exquisitely drawn detective Bernie Gunther. If you've read Hammett, Cain, or Chandler, Gunther is instantly recognizable. He's a tough ex-cop now working as a private eye. He's bitter and cynical and sees the corruption all around him. He also has an eye for the ladies as well as a taste for booze. But for all his flaws he lives up to a certain code; he knows the world isn't black and white but he has his own moral compass and lives by it - for the most part.

What distinguishes Gunther from Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe is location. Gunther is a German, and instead of Los Angeles, he makes his base in Berlin. The three stories are set in 1936 (March Violets"), 1938 ("Pale Criminal"), and 1947 (the aptly named "German Requiem") against the backdrop of the rise and fall of Hitler's Nazi Germany. He left the Berlin police once the force became nothing more than a tool of the new regime. The time and setting are perfect for a genre in which shades of grey dominate the palette. Gunther is tasked with solving crimes while navigating the Byzantine-maze of inter-party rivalries, many of which are deadly.

I was fascinated by Gunther and the world Kerry paints for him. I usually take a break in between books that are part of a series but I couldn't do that with the three stories in Berlin Noir. They are all well-crafted and suspenseful. Although Kerr is clearing paying homage to his genre the stories are original and not generic. In other words Kerr is not the literary equivalent of an Elvis-impersonator. He has written these stories within the confines of a genre but has not sacrificed his own voice. The plots are complex but not so complex that they cannot be followed. With each story the personality of Gunther becomes a bit clearer so that by the time the reader is finished with them, Gunther is really a fully-formed and very believable character.

Kerr has just published a new Bernie Gunther novel entitled "The One from the Other". I am about one third of the way through it. It is an excellent sequel made all the more enjoyable by having read "Berlin Noir". Highly recommended. L. Fleisig


Christmas Can Be Murder, 02 Jan 2008
This is a collection of three Christmas mystery novellas written by three great cozy writers. Starring their series sleuths, they stand alone well enough to be entertaining for any cozy fan looking for some light reading in December.

Up first is the title story. "Candy Cane Murder" by Joanne Fluke finds Hannah Swenson playing Santa's helper, literally, at the Lake Eden Inn. Wayne Bergstrom, owner of a local department store, is doing his annual good deed playing Santa for the underprivileged kids in the area. But when leaving the party a little while later, she follows a trail of candy canes to find Wayne's body in a snow bank. Who would want Wayne dead? For a novella mystery, this one is fairly complex. Any of Hannah's numerous fans will love this story. It's a cozy Christmas offering and includes 8 cookie recipes, 2 drink recipes, and 2 quiche recipes.

Next comes "The Dangers of Candy Canes" by Laura Levine. I'm a fan of Laura's books so was thrilled to find another story starring freelance writer Jaine Austen. When one of Jaine's clients, Seymour Fiedler of Fiedler on the Roof Roofers, is sued for wrongful death, he hires Jaine to put down her pen and solve the crime. Seems that Garth Jankin fell off his recently reroofed house while decorating for his neighborhood's annual Christmas decorating contest. Since Garth had numerous enemies, Jaine quickly decides that the tiles were loosened. But who would do something like that? As with the books, this story is very funny. A sub-plot about Jaine volunteering with a group that mentors underprivileged girls almost slows the story down at times. But in the end this is a fun read.

Even though she's a staple of the cozy sub-genre, I have never read Leslie Meier before. I changed that with the third story, "Candy Canes of Christmas Past." This story takes us back in time to the first Christmas that series star Lucy Stone spent in Tinker Cove, Maine. Lucy is trying to deal with her husband's project, fixing up their home. So when town librarian Miss Tilly is nice to Lucy, Lucy looks for some way to repay her new friend. And that's how she begins trying to uncover the circumstances surrounding Miss Tilly's mother's death almost 50 years before. This story is as much about Lucy's struggles to fit into a new town and live in an old house as it is about the mystery. In fact, this was the weakest mystery of the book by far. But I liked the characters and plan to read the first in the series soon. This story includes 2 recipes, bringing the total for the book to 14.

If you love cozies and want to book to put you in the Christmas mood, this is the book for you. Pick it up and enjoy today.

A Bit of Seasonal Fun with Familiar Old Friends..., 17 Dec 2007
This `Christmas Special' is made up of three seasonal novellas written by well known cosy-crime authors:

The first of these is `Candy Cane Murder' by Joanne Fluke. In this story Hannah, the owner of `The Cookie Jar', is helping out at a Christmas Charity event when the man playing Santa is found dead. As you would expect Hannah tries to help solve the murder with the help of her sisters, mother and boyfriend Norman. This is a nice novella, very Christmassy and will be a great seasonal fix for those who enjoy the novels in this series. The other good thing about it is that is doesn't really interfere with the `love triangle' element of the series which means that it isn't essential that you read it before the next full length novel is out in the spring.

The next novella is `The Dangers of Candy Canes' by Laura Levine. I hadn't read anything by this author before and so it came as a nice surprise. The lead character, Jaine Austen, is a freelance writer and part-time sleuth. She is asked to investigate the death of a man who has fallen from a roof whilst putting up his Christmas decorations. Jaine finds that a number of the neighbours take the competition very seriously, but would anyone take it seriously enough to kill?
The heroine of this story is really likeable and the plot of the novella was good even though it was short. A great taster of a series that I will be going back to!

The last novella in this edition is `Candy Canes of Christmas Past' by Leslie Meier. I have to say that I haven't read any of Meier's previous novels although I am aware of them. I have to say that this was the most disappointing novella of the three although it might be a nice seasonal taster for fans of the series. Lucy Stone thinks back to a mystery that took place when she first arrived at Tinker's Cove, twenty years ago. The plot is flimsy and I couldn't really relate to the characters so not one for me!

Despite my feelings about the last novella, the edition as a whole is good value for money and will make pleasant light reading for the holidays. Recommended.


Good holiday read, 13 Aug 2008
If you like quirky, short, crime stories, then this is the book for you. Unfortunately, I bought it because we are going to Vegas later this year and I thought it would increase my excitement about going. Instead it kind of made me nervous and hope it's not as horrible as some of these stories make out! Great for a holiday read when you don't want to expend too much time or energy reading.

Role playing in your own house, 27 Jun 2001
A recommend this book to all of you who hate it when Miss Marple or Poirot solve the crime in the end of the movie and you hadn't been given every clue they have. This book will make you fill like a real detective, teach you stuff about balistics and poisons. Read it. But most of all PLAY IT.

Serial misogynist?, 19 Jun 2008
I'm not a huge fan of detective or crime stories. I've read a few of the modern crop. Starring world weary cops/forensic pathologists/police photographers etc who are so much better than their incompetent colleagues, yet drink like fishes at a curry contest and get off with every woman they meet. John Actor plays Monkfish etc. Yawn. But a detective in Nazi Germany? That sounded interesting: historically intriguing, and ethically too. A policeman floundering in a corrupt society, full of the echoes of history.

Unfortunately, what I found were all the usual clichés, plus a lot worse. Unreal dialogue, plentiful name-dropping: oh yes, and a low ranking detective who talks back to the likes of Heydrich, Himmler, and Göring.

Dialogue is often nonsensical. Like when Bernie agrees with Heydrich not to humiliate Himmler in front of his SS subordinates - and then goes on to do just that. Plot devices are daft too: Bernie begs an armed assassin to shoot him in the head, not the stomach, as it'll save him a lot of pain (and thereby impresses us with Bernie's knowledge of the foibles of certain WWI era firearms). As if the assassin would give a damn. Talk about a crow-bar plot.

Furthermore, there's an unpleasant tendency towards misogyny in these books. They glory in it. Admittedly men are killed in the stories, too. But Kerr seems rather hung up on plotlines involving the graphic torture and mutilation of women. I think it's just a tad sick that all three of these books recycle the same misogynistic theme. But that's just me I guess, eh?

And the final story: German Requiem. A cringe-inducing knock-off of The Third Man (though Kerr seems to be under the impression that it's his work that is the better of the two). Apparently German Requiem is about a `scandal that makes the wartime atrocities pale in comparison'. All I can say is the atrocities committed by both sides during the war were rather more shocking than Kerr's petty storyline.

You want a real feel for history then read Len Deighton's masterful spy series: Game, Set, and Match; Hook, Line and Sinker; and Faith, Hope, and Charity; Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1945. They positively drip the stuff. History, that is.

And then read Bomber.

Highly recommendable :), 30 Mar 2008
I can highly recommend anyone who is interested in German and European history and want to have a interesting read at the same time.

I am at the same time an amateur expert on the period, and I have not found a single historical or geographical mistake, which is not the case with Alan Fursts "Night Soldiers", which I have also reviewed on this site.

All the Berlin Noir stories should be made into films :))

forgton your German history?, 22 Mar 2008
Supberb triple thirllers,If you have forgoten your german history 1937 onwards.This three books will remind you. Wonderfull detective stories interwoven with true facts from that terrible era from before ,during and after the second world war. Brillant read for teenagers or uni students that dont know much about this time, it might just show them genocide is not just a modern subject. Waiting on amazon delivering the next in the series so as to read them in order. Hurry up amazon.
Peter Anderson Milton of Campsie Scotland

A German Sam Spade, 16 May 2007
Bernie Gunther is an ex Kripo (German CID) officer working as a private detective in pre and post war Berlin. He is tough, cynical and wisecraking, but also honest and decent. In fact he is Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe transplaned from California to Germany. Bernie's job brings him into contact with historical figures like Himmler, Goering and Artur Nebe, the real life wartime head of the German Kripo.

Philip Kerr is one of those writers who can transplant you into a different world, in this case pre and post war Germany. In doing so he has created a number of slang terms which I do not know if they are real German slang but it does not matter as they sound right.

Berlin Noir contains three out of four Bernie Gunther novels, March Violets, The Pale Criminal and German Requiem. The first of these also concerns the German Rings who Mafia like controlled crime in pre Nazi Berlin. The Rings were destroyed by more violent criminals, the Nazis.

The Pale Criminal has Bernie recruited back into the Berlin Police in order to catch a serial killer who may be linked to the ruling Nazi Party. German Requiem moves to post war Berlin and Vienna with refences to the Third Man.

All three stand up in their own right and Mr Kerr can be congratulated on coming up with a new idea and for being able to create a milleu as well as being able to plot and write very well indeed.

Bernie Gunther is welcome and different addition to the ranks of fictional dectectives

A knight without armor in a savage land, 20 Nov 2006
"A good story cannot be devised it has to be distilled." Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler was a master at taking a plot and distilling it into a taut, splendid story. Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett, pretty much invented the "hard-boiled detective". So, when a writer, in this instance Philip Kerr, comes along who is repeatedly compared to Raymond Chandler comes along, I can't resist seeing for myself. I'm happy I picked up Berlin Noir and, even if Kerr is not quite Chandler, his stories are so well written that he need not be embarrassed by the comparison.

Berlin Noir consists of three Kerr novels, "March Violets", "The Pale Criminal", and "German Requiem". They each feature Kerr's exquisitely drawn detective Bernie Gunther. If you've read Hammett, Cain, or Chandler, Gunther is instantly recognizable. He's a tough ex-cop now working as a private eye. He's bitter and cynical and sees the corruption all around him. He also has an eye for the ladies as well as a taste for booze. But for all his flaws he lives up to a certain code; he knows the world isn't black and white but he has his own moral compass and lives by it - for the most part.

What distinguishes Gunther from Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe is location. Gunther is a German, and instead of Los Angeles, he makes his base in Berlin. The three stories are set in 1936 (March Violets"), 1938 ("Pale Criminal"), and 1947 (the aptly named "German Requiem") against the backdrop of the rise and fall of Hitler's Nazi Germany. He left the Berlin police once the force became nothing more than a tool of the new regime. The time and setting are perfect for a genre in which shades of grey dominate the palette. Gunther is tasked with solving crimes while navigating the Byzantine-maze of inter-party rivalries, many of which are deadly.

I was fascinated by Gunther and the world Kerry paints for him. I usually take a break in between books that are part of a series but I couldn't do that with the three stories in Berlin Noir. They are all well-crafted and suspenseful. Although Kerr is clearing paying homage to his genre the stories are original and not generic. In other words Kerr is not the literary equivalent of an Elvis-impersonator. He has written these stories within the confines of a genre but has not sacrificed his own voice. The plots are complex but not so complex that they cannot be followed. With each story the personality of Gunther becomes a bit clearer so that by the time the reader is finished with them, Gunther is really a fully-formed and very believable character.

Kerr has just published a new Bernie Gunther novel entitled "The One from the Other". I am about one third of the way through it. It is an excellent sequel made all the more enjoyable by having read "Berlin Noir". Highly recommended. L. Fleisig


Christmas Can Be Murder, 02 Jan 2008
This is a collection of three Christmas mystery novellas written by three great cozy writers. Starring their series sleuths, they stand alone well enough to be entertaining for any cozy fan looking for some light reading in December.

Up first is the title story. "Candy Cane Murder" by Joanne Fluke finds Hannah Swenson playing Santa's helper, literally, at the Lake Eden Inn. Wayne Bergstrom, owner of a local department store, is doing his annual good deed playing Santa for the underprivileged kids in the area. But when leaving the party a little while later, she follows a trail of candy canes to find Wayne's body in a snow bank. Who would want Wayne dead? For a novella mystery, this one is fairly complex. Any of Hannah's numerous fans will love this story. It's a cozy Christmas offering and includes 8 cookie recipes, 2 drink recipes, and 2 quiche recipes.

Next comes "The Dangers of Candy Canes" by Laura Levine. I'm a fan of Laura's books so was thrilled to find another story starring freelance writer Jaine Austen. When one of Jaine's clients, Seymour Fiedler of Fiedler on the Roof Roofers, is sued for wrongful death, he hires Jaine to put down her pen and solve the crime. Seems that Garth Jankin fell off his recently reroofed house while decorating for his neighborhood's annual Christmas decorating contest. Since Garth had numerous enemies, Jaine quickly decides that the tiles were loosened. But who would do something like that? As with the books, this story is very funny. A sub-plot about Jaine volunteering with a group that mentors underprivileged girls almost slows the story down at times. But in the end this is a fun read.

Even though she's a staple of the cozy sub-genre, I have never read Leslie Meier before. I changed that with the third story, "Candy Canes of Christmas Past." This story takes us back in time to the first Christmas that series star Lucy Stone spent in Tinker Cove, Maine. Lucy is trying to deal with her husband's project, fixing up their home. So when town librarian Miss Tilly is nice to Lucy, Lucy looks for some way to repay her new friend. And that's how she begins trying to uncover the circumstances surrounding Miss Tilly's mother's death almost 50 years before. This story is as much about Lucy's struggles to fit into a new town and live in an old house as it is about the mystery. In fact, this was the weakest mystery of the book by far. But I liked the characters and plan to read the first in the series soon. This story includes 2 recipes, bringing the total for the book to 14.

If you love cozies and want to book to put you in the Christmas mood, this is the book for you. Pick it up and enjoy today.

A Bit of Seasonal Fun with Familiar Old Friends..., 17 Dec 2007
This `Christmas Special' is made up of three seasonal novellas written by well known cosy-crime authors:

The first of these is `Candy Cane Murder' by Joanne Fluke. In this story Hannah, the owner of `The Cookie Jar', is helping out at a Christmas Charity event when the man playing Santa is found dead. As you would expect Hannah tries to help solve the murder with the help of her sisters, mother and boyfriend Norman. This is a nice novella, very Christmassy and will be a great seasonal fix for those who enjoy the novels in this series. The other good thing about it is that is doesn't really interfere with the `love triangle' element of the series which means that it isn't essential that you read it before the next full length novel is out in the spring.

The next novella is `The Dangers of Candy Canes' by Laura Levine. I hadn't read anything by this author before and so it came as a nice surprise. The lead character, Jaine Austen, is a freelance writer and part-time sleuth. She is asked to investigate the death of a man who has fallen from a roof whilst putting up his Christmas decorations. Jaine finds that a number of the neighbours take the competition very seriously, but would anyone take it seriously enough to kill?
The heroine of this story is really likeable and the plot of the novella was good even though it was short. A great taster of a series that I will be going back to!

The last novella in this edition is `Candy Canes of Christmas Past' by Leslie Meier. I have to say that I haven't read any of Meier's previous novels although I am aware of them. I have to say that this was the most disappointing novella of the three although it might be a nice seasonal taster for fans of the series. Lucy Stone thinks back to a mystery that took place when she first arrived at Tinker's Cove, twenty years ago. The plot is flimsy and I couldn't really relate to the characters so not one for me!

Despite my feelings about the last novella, the edition as a whole is good value for money and will make pleasant light reading for the holidays. Recommended.


Good holiday read, 13 Aug 2008
If you like quirky, short, crime stories, then this is the book for you. Unfortunately, I bought it because we are going to Vegas later this year and I thought it would increase my excitement about going. Instead it kind of made me nervous and hope it's not as horrible as some of these stories make out! Great for a holiday read when you don't want to expend too much time or energy reading.

Role playing in your own house, 27 Jun 2001
A recommend this book to all of you who hate it when Miss Marple or Poirot solve the crime in the end of the movie and you hadn't been given every clue they have. This book will make you fill like a real detective, teach you stuff about balistics and poisons. Read it. But most of all PLAY IT.

as enjoyable as a juicy,"thick" steak!, 04 May 1998
I don't normally like short stories,but here I found as much suspence and laughs as in any "thick" thriller book.Almost all of the stories were good,real "thrillers" (especially the one before last,"A road trip"),and I enjoyed seeing how each author fit the 3 "must" elements(a thick fog,a thick steak and a thick book) in his or her story. Also,I liked the fact that all the money derived from the selling of the book would go to an association which fights illiteracy in America.

As good as a thick steak!, 14 Jan 1998
A terrific collection of diverse stories from some of my favorite authors. I especially liked the stories by Lawrence Block and Nelson & Lauren DeMille. I hope new-comer Lauren will continue writing in the future! Some of the tales seemed a bit thrown together, but overall, an exciting and worthwhile collection of mysteries. It was interesting to see how the authors worked the three elements of a thick steak, a thick book, and a thick fog into their stories.

Serial misogynist?, 19 Jun 2008
I'm not a huge fan of detective or crime stories. I've read a few of the modern crop. Starring world weary cops/forensic pathologists/police photographers etc who are so much better than their incompetent colleagues, yet drink like fishes at a curry contest and get off with every woman they meet. John Actor plays Monkfish etc. Yawn. But a detective in Nazi Germany? That sounded interesting: historically intriguing, and ethically too. A policeman floundering in a corrupt society, full of the echoes of history.

Unfortunately, what I found were all the usual clichés, plus a lot worse. Unreal dialogue, plentiful name-dropping: oh yes, and a low ranking detective who talks back to the likes of Heydrich, Himmler, and Göring.

Dialogue is often nonsensical. Like when Bernie agrees with Heydrich not to humiliate Himmler in front of his SS subordinates - and then goes on to do just that. Plot devices are daft too: Bernie begs an armed assassin to shoot him in the head, not the stomach, as it'll save him a lot of pain (and thereby impresses us with Bernie's knowledge of the foibles of certain WWI era firearms). As if the assassin would give a damn. Talk about a crow-bar plot.

Furthermore, there's an unpleasant tendency towards misogyny in these books. They glory in it. Admittedly men are killed in the stories, too. But Kerr seems rather hung up on plotlines involving the graphic torture and mutilation of women. I think it's just a tad sick that all three of these books recycle the same misogynistic theme. But that's just me I guess, eh?

And the final story: German Requiem. A cringe-inducing knock-off of The Third Man (though Kerr seems to be under the impression that it's his work that is the better of the two). Apparently German Requiem is about a `scandal that makes the wartime atrocities pale in comparison'. All I can say is the atrocities committed by both sides during the war were rather more shocking than Kerr's petty storyline.

You want a real feel for history then read Len Deighton's masterful spy series: Game, Set, and Match; Hook, Line and Sinker; and Faith, Hope, and Charity; Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1945. They positively drip the stuff. History, that is.

And then read Bomber.

Highly recommendable :), 30 Mar 2008
I can highly recommend anyone who is interested in German and European history and want to have a interesting read at the same time.

I am at the same time an amateur expert on the period, and I have not found a single historical or geographical mistake, which is not the case with Alan Fursts "Night Soldiers", which I have also reviewed on this site.

All the Berlin Noir stories should be made into films :))

forgton your German history?, 22 Mar 2008
Supberb triple thirllers,If you have forgoten your german history 1937 onwards.This three books will remind you. Wonderfull detective stories interwoven with true facts from that terrible era from before ,during and after the second world war. Brillant read for teenagers or uni students that dont know much about this time, it might just show them genocide is not just a modern subject. Waiting on amazon delivering the next in the series so as to read them in order. Hurry up amazon.
Peter Anderson Milton of Campsie Scotland

A German Sam Spade, 16 May 2007
Bernie Gunther is an ex Kripo (German CID) officer working as a private detective in pre and post war Berlin. He is tough, cynical and wisecraking, but also honest and decent. In fact he is Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe transplaned from California to Germany. Bernie's job brings him into contact with historical figures like Himmler, Goering and Artur Nebe, the real life wartime head of the German Kripo.

Philip Kerr is one of those writers who can transplant you into a different world, in this case pre and post war Germany. In doing so he has created a number of slang terms which I do not know if they are real German slang but it does not matter as they sound right.

Berlin Noir contains three out of four Bernie Gunther novels, March Violets, The Pale Criminal and German Requiem. The first of these also concerns the German Rings who Mafia like controlled crime in pre Nazi Berlin. The Rings were destroyed by more violent criminals, the Nazis.

The Pale Criminal has Bernie recruited back into the Berlin Police in order to catch a serial killer who may be linked to the ruling Nazi Party. German Requiem moves to post war Berlin and Vienna with refences to the Third Man.

All three stand up in their own right and Mr Kerr can be congratulated on coming up with a new idea and for being able to create a milleu as well as being able to plot and write very well indeed.

Bernie Gunther is welcome and different addition to the ranks of fictional dectectives

A knight without armor in a savage land, 20 Nov 2006
"A good story cannot be devised it has to be distilled." Raymond Chandler

Raymond Chandler was a master at taking a plot and distilling it into a taut, splendid story. Chandler, along with Dashiell Hammett, pretty much invented the "hard-boiled detective". So, when a writer, in this instance Philip Kerr, comes along who is repeatedly compared to Raymond Chandler comes along, I can't resist seeing for myself. I'm happy I picked up Berlin Noir and, even if Kerr is not quite Chandler, his stories are so well written that he need not be embarrassed by the comparison.

Berlin Noir consists of three Kerr novels, "March Violets", "The Pale Criminal", and "German Requiem". They each feature Kerr's exquisitely drawn detective Bernie Gunther. If you've read Hammett, Cain, or Chandler, Gunther is instantly recognizable. He's a tough ex-cop now working as a private eye. He's bitter and cynical and sees the corruption all around him. He also has an eye for the ladies as well as a taste for booze. But for all his flaws he lives up to a certain code; he knows the world isn't black and white but he has his own moral compass and lives by it - for the most part.

What distinguishes Gunther from Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe is location. Gunther is a German, and instead of Los Angeles, he makes his base in Berlin. The three stories are set in 1936 (March Violets"), 1938 ("Pale Criminal"), and 1947 (the aptly named "German Requiem") against the backdrop of the rise and fall of Hitler's Nazi Germany. He left the Berlin police once the force became nothing more than a tool of the new regime. The time and setting are perfect for a genre in which shades of grey dominate the palette. Gunther is tasked with solving crimes while navigating the Byzantine-maze of inter-party rivalries, many of which are deadly.

I was fascinated by Gunther and the world Kerry paints for him. I usually take a break in between books that are part of a series but I couldn't do that with the three stories in Berlin Noir. They are all well-crafted and suspenseful. Although Kerr is clearing paying homage to his genre the stories are original and not generic. In other words Kerr is not the literary equivalent of an Elvis-impersonator. He has written these stories within the confines of a genre but has not sacrificed his own voice. The plots are complex but not so complex that they cannot be followed. With each story the personality of Gunther becomes a bit clearer so that by the time the reader is finished with them, Gunther is really a fully-formed and very believable character.

Kerr has just published a new Bernie Gunther novel entitled "The One from the Other". I am about one third of the way through it. It is an excellent sequel made all the more enjoyable by having read "Berlin Noir". Highly recommended. L. Fleisig


Christmas Can Be Murder, 02 Jan 2008
This is a collection of three Christmas mystery novellas written by three great cozy writers. Starring their series sleuths, they stand alone well enough to be entertaining for any cozy fan looking for some light reading in December.

Up first is the title story. "Candy Cane Murder" by Joanne Fluke finds Hannah Swenson playing Santa's helper, literally, at the Lake Eden Inn. Wayne Bergstrom, owner of a local department store, is doing his annual good deed playing Santa for the underprivileged kids in the area. But when leaving the party a little while later, she follows a trail of candy canes to find Wayne's body in a snow bank. Who would want Wayne dead? For a novella mystery, this one is fairly complex. Any of Hannah's numerous fans will love this story. It's a cozy Christmas offering and includes 8 cookie recipes, 2 drink recipes, and 2 quiche recipes.

Next comes "The Dangers of Candy Canes" by Laura Levine. I'm a fan of Laura's books so was thrilled to find another story starring freelance writer Jaine Austen. When one of Jaine's clients, Seymour Fiedler of Fiedler on the Roof Roofers, is sued for wrongful death, he hires Jaine to put down her pen and solve the crime. Seems that Garth Jankin fell off his recently reroofed house while decorating for his neighborhood's annual Christmas decorating contest. Since Garth had numerous enemies, Jaine quickly decides that the tiles were loosened. But who would do something like that? As with the books, this story is very funny. A sub-plot about Jaine volunteering with a group that mentors underprivileged girls almost slows the story down at times. But in the end this is a fun read.

Even though she's a staple of the cozy sub-genre, I have never read Leslie Meier before. I changed that with the third story, "Candy Canes of Christmas Past." This story takes us back in time to the first Christmas that series star Lucy Stone spent in Tinker Cove, Maine. Lucy is trying to deal with her husband's project, fixing up their home. So when town librarian Miss Tilly is nice to Lucy, Lucy looks for some way to repay her new friend. And that's how she begins trying to uncover the circumstances surrounding Miss Tilly's mother's death almost 50 years before. This story is as much about Lucy's struggles to fit into a new town and live in an old house as it is about the mystery. In fact, this was the weakest mystery of the book by far. But I liked the characters and plan to read the first in the series soon. This story includes 2 recipes, bringing the total for the book to 14.

If you love cozies and want to book to put you in the Christmas mood, this is the book for you. Pick it up and enjoy today.

A Bit of Seasonal Fun with Familiar Old Friends..., 17 Dec 2007
This `Christmas Special' is made up of three seasonal novellas written by well known cosy-crime authors:

The first of these is `Candy Cane Murder' by Joanne Fluke. In this story Hannah, the owner of `The Cookie Jar', is helping out at a Christmas Charity event when the man playing Santa is found dead. As you would expect Hannah tries to help solve the murder with the help of her sisters, mother and boyfriend Norman. This is a nice novella, very Christmassy and will be a great seasonal fix for those who enjoy the novels in this series. The other good thing about it is that is doesn't really interfere with the `love triangle' element of the series which means that it isn't essential that you read it before the next full length novel is out in the spring.

The next novella is `The Dangers of Candy Canes' by Laura Levine. I hadn't read anything by this author before and so it came as a nice surprise. The lead character, Jaine Austen, is a freelance writer and part-time sleuth. She is asked to investigate the death of a man who has fallen from a roof whilst putting up his Christmas decorations. Jaine finds that a number of the neighbours take the competition very seriously, but would anyone take it seriously enough to kill?
The heroine of this story is really likeable and the plot of the novella was good even though it was short. A great taster of a series that I will be going back to!

The last novella in this edition is `Candy Canes of Christmas Past' by Leslie Meier. I have to say that I haven't read any of Meier's previous novels although I am aware of them. I have to say that this was the most disappointing novella of the three although it might be a nice seasonal taster for fans of the series. Lucy Stone thinks back to a mystery that took place when she first arrived at Tinker's Cove, twenty years ago. The plot is flimsy and I couldn't really relate to the characters so not one for me!

Despite my feelings about the last novella, the edition as a whole is good value for money and will make pleasant light reading for the holidays. Recommended.


Good holiday read, 13 Aug 2008
If you like quirky, short, crime stories, then this is the book for you. Unfortunately, I bought it because we are going to Vegas later this year and I thought it would increase my excitement about going. Instead it kind of made me nervous and hope it's not as horrible as some of these stories make out! Great for a holiday read when you don't want to expend too much time or energy reading.

Role playing in your own house, 27 Jun 2001
A recommend this book to all of you who hate it when Miss Marple or Poirot solve the crime in the end of the movie and you hadn't been given every clue they have. This book will make you fill like a real detective, teach you stuff about balistics and poisons. Read it. But most of all PLAY IT.

as enjoyable as a juicy,"thick" steak!, 04 May 1998
I don't normally like short stories,but here I found as much suspence and laughs as in any "thick" thriller book.Almost all of the stories were good,real "thrillers" (especially the one before last,"A road trip"),and I enjoyed seeing how each author fit the 3 "must" elements(a thick fog,a thick steak and a thick book) in his or her story. Also,I liked the fact that all the money derived from the selling of the book would go to an association which fights illiteracy in America.

As good as a thick steak!, 14 Jan 1998
A terrific collection of diverse stories from some of my favorite authors. I especially liked the stories by Lawrence Block and Nelson & Lauren DeMille. I hope new-comer Lauren will continue writing in the future! Some of the tales seemed a bit thrown together, but overall, an exciting and worthwhile collection of mysteries. It was interesting to see how the authors worked the three elements of a thick steak, a thick book, and a thick fog into their stories.

A Murder and Mayhem Boocklub review, 13 Jun 2007
A 2005 review not uploaded to amazon.co.uk at that time:

*****
The current who's who in British crime meet here with an odd collection of crime snapshots, some featuring their regular series characters; the majority being quirky little crime standalones.

Ian Rankin kicks off with a John Rebus tale as the popular Scotsman detective inspector witnesses a drunk versus double decker bus one night while off the clock. What intrigues Rebus to indulge in a little personal sleuthing is the man's mobile phone found at the scene of the crime. One little message asks "Tell me who to kill?"

Val McDermid floors her audience with "The Consolation Blonde". How would a caring publisher console one of his house authors who doesn't bring home the bacon on awards night? By offering him some company to take the edge off the feeling of failure. When a relationship unexpectedly results out of a planned encounter, it's a rude shock to the writer who thought he'd fallen in love as a result of a romantic, spontaneous encounter.

The stories in this collection are not chapter whodunits, but displays of literary indulgence by authors we usually feel we can predict with their successful established crime series. It's good to see them write a little out of the square and it has created an interesting collection of character studies where the emphasis has been solidly placed on the peculiarities of man, rather than the details of the kills and the process that surrounds the investigation of them.

Easy to pick up and put down; one for you if you're into British crime authors and would like to see what else your regulars can do.



It's a mystery to me..., 28 Jun 2005
If you're a fan of British mystery writing or crime drama, then all I really need to say about this book is that it contains a new Rumpole courtroom drama by John Mortimer, a new Dalziel and Pascoe story by Reginald Hill, and a new Inspector Rebus story by Ian Rankin.

If that isn't enough to tempt you, it also contains a story by Val McDermid, author of Wire in the Blood, and another by Colin Dexter, creator of Inspector Morse. Not to mention stories by Lindsey Davis, creator of Marcus Didius Falco, and by Mark Billingham, author of Lifeless and The Burning Girl. Add to that a new Inspector Ghote story by H.R.F. Keating, a new Harpur and Iles story by Bill James, and a new Auguste Didier mystery by Amy Myers.

And - except for Val McDermid's chilling 'The Consolation Blonde' - those aren't even the best stories in the collection. Granted, 'Rumpole and the Scales of Justice' is a worthy addition (conclusion?) to the canon, in which Horace again gets to use his knowledge of Shakespeare, as well as providing an excellent summation of the true role of defence lawyers. Reginald Hill's 'The Game of Dog' shows Peter Pascoe wrestling with the concept of reasonable doubt, and Ian Rankin's 'Tell Me Who To Kill' captures the bleakness of Rebus's job and world in a very few words. But disappointingly, Falco only appears briefly in Lindsey Davis's amusing ghost story 'Something Spooky on Geophys', Inspector Ghote struggles to defeat tax fraud in 'Majumdar Uncle', and Inspector Morse is only mentioned in passing in Colin Dexter's rather slight piece 'The Double Crossing'.

On the other hand, noted horror writer Christopher Fowler's 'American Waitress' is a disturbing study of stalking, obsession and despair: it's even scarier than McDermid's story, which is no mean feat. Rosemary Rowe's 'Caveat Emptor' is an intriguing tale of law and justice in the Roman Empire. Francis King's gay yuppie nightmare 'The Sitting Tenant' manages to be both funny and eerie simultaneously. Muriel Gray's 'School Gate Mums' offers an appealing solution to the problem of bullying in schools. Mat Coward's 'Room to Move' is worthy of Ray Bradbury. And Robert Barnard's 'The Cairo Road', a tale of three bandits waiting to ambush "economic migrants or bogus asylum seekers" on the road from Bethlehem to Egypt is nothing short of brilliant.

There are also some unnerving character sketches, and satires on the modern business of detective fiction. Of actual mysteries, however, there are very few: the only puzzle that would give Sherlock Holmes or Poirot pause would be the question of why a few of these stories were included at all. The great detectives might also wonder why a collection of stories first published in 2003, and reprinted in 2004, is called The Best British Mysteries 2005.

Admittedly, that's nit-picking, but while there is undeniably some first-rate crime fiction between these covers (and a very small number of duds), the book is also an indicator of just how little short fiction is still published in the genre even if you stretch its boundaries to breaking point. Editor Maxim Jakubowski is literary director of the Crime Scene Festival, crime fiction reviewer for the Guardian, and opened the world's largest crime bookstore, Murder One - so if he's picked these as the best of the bunch, I'll take his word for it. But these twenty-eight stories are taken from only seven anthologies, two magazines (and it's good to see that the Strand Magazine, the first publisher of Sherlock Holmes, still publishes some crime fiction), BBC Radio 4, a self-published chapbook, and the catalogue of the Harrogate Mystery Festival.

The most telling piece in the collection, then, may be Antony Mann's 'Esther Gordon Framlingham', in which a wannabe mystery writer who wants to write one-off detective novels finds the genre so crammed with series about sleuthing Neanderthals and nineteenth century Peruvian goatherds that he's forced to wait until another author dies so he can take over ghosting a series about a medieval abbot. While this collection caters to the fans of several long-running series, it also provides a showcase for newer writers - some of whom are writing the best British crime fiction since Holmes took his last bow.

Serial misogynist?, 19 Jun 2008
I'm not a huge fan of detective or crime stories. I've read a few of the modern crop. Starring world weary cops/forensic pathologists/police photographers etc who are so much better than their incompetent colleagues, yet drink like fishes at a curry contest and get off with every woman they meet. John Actor plays Monkfish etc. Yawn. But a detective in Nazi Germany? That sounded interesting: historically intriguing, and ethically too. A policeman floundering in a corrupt society, full of the echoes of history.

Unfortunately, what I found were all the usual clichés, plus a lot worse. Unreal dialogue, plentiful name-dropping: oh yes, and a low ranking detective who talks back to the likes of Heydrich, Himmler, and Göring.

Dialogue is often nonsensical. Like when Bernie agrees with Heydrich not to humiliate Himmler in front of his SS subordinates - and then goes on to do just that. Plot devices are daft too: Bernie begs an armed assassin to shoot him in the head, not the stomach, as it'll save him a lot of pain (and thereby impresses us with Bernie's knowledge of the foibles of certain WWI era firearms). As if the assassin would give a damn. Talk about a crow-bar plot.

Furthermore, there's an unpleasant tendency towards misogyny in these books. They glory in it. Admittedly men are killed in the stories, too. But Kerr seems rather hung up on plotlines involving the graphic torture and mutilation of women. I think it's just a tad sick that all three of these books recycle the same misogynistic theme. But that's just me I guess, eh?

And the final story: German Requiem. A cringe-inducing knock-off of The Third Man (though Kerr seems to be under the impression that it's his work that is the better of the two). Apparently German Requiem is about a `scandal that makes the wartime atrocities pale in comparison'. All I can say is the atrocities committed by both sides during the war were rather more shocking than Kerr's petty storyline.

You want a real feel for history then read Len Deighton's masterful spy series: Game, Set, and Match; Hook, Line and Sinker; and Faith, Hope, and Charity; Winter: A Berlin Family 1899-1945. They positively drip the stuff. History, that is.

And then read Bomber.

Highly recommendable :), 30 Mar 2008
I can highly recommend anyone who is interested in German and European history and want to have a interesting read at the same time.

I am at the same time an amateur expert on the period, and I have not found a single historical or geographical mistake, which is not the case with Alan Fursts "Night Soldiers", which I have also reviewed on this site.

All the Berlin Noir stories should be made into films :))

forgton your German history?, 22 Mar 2008
Supberb triple thirllers,If you have forgoten your german history 1937 onwards.This three books will remind you. Wonderfull detective stories interwoven with true facts from that terrible era from before ,during and after the second world war. Brillant read for teenagers or uni students that dont know much about this time, it might just show them genocide is not just a modern subject. Waiting on amazon delivering the next in the series so as to read them in order. Hurry up amazon.
Peter Anderson Milton of Campsie Scotland

A German Sam Spade, 16 May 2007
Bernie Gunther is an ex Kripo (German CID) officer working as a private