Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future novel set in the Crimea and he rides in the Chasseurs d'Afrique to the rescue of the remains of the light brigade... (THAT NOVEL WOULD BE A MUST READ MR. CORNWELL!!!).
Well, stopping my wishful thinking... if you buy this book you will learn why "Sweet William" was so named... and after whom... and a lot of juicy anecdotes akin.
IT IS ABOUT TIME HE DELIVERS ANOTHER ONE!... after all he always says:
Sharpe and Harper will march again... (and hopefully US with them...)

ADB

Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future novel set in the Crimea and he rides in the Chasseurs d'Afrique to the rescue of the remains of the light brigade... (THAT NOVEL WOULD BE A MUST READ MR. CORNWELL!!!).
Well, stopping my wishful thinking... if you buy this book you will learn why "Sweet William" was so named... and after whom... and a lot of juicy anecdotes akin.
IT IS ABOUT TIME HE DELIVERS ANOTHER ONE!... after all he always says:
Sharpe and Harper will march again... (and hopefully US with them...)

ADB

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 :))

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


The Long Goodbye (To Berlin), 26 Feb 2004
Formulaic Raymond Chandler/Dashiell Hammett rip offs set in pre and post-war Germany. The conception is OK, and a policeman working on a murder case in a society which is itself utterly evil is a fairly interesting idea. But it doesn't work. The Chandler model in particular is shamelessly aped which, as James Ellroy has said elsewhere, is not the way to write detective fiction. You can't copy such a highly stylized technique, certainly not as clumsily as Kerr does. Some of the metaphors will make you wince - and not in the way they are supposed to. Even the hero's world weary cynicism and unlikely ability to cop off with every woman he meets (sixteen year old Hitler Youth girls, movie stars, the ace reporter who helps him out) are copied from Marlowe. Other characters are pretty perfunctory and there's a bit more sex and violence but none of the genius that distinguished the other two. That's fair enough; not everyone can be a Hammett or Chandler, but by following their model so closely Kerr begs the reader to make the comparison and that's when things fall apart.

The publication of Death and the Penguin, Andrey Kurkov's debut novel, heralds a unique new voice in post-soviet satire. Set in the Ukraine in the years immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, this dark, deadpan tale chronicles the journalistic career of Victor, who shares a flat with Misha, his depressed Penguin, rescued from the under-funded zoo in Kiev. Victor is asked to write obelisks, obituaries, for a prominent city paper about notable figures in the community, and quickly transforms himself from struggling writer to wealthy journalist. It soon becomes apparent that there is a more sinister motive at play, and Victor finds himself descending in a Kafkaesque realm of suspicion and unease.

This strange, thoughtful and gentle novel will leave the reader satisfied and perplexed at its conclusion. Kurkov seems to question whether Victor or the Penguin is lonelier and more out of place in his environment. The Death in the title is ever present, though not in an oppressive way, but this also makes one want to question Victor's belief that a long hard life is better than a quick death. Many comparisons will undoubtedly be made between Kurkov's novel and the writing of other authors from the former Soviet republics to make it to print in the United Kingdom. Certainly it's fair to say that this belongs to the tradition of Russian satire made well known in this country by writers such as Mikhail Bulgakov and Venedikt Yarofeev. It is also interesting to read this alongside the works of contemporaries such as Evgenev Popov and Viktor Pelevin. However, where Pelevin drifts off into the fantastical and esoteric, Kurkov keeps it deadpan and very real. It is important to remember that many of the strange events that occur in this book are grounded in fact: amals really were given away by Kiev zoo--truth is often stranger than fiction. --Iain Robinson

Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future novel set in the Crimea and he rides in the Chasseurs d'Afrique to the rescue of the remains of the light brigade... (THAT NOVEL WOULD BE A MUST READ MR. CORNWELL!!!).
Well, stopping my wishful thinking... if you buy this book you will learn why "Sweet William" was so named... and after whom... and a lot of juicy anecdotes akin.
IT IS ABOUT TIME HE DELIVERS ANOTHER ONE!... after all he always says:
Sharpe and Harper will march again... (and hopefully US with them...)

ADB

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 :))

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


The Long Goodbye (To Berlin), 26 Feb 2004
Formulaic Raymond Chandler/Dashiell Hammett rip offs set in pre and post-war Germany. The conception is OK, and a policeman working on a murder case in a society which is itself utterly evil is a fairly interesting idea. But it doesn't work. The Chandler model in particular is shamelessly aped which, as James Ellroy has said elsewhere, is not the way to write detective fiction. You can't copy such a highly stylized technique, certainly not as clumsily as Kerr does. Some of the metaphors will make you wince - and not in the way they are supposed to. Even the hero's world weary cynicism and unlikely ability to cop off with every woman he meets (sixteen year old Hitler Youth girls, movie stars, the ace reporter who helps him out) are copied from Marlowe. Other characters are pretty perfunctory and there's a bit more sex and violence but none of the genius that distinguished the other two. That's fair enough; not everyone can be a Hammett or Chandler, but by following their model so closely Kerr begs the reader to make the comparison and that's when things fall apart.

Poor, 18 Nov 2008
Tries too hard to be funny and doesn't succeed. Good plot and characters but badly written.

You'll want your own pet penguin ..., 18 Jun 2008
This is a genuinely original book. The plot is extremely well crafted, and Kirov masterfully controls the way in which the reader is drawn into the increasingly dire position of its central character. The star of the show, though, is Misha the penguin, whose sombre, silent moods not only bring a comic relief; but allow an insight into the soul of the book's beleaguered protagonist, who risks all for the sake of his beloved pet.

I'd highly recommend this as a gripping black comedy, that reaches out to you when you least expect it to.

Beautifully written, 02 Jan 2008
This book must be a masterpiece in its own time. The feelings of Misha and the family can only hold you and put you in tears. Pure tenderness Jeremy Clarke

Quirky, fantastic and a darn good read!, 09 Jun 2007
Funny, tragic and brilliant are the only words I can think of to describe this story. The story itself is unique and captivating, and Misha is an adorable penguin in all his depressive glory. I'm certainly looking forward to reading more from Kurkov and I would heartily recommend this to anyone after a different sort of story.

Quirky, deadpan and very good, 03 Dec 2006
Kurkov's understated humour and perfect, deadpan style makes this quirky little story, full of quirky characters, a gem. Death and the Penguin is the nectar of booklovers and Misha, a penguin rescued from a struggling zoo, is one of the most animated, engaging and touching characters in contemporary fiction. But there's more to Kurkov's writing than a sideways laugh at human foibles. Death of Penguin shows many pictures of loneliness and human isolation. Viktor is an aspiring writer but lacks the energy to follow his dreams and, by settling for bread today and giving up on the idea of jam tomorrow, finds himself drawn into a mafiaesque world of crime and assassination in the chill starkness of post-Soviet Kiev. Misha comes to live with him when the local zoo can no longer afford to feed him. Both are lonely, Viktor isolated from human society and Misha alone amid it. Yet it is Misha who seems able to make strong relationships - first with Sonia, a little girl who comes to live with Viktor when her father is swept away into oblivion by his life of crime, and then with the reader: who cannot fail to adore the quiet, reliable, predictable animal, or to delight in his pleasure in fish and cold bathes, or sorrow over his inability to adjust to life in a climate so much warmer than his native land?



Here too is a stark, if one-sided, portrayal of life in the former Soviet state of Ukraine. And it's not a nice life. It's cold, it's hard and seemingly pointless. Deprived of the structure of the state, each seems to struggle to embrace with vigour the concept of democratic freedom. What Death of a Penguin amounts to is a strong indictment of a political reform which has left a population, bereft of communist community, without any societal fabric at all: without hope, without security and unable to realise the promise of liberty. This book is very funny. It's very sad. And it's very, very good.

Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future novel set in the Crimea and he rides in the Chasseurs d'Afrique to the rescue of the remains of the light brigade... (THAT NOVEL WOULD BE A MUST READ MR. CORNWELL!!!).
Well, stopping my wishful thinking... if you buy this book you will learn why "Sweet William" was so named... and after whom... and a lot of juicy anecdotes akin.
IT IS ABOUT TIME HE DELIVERS ANOTHER ONE!... after all he always says:
Sharpe and Harper will march again... (and hopefully US with them...)

ADB

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 :))

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


The Long Goodbye (To Berlin), 26 Feb 2004
Formulaic Raymond Chandler/Dashiell Hammett rip offs set in pre and post-war Germany. The conception is OK, and a policeman working on a murder case in a society which is itself utterly evil is a fairly interesting idea. But it doesn't work. The Chandler model in particular is shamelessly aped which, as James Ellroy has said elsewhere, is not the way to write detective fiction. You can't copy such a highly stylized technique, certainly not as clumsily as Kerr does. Some of the metaphors will make you wince - and not in the way they are supposed to. Even the hero's world weary cynicism and unlikely ability to cop off with every woman he meets (sixteen year old Hitler Youth girls, movie stars, the ace reporter who helps him out) are copied from Marlowe. Other characters are pretty perfunctory and there's a bit more sex and violence but none of the genius that distinguished the other two. That's fair enough; not everyone can be a Hammett or Chandler, but by following their model so closely Kerr begs the reader to make the comparison and that's when things fall apart.

Poor, 18 Nov 2008
Tries too hard to be funny and doesn't succeed. Good plot and characters but badly written.

You'll want your own pet penguin ..., 18 Jun 2008
This is a genuinely original book. The plot is extremely well crafted, and Kirov masterfully controls the way in which the reader is drawn into the increasingly dire position of its central character. The star of the show, though, is Misha the penguin, whose sombre, silent moods not only bring a comic relief; but allow an insight into the soul of the book's beleaguered protagonist, who risks all for the sake of his beloved pet.

I'd highly recommend this as a gripping black comedy, that reaches out to you when you least expect it to.

Beautifully written, 02 Jan 2008
This book must be a masterpiece in its own time. The feelings of Misha and the family can only hold you and put you in tears. Pure tenderness Jeremy Clarke

Quirky, fantastic and a darn good read!, 09 Jun 2007
Funny, tragic and brilliant are the only words I can think of to describe this story. The story itself is unique and captivating, and Misha is an adorable penguin in all his depressive glory. I'm certainly looking forward to reading more from Kurkov and I would heartily recommend this to anyone after a different sort of story.

Quirky, deadpan and very good, 03 Dec 2006
Kurkov's understated humour and perfect, deadpan style makes this quirky little story, full of quirky characters, a gem. Death and the Penguin is the nectar of booklovers and Misha, a penguin rescued from a struggling zoo, is one of the most animated, engaging and touching characters in contemporary fiction. But there's more to Kurkov's writing than a sideways laugh at human foibles. Death of Penguin shows many pictures of loneliness and human isolation. Viktor is an aspiring writer but lacks the energy to follow his dreams and, by settling for bread today and giving up on the idea of jam tomorrow, finds himself drawn into a mafiaesque world of crime and assassination in the chill starkness of post-Soviet Kiev. Misha comes to live with him when the local zoo can no longer afford to feed him. Both are lonely, Viktor isolated from human society and Misha alone amid it. Yet it is Misha who seems able to make strong relationships - first with Sonia, a little girl who comes to live with Viktor when her father is swept away into oblivion by his life of crime, and then with the reader: who cannot fail to adore the quiet, reliable, predictable animal, or to delight in his pleasure in fish and cold bathes, or sorrow over his inability to adjust to life in a climate so much warmer than his native land?



Here too is a stark, if one-sided, portrayal of life in the former Soviet state of Ukraine. And it's not a nice life. It's cold, it's hard and seemingly pointless. Deprived of the structure of the state, each seems to struggle to embrace with vigour the concept of democratic freedom. What Death of a Penguin amounts to is a strong indictment of a political reform which has left a population, bereft of communist community, without any societal fabric at all: without hope, without security and unable to realise the promise of liberty. This book is very funny. It's very sad. And it's very, very good.


Joan Hickson IS Miss Marple, 04 Sep 2008
We bought this for a long car journey and it was excellent. The four stories are about 30 minutes long and each one involves a charactor at a dinner party (attended by Miss Marple of course) recounting a mystery to which they know the answer. Each one is 'solvable' to some degree which adds to the listening pleasure.
Joan Hickson does an excellent job of reading the stories and her voice will always be my Miss Marple. Luckily she doesn't 'try to do the voices' but just reads the stories simply.
Although expensive for only one listen really I've lent it to my Mum and hopefully it can then get shared about to make it better value.
For what it is it was great.

Second part to "The Bloodstained Pavement", 11 Aug 2005
"The Blue Geranium" contains the last six stories of the book "The Thirteen Problems" ("The Blue Geranium", "The Four Suspects", "The Companion", "A Christmas Tragedy", "The Herb of Death" and "The Affair at the Bungalow"). "The Bloodstained Pavement" includes the first seven stories of the book.
You can actually buy an audiobook by Mistery Masters Series from amazon.com that includes both parts and is much cheaper (shipping and handling included, especially if you do not live in UK), by the name of "The Tuesday Club Murders", also read by Joan Hickson, although there's a small problem with the labelling of the cds, which is mostly wrong (the stories are interchanged but in order).
Again, I do wish Amazon would include number of discs, actual length and other information in the audiobooks' reviews, instead of just generally placing the reviews on the book in them.

Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future novel set in the Crimea and he rides in the Chasseurs d'Afrique to the rescue of the remains of the light brigade... (THAT NOVEL WOULD BE A MUST READ MR. CORNWELL!!!).
Well, stopping my wishful thinking... if you buy this book you will learn why "Sweet William" was so named... and after whom... and a lot of juicy anecdotes akin.
IT IS ABOUT TIME HE DELIVERS ANOTHER ONE!... after all he always says:
Sharpe and Harper will march again... (and hopefully US with them...)

ADB

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 :))

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


The Long Goodbye (To Berlin), 26 Feb 2004
Formulaic Raymond Chandler/Dashiell Hammett rip offs set in pre and post-war Germany. The conception is OK, and a policeman working on a murder case in a society which is itself utterly evil is a fairly interesting idea. But it doesn't work. The Chandler model in particular is shamelessly aped which, as James Ellroy has said elsewhere, is not the way to write detective fiction. You can't copy such a highly stylized technique, certainly not as clumsily as Kerr does. Some of the metaphors will make you wince - and not in the way they are supposed to. Even the hero's world weary cynicism and unlikely ability to cop off with every woman he meets (sixteen year old Hitler Youth girls, movie stars, the ace reporter who helps him out) are copied from Marlowe. Other characters are pretty perfunctory and there's a bit more sex and violence but none of the genius that distinguished the other two. That's fair enough; not everyone can be a Hammett or Chandler, but by following their model so closely Kerr begs the reader to make the comparison and that's when things fall apart.

Poor, 18 Nov 2008
Tries too hard to be funny and doesn't succeed. Good plot and characters but badly written.

You'll want your own pet penguin ..., 18 Jun 2008
This is a genuinely original book. The plot is extremely well crafted, and Kirov masterfully controls the way in which the reader is drawn into the increasingly dire position of its central character. The star of the show, though, is Misha the penguin, whose sombre, silent moods not only bring a comic relief; but allow an insight into the soul of the book's beleaguered protagonist, who risks all for the sake of his beloved pet.

I'd highly recommend this as a gripping black comedy, that reaches out to you when you least expect it to.

Beautifully written, 02 Jan 2008
This book must be a masterpiece in its own time. The feelings of Misha and the family can only hold you and put you in tears. Pure tenderness Jeremy Clarke

Quirky, fantastic and a darn good read!, 09 Jun 2007
Funny, tragic and brilliant are the only words I can think of to describe this story. The story itself is unique and captivating, and Misha is an adorable penguin in all his depressive glory. I'm certainly looking forward to reading more from Kurkov and I would heartily recommend this to anyone after a different sort of story.

Quirky, deadpan and very good, 03 Dec 2006
Kurkov's understated humour and perfect, deadpan style makes this quirky little story, full of quirky characters, a gem. Death and the Penguin is the nectar of booklovers and Misha, a penguin rescued from a struggling zoo, is one of the most animated, engaging and touching characters in contemporary fiction. But there's more to Kurkov's writing than a sideways laugh at human foibles. Death of Penguin shows many pictures of loneliness and human isolation. Viktor is an aspiring writer but lacks the energy to follow his dreams and, by settling for bread today and giving up on the idea of jam tomorrow, finds himself drawn into a mafiaesque world of crime and assassination in the chill starkness of post-Soviet Kiev. Misha comes to live with him when the local zoo can no longer afford to feed him. Both are lonely, Viktor isolated from human society and Misha alone amid it. Yet it is Misha who seems able to make strong relationships - first with Sonia, a little girl who comes to live with Viktor when her father is swept away into oblivion by his life of crime, and then with the reader: who cannot fail to adore the quiet, reliable, predictable animal, or to delight in his pleasure in fish and cold bathes, or sorrow over his inability to adjust to life in a climate so much warmer than his native land?



Here too is a stark, if one-sided, portrayal of life in the former Soviet state of Ukraine. And it's not a nice life. It's cold, it's hard and seemingly pointless. Deprived of the structure of the state, each seems to struggle to embrace with vigour the concept of democratic freedom. What Death of a Penguin amounts to is a strong indictment of a political reform which has left a population, bereft of communist community, without any societal fabric at all: without hope, without security and unable to realise the promise of liberty. This book is very funny. It's very sad. And it's very, very good.


Joan Hickson IS Miss Marple, 04 Sep 2008
We bought this for a long car journey and it was excellent. The four stories are about 30 minutes long and each one involves a charactor at a dinner party (attended by Miss Marple of course) recounting a mystery to which they know the answer. Each one is 'solvable' to some degree which adds to the listening pleasure.
Joan Hickson does an excellent job of reading the stories and her voice will always be my Miss Marple. Luckily she doesn't 'try to do the voices' but just reads the stories simply.
Although expensive for only one listen really I've lent it to my Mum and hopefully it can then get shared about to make it better value.
For what it is it was great.

Second part to "The Bloodstained Pavement", 11 Aug 2005
"The Blue Geranium" contains the last six stories of the book "The Thirteen Problems" ("The Blue Geranium", "The Four Suspects", "The Companion", "A Christmas Tragedy", "The Herb of Death" and "The Affair at the Bungalow"). "The Bloodstained Pavement" includes the first seven stories of the book.
You can actually buy an audiobook by Mistery Masters Series from amazon.com that includes both parts and is much cheaper (shipping and handling included, especially if you do not live in UK), by the name of "The Tuesday Club Murders", also read by Joan Hickson, although there's a small problem with the labelling of the cds, which is mostly wrong (the stories are interchanged but in order).
Again, I do wish Amazon would include number of discs, actual length and other information in the audiobooks' reviews, instead of just generally placing the reviews on the book in them.

Reginald Hill - There Are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union, 10 Aug 2008
There Are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union is a recently reissued edition of a short-story collection first published in the 80's. It contains 6 stories in all, one of which features the first trembling steps of Joe Sixsmith onto the printed page, and one of which sort of features Dalziel & Pascoe but definitely doesn't.

And it is the title story that really stands out. It's an excellent piece (at a hundred pages, it's more of a novella, too) set in Stalinist Moscow, in which Inspector Lev Chislenko must figure out why a group of people have just witnessed a murder that happened over 50 years ago. It's excellent: Hill has the space to flesh out Chislenko more than he does some of his other protagonists, and it's definitely he and this story that remains in the mind after the collection is finished. It has everything you could pack into a short story: atmosphere, character, suspense, a bit of romance, a bit of death, a bit of politics, a bit of the supernatural and, as it's Hill, a bit of sly humour. It's worth buying the book for alone.

The rest, though, is a slightly mixed bag. Then, short story collections are wont to be so that's ok. The Sixsmith story, which is the next, is a nice, light piece about the disappearance of a cat that gradually turns into something far more sinister. It's got a very neat twist at the end, and is wholly enjoyable, especially as a first introduction to Hill's returning PI. The next story, The Bull Ring, concerning an officer's harsh treatment of a subordinate in the war, didn't really grab me or stand out in any way.

It's the "Dalziel & Pascoe" story, "Auteur Theory", that is the real puzzler of the collection. I'll say it now: it's weird. But I'll say this too: it's great. It tells of a fictional account of a film production of Hill's own novel "An Advancement of Learning", with actors cast as Pascoe, Dalziel, Ellie, etc. There's a director, a scriptwriter (whose name, like that of Hill's own past pseudonym, is Dick Morland). It's all very meta and postmodern, and while at first it's rather confusing, it definitely works in the end. Hill himself appears as an indignant character ("the bearded author" who skulks around), frustrated with the shift of direction the film takes compared to his book. It's not going to appeal to everyone, as it is by no means a straight mystery, but it's immensely clever, and a lot of the time that is what people appreciate Hill for.

"Poor Emma" is an Austen-tinged story of that age's social trials culminating in murder. It's subtle, works well, and is told in a style befitting the vague pastiche it is. I enjoyed it a lot, though I saw where it was going. The final story, "Crowded Hour" is a short sharp sting to the collection, but it ends up as vaguely unsatisfying because I'd rather have had something meatier to bring the collection to a close.

Overall, it's a very good collection, and the title story makes it worthwhile all by itself. It's varied, never fails to be interesting, and is a very welcome re-addition to the Hill canon.


Sparkling 'short' stories from Reginald Hill, 26 Jul 2008
What a terrific collection this is! I can't imagine how I missed it when it was first published in 1987, and I don't understand why it hasn't been kept in print since then. Perhaps it's because some of the tales are between 80 and 100 pages long; that may seem an inconvenient length for anyone expecting a traditional short story, but the quality will keep the reader going.

As usual, Mr Hill manages to surprise with his inventiveness. If you come across a 'ghost' in a murder mystery, you expect it to be debunked, don't you? Not here. And if the opening of 'Auteur Theory' strikes you as familiar, it's probably because you've read it before in one of the early Dalziel and Pascoe novels - but from a completely different perspective; here it becomes a tale within a tale, with a certain mysterious "bearded novelist" turning up to assert his authorial rights. And if you had forgotten why Joe Sixsmith's black cat is called Whitey, here's a reminder. You don't have to be familiar with the Hill oeuvre to enjoy these wonderful stories, but it helps.

Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future novel set in the Crimea and he rides in the Chasseurs d'Afrique to the rescue of the remains of the light brigade... (THAT NOVEL WOULD BE A MUST READ MR. CORNWELL!!!).
Well, stopping my wishful thinking... if you buy this book you will learn why "Sweet William" was so named... and after whom... and a lot of juicy anecdotes akin.
IT IS ABOUT TIME HE DELIVERS ANOTHER ONE!... after all he always says:
Sharpe and Harper will march again... (and hopefully US with them...)

ADB

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 :))

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


The Long Goodbye (To Berlin), 26 Feb 2004
Formulaic Raymond Chandler/Dashiell Hammett rip offs set in pre and post-war Germany. The conception is OK, and a policeman working on a murder case in a society which is itself utterly evil is a fairly interesting idea. But it doesn't work. The Chandler model in particular is shamelessly aped which, as James Ellroy has said elsewhere, is not the way to write detective fiction. You can't copy such a highly stylized technique, certainly not as clumsily as Kerr does. Some of the metaphors will make you wince - and not in the way they are supposed to. Even the hero's world weary cynicism and unlikely ability to cop off with every woman he meets (sixteen year old Hitler Youth girls, movie stars, the ace reporter who helps him out) are copied from Marlowe. Other characters are pretty perfunctory and there's a bit more sex and violence but none of the genius that distinguished the other two. That's fair enough; not everyone can be a Hammett or Chandler, but by following their model so closely Kerr begs the reader to make the comparison and that's when things fall apart.

Poor, 18 Nov 2008
Tries too hard to be funny and doesn't succeed. Good plot and characters but badly written.

You'll want your own pet penguin ..., 18 Jun 2008
This is a genuinely original book. The plot is extremely well crafted, and Kirov masterfully controls the way in which the reader is drawn into the increasingly dire position of its central character. The star of the show, though, is Misha the penguin, whose sombre, silent moods not only bring a comic relief; but allow an insight into the soul of the book's beleaguered protagonist, who risks all for the sake of his beloved pet.

I'd highly recommend this as a gripping black comedy, that reaches out to you when you least expect it to.

Beautifully written, 02 Jan 2008
This book must be a masterpiece in its own time. The feelings of Misha and the family can only hold you and put you in tears. Pure tenderness Jeremy Clarke

Quirky, fantastic and a darn good read!, 09 Jun 2007
Funny, tragic and brilliant are the only words I can think of to describe this story. The story itself is unique and captivating, and Misha is an adorable penguin in all his depressive glory. I'm certainly looking forward to reading more from Kurkov and I would heartily recommend this to anyone after a different sort of story.

Quirky, deadpan and very good, 03 Dec 2006
Kurkov's understated humour and perfect, deadpan style makes this quirky little story, full of quirky characters, a gem. Death and the Penguin is the nectar of booklovers and Misha, a penguin rescued from a struggling zoo, is one of the most animated, engaging and touching characters in contemporary fiction. But there's more to Kurkov's writing than a sideways laugh at human foibles. Death of Penguin shows many pictures of loneliness and human isolation. Viktor is an aspiring writer but lacks the energy to follow his dreams and, by settling for bread today and giving up on the idea of jam tomorrow, finds himself drawn into a mafiaesque world of crime and assassination in the chill starkness of post-Soviet Kiev. Misha comes to live with him when the local zoo can no longer afford to feed him. Both are lonely, Viktor isolated from human society and Misha alone amid it. Yet it is Misha who seems able to make strong relationships - first with Sonia, a little girl who comes to live with Viktor when her father is swept away into oblivion by his life of crime, and then with the reader: who cannot fail to adore the quiet, reliable, predictable animal, or to delight in his pleasure in fish and cold bathes, or sorrow over his inability to adjust to life in a climate so much warmer than his native land?



Here too is a stark, if one-sided, portrayal of life in the former Soviet state of Ukraine. And it's not a nice life. It's cold, it's hard and seemingly pointless. Deprived of the structure of the state, each seems to struggle to embrace with vigour the concept of democratic freedom. What Death of a Penguin amounts to is a strong indictment of a political reform which has left a population, bereft of communist community, without any societal fabric at all: without hope, without security and unable to realise the promise of liberty. This book is very funny. It's very sad. And it's very, very good.


Joan Hickson IS Miss Marple, 04 Sep 2008
We bought this for a long car journey and it was excellent. The four stories are about 30 minutes long and each one involves a charactor at a dinner party (attended by Miss Marple of course) recounting a mystery to which they know the answer. Each one is 'solvable' to some degree which adds to the listening pleasure.
Joan Hickson does an excellent job of reading the stories and her voice will always be my Miss Marple. Luckily she doesn't 'try to do the voices' but just reads the stories simply.
Although expensive for only one listen really I've lent it to my Mum and hopefully it can then get shared about to make it better value.
For what it is it was great.

Second part to "The Bloodstained Pavement", 11 Aug 2005
"The Blue Geranium" contains the last six stories of the book "The Thirteen Problems" ("The Blue Geranium", "The Four Suspects", "The Companion", "A Christmas Tragedy", "The Herb of Death" and "The Affair at the Bungalow"). "The Bloodstained Pavement" includes the first seven stories of the book.
You can actually buy an audiobook by Mistery Masters Series from amazon.com that includes both parts and is much cheaper (shipping and handling included, especially if you do not live in UK), by the name of "The Tuesday Club Murders", also read by Joan Hickson, although there's a small problem with the labelling of the cds, which is mostly wrong (the stories are interchanged but in order).
Again, I do wish Amazon would include number of discs, actual length and other information in the audiobooks' reviews, instead of just generally placing the reviews on the book in them.

Reginald Hill - There Are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union, 10 Aug 2008
There Are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union is a recently reissued edition of a short-story collection first published in the 80's. It contains 6 stories in all, one of which features the first trembling steps of Joe Sixsmith onto the printed page, and one of which sort of features Dalziel & Pascoe but definitely doesn't.

And it is the title story that really stands out. It's an excellent piece (at a hundred pages, it's more of a novella, too) set in Stalinist Moscow, in which Inspector Lev Chislenko must figure out why a group of people have just witnessed a murder that happened over 50 years ago. It's excellent: Hill has the space to flesh out Chislenko more than he does some of his other protagonists, and it's definitely he and this story that remains in the mind after the collection is finished. It has everything you could pack into a short story: atmosphere, character, suspense, a bit of romance, a bit of death, a bit of politics, a bit of the supernatural and, as it's Hill, a bit of sly humour. It's worth buying the book for alone.

The rest, though, is a slightly mixed bag. Then, short story collections are wont to be so that's ok. The Sixsmith story, which is the next, is a nice, light piece about the disappearance of a cat that gradually turns into something far more sinister. It's got a very neat twist at the end, and is wholly enjoyable, especially as a first introduction to Hill's returning PI. The next story, The Bull Ring, concerning an officer's harsh treatment of a subordinate in the war, didn't really grab me or stand out in any way.

It's the "Dalziel & Pascoe" story, "Auteur Theory", that is the real puzzler of the collection. I'll say it now: it's weird. But I'll say this too: it's great. It tells of a fictional account of a film production of Hill's own novel "An Advancement of Learning", with actors cast as Pascoe, Dalziel, Ellie, etc. There's a director, a scriptwriter (whose name, like that of Hill's own past pseudonym, is Dick Morland). It's all very meta and postmodern, and while at first it's rather confusing, it definitely works in the end. Hill himself appears as an indignant character ("the bearded author" who skulks around), frustrated with the shift of direction the film takes compared to his book. It's not going to appeal to everyone, as it is by no means a straight mystery, but it's immensely clever, and a lot of the time that is what people appreciate Hill for.

"Poor Emma" is an Austen-tinged story of that age's social trials culminating in murder. It's subtle, works well, and is told in a style befitting the vague pastiche it is. I enjoyed it a lot, though I saw where it was going. The final story, "Crowded Hour" is a short sharp sting to the collection, but it ends up as vaguely unsatisfying because I'd rather have had something meatier to bring the collection to a close.

Overall, it's a very good collection, and the title story makes it worthwhile all by itself. It's varied, never fails to be interesting, and is a very welcome re-addition to the Hill canon.


Sparkling 'short' stories from Reginald Hill, 26 Jul 2008
What a terrific collection this is! I can't imagine how I missed it when it was first published in 1987, and I don't understand why it hasn't been kept in print since then. Perhaps it's because some of the tales are between 80 and 100 pages long; that may seem an inconvenient length for anyone expecting a traditional short story, but the quality will keep the reader going.

As usual, Mr Hill manages to surprise with his inventiveness. If you come across a 'ghost' in a murder mystery, you expect it to be debunked, don't you? Not here. And if the opening of 'Auteur Theory' strikes you as familiar, it's probably because you've read it before in one of the early Dalziel and Pascoe novels - but from a completely different perspective; here it becomes a tale within a tale, with a certain mysterious "bearded novelist" turning up to assert his authorial rights. And if you had forgotten why Joe Sixsmith's black cat is called Whitey, here's a reminder. You don't have to be familiar with the Hill oeuvre to enjoy these wonderful stories, but it helps.

A must read, 19 Apr 2006
What can I write about this book that hasn't been said or written yet? Everybody knows everything about its plot and its characters, so I'll better write about what this book means to me.

I started reading when I was four. When I was a child, my family spent the summer in the country, and in few years I had read all the children's books that we had there. So,when I was seven I decided to explore my father's library: since I wasn't allowed to climb on a ladder (nor did I dare to), I took the first book I reached. Yes, it was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I won't pretend I understood everything I read there, but enough to make me want to read more. With the years I learned to love both Sherlock Holmes and its adventures. And I haven't stopped doing so.

Some may say SH is outdated, victorian, unreal and even a bore (oh, blasphemous rumours!). To me, it opened the doors of the "adult" literature and I will always be grateful for it. And besides, everytime I read a SH story, I enjoy it like the first time. How many books can claim to do so?

Mind puzzles and corruption in Victorian London, 05 Feb 2003
Sherlock Holmes stories often read like fiendishly difficult literary MENSA conundrums. Often it is almost impossible for the reader to guess how Holmes will solve his crime riddles and almost always the reader will kick himself/herself when the solution is revealed.
Perhaps the most annoying thing about Conan Doyle's writing is that he often does not reveal to the reader (or to Dr Watson who we see most of the action from) all the clues that Holmes uses to make his conclusions- and some are so utterly preposterous to be believed i.e. Holmes deducing a man is a labourer because the muscles in his right hand are more developed than in his left. This is very different from more modern crime authors such as Agatha Christie who tend to challenge the reader as much as the detective. Perhaps, then, reading Sherlock Holmes must demand some suspension of belief but this doesn't detract from the satisfaction of Holmes solving yet another seemingly impossible crime.
Good fun and also, at times, intellectually stretching. Conan Doyle exercises the reader's facilities to question events in real life whilst simultaneously creating one of the most enjoyable genres and popular characters in English fiction.

A Singular Book, 18 Dec 2000
A hugely entertaining and totally absorbing book which covers a further twelve of Sherlock Holmes' investigations originally published in The Strand magazine. Holmes adventures are to me fascinating, revealing as they do the dark underbelly of late Victorian society and many of them would create lurid headlines were they to actually occur today; even Holmes himself is not free from scandal when he is revealed by Watson to be a cocaine addict in, 'A Scandal in Bohemia'.

From his battle of the sexes with the resourceful adventuress Miss Irene Adler in, 'A Scandal in Bohemia', to his foiling of the criminal intentions of the "fourth smartest man in London" in the truly bizarre and at times comical, 'The Red-Headed League', Holmes is called upon to use his extraordinary powers of deduction and his ability to observe when others merely see, in a battle of wits against as varied and as determined a bunch of criminals as ever stepped outside the law. The cases themselves are sometimes dangerous (The Speckled Band), sometimes cruel (A Case of Identity) but as often as not downright baffling - to you and me !

The famous quotes are all in there as well, such as the one beloved of Agent Mulder from The X Files in 'The Beryl Coronet' when Holmes reveals "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." or his expanation in 'The Red Headed League'that "..the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling.." Or how about his musing to Watson at the start of 'A Case of Identity', "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

If you want to be diverted from the cares and worries of life, if you want to lose track of time, if you want to face the challenge of trying to help solve the unsolvable and be immersed into a book which, just a little, shows the flip-side of Victorian values, then 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' will suffice, read and enjoy.

A Singular Book, 15 Dec 2000
A hugely entertaining and totally absorbing book which covers a further twelve of Sherlock Holmes' investigations originally published in The Strand magazine.

Holmes adventures are to me fascinating, revealing as they do the dark underbelly of Victorian society and many of them would create lurid headlines were they to actually occur today, even Holmes himself is not free from scandal when he is revealed by Watson to be of all things, a cocaine addict in A Scandal in Bohemia.

From his battle of the sexes with the resourceful adventuress Miss Irene Adler in, A Scandal in Bohemia, to his foiling of the criminal intentions of the "fourth smartest man in London" in the truly bizarre and at times comical, The Red-Headed League, Holmes is called upon to use his extraordinary powers of deduction and his ability to observe when others merely see, in a battle of wits against as varied and as determined a bunch of criminals as ever stepped outside the law.

The cases themselves are sometimes dangerous (The Speckled Band), sometimes cruel (A Case of Identity) but as often as not downright baffling - to you and me !

The famous quotes are all in there as well, such as the one beloved of Agent Mulder in The X Files from The Beryl Coronet when Holmes reveals "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." or his expanation in The Red Headed League that "..the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling.." Or how about his musing to Watson at the start of A Case of Identity, "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent."

If you want to be diverted from the cares and worries of life, if you want to lose track of time, if you want to face the challenge of trying to help solve the unsolvable and be immersed into a book which, just a little, shows the flip-side of Victorian values, then The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is for you. Read and enjoy.

Excellent intrigue and perfectly balanced stories, 29 Oct 2000
This book is superb not only because of the quality of the stories but also how well and economically written it is. It really transports you into the Victorian world and its values (a world of gentlemen), you can also enjoy the marvel that a new world of wealth bringed by the Industrial Revolution produced on the English people at the time and the pride of a nation which considered itself at the centre of the world. "The casebook" and "The return" are much mediocre books as Conan Doyle's technique to tell stories becomes too repetitive and obvious.

Must read, 12 Aug 2008
If you ever enjoyed any Sharpe story or film then you must buy this book, A. it is for charity
B. It fills a lot of gaps in the films.
C. it is funny and amusing.
and
D. I t ends with a great true life story about the author which explains a lot about Richard Sharpe.

Actually it is the Appendix which merits the five stars!... "Cakes and Ale", 25 Mar 2008
I bought it as I have done with all Bernard Cornwell related to Sharpe material.
The fact it is a skinny book (like Sharpe's Skirmish and Sharpe's X'mas), and what is in it (meaning the History of Sharpe books and TV series... was already very well known to me) wouldn't come as a surprise did not stopped me, because there is always something knew to learn.
So, in a way I was not disappointed at all, I did not knew some funny anecdotes, and other not so funny related to the books and the TV series.
That alone was worth the price (ouch... happy it goes for charity though) of the little book.
What is really worth your time is the tale of the "peculiar" Bernard Wiggins infancy... as a piece of information it is truly revealing and in a way explains why Richard Sharpe has so much anger inside... I do not blame it a bit... I can't stand zealots or proselytists myself.
I read it on one sitting... and I have to confess I skipped the extracts of the books (I already knew them ... not by heart... but nearly), I do not agree about the TV series... even if Sean Bean is well casted... I love much more the books!... insufficient "numbers" of "extras" were a big disappointment when I bought the VHS tapes (in their time)... and I have not bothered to buy them in DVD...
What I did not knew, and had escaped me when reading the ACW novels is that Patrick Lassan... IS... OF COURSE!!!... Sharpe's son!!!... one probably focus too much on the narrative and do not relate one series to the others!... IT WAS A GOAL BERNARD CORNWELL MADE! (and the ball passed between my legs!!!).
I just hope Patrick Lassan is (why not) the protagonist of a future nov