(The first post is here:Favorite Detectives - Introduction)
Favorite Detectives -
Cops and PI's at War
Former Berlin police detective and now private detective Bernie Gunther stars in Philip Kerr's trilogy Berlin Noir: March Violets; The Pale Criminal; A German Requiem.
The books may be found separately or as a compilation of all three books in Berlin Noir.
The opening book March Violets is set in the darkening days of Hitler's Germany; the 1936 Olympics are just coming to town. Kerr's protagonist, Bernard Gunther, is a private detective hired by a very wealthy conservative (i.e. non-Nazi) German industrialist to find out who murdered his daughter and her Nazi husband, burned down their home, and stole a diamond necklace from their safe. My review (permalink).
The Pale Criminal is set in 1938. Bernie has taken a partner in his PI business, but Nazi deputy chief Reinhard Heydrich wants Gunther to work for him to stop a serial killer who is murdering young blonde Aryan women. Back on the police force, Gunther is drawn into Heydrich's power struggle with Nazi chief Heinrich Himmler, an even more destructive human than Heydrich (Of course, Heydrich was assassinated in 1942 or he might have surpassed his boss).
(The title refers to Nietzsche's use of the phrase in Thus Spake Zarathustra A “pale criminal” has a particularly malevolent personality disorder.)
From Crime Scraps: "With such disgusting real life characters as Julius Streicher, Reinhard Heydrich, and Heinrich Himmler featuring in the narrative it is a bleak warning from history about what happens when the state does not just favour the criminal over law abiding citizens, but actually becomes the criminal."
A German Requiem After the Nazi defeat, we find Bernie struggling to survive in post-defeat Berlin and Vienna. Gunther is hired (by a Russian colonel of intelligence) to go to Vienna get his former Berlin police partner and now black marketeer Emil Becker off on charges of murdering a U.S. Counterintelligence Corps captain. Life is better in Vienna, but only comparison to Berlin. Gunther finds himself in the middle of a struggle amongst the Russians, two wings of the US military, a secret group of former Nazis, and the people of Vienna. Kerr excels at recreating the poisonous atmosphere of post-war Vienna.
Kerr returned to Gunther after a 15 year absence in THE ONE FROM THE OTHER. Here's a WAPO review Link to the book at Powells:The One from the Other
***
The Inspector Troy series is set in London with WW Two as a backdrop.
Second Violin: An Inspector Troy Thriller by John Lawton
My review (permalink).
Second Violin is the sixth book in John Lawton's Inspector Troy series (see for example, Bluffing Mr. Churchill (Frederick Troy Novels)). The events in this book occur chronologically earlier than the previous books in the series. (For that reason, I read this book first, which may or may not be the best way to enjoy this book). The story begins in Austria with Hitler's Anschluss in 1938 and ends with the Battle of Britain in the autumn of 1940.
Frederick Troy is a sergeant in Scotland Yard's elite murder squad and Second Violin tells the reader how got there. Troy is the son of newspaper lord and Russian émigré Alexei Troy. He could have done anything (or nothing at all, for that matter), but he chose to become a beat cop. The denizens of Stepney Green, his patrol beat, see him as a toff out slumming.
Frederick Troy's brother, Roderick, is a foreign correspondent for their father's paper. He witnesses the horrible events of Kristallnacht in Austria before being put on a plane and sent packing by the Nazis. While brother Frederick is assigned police duty rounding up aliens for internment, Rod he finds himself more directly involved in the camps than anyone imagined possible. Freddie manages to take on a murder investigation when three rabbis turn up dead.
In perhaps the book's strongest element, Lawton examines the brutal treatment of Jews in Austria through one Josef Hummel, tailor, and the subsequent rounding up and internment of aliens, including not only Hummel, but also long-time London residents who turn out to have been born in a foreign country.
While I recommend reading this book and intend to read other books in the series, I cannot give Second Violin five full stars. Lawton jams too many disparate story lines and a few stand alone bits (like Sigmund Freud) that leave the reader feeling a bit disjointed. (I should also add that it may be that some of the things that seem like loose ends, but may not be so untidy if one has read the previous books in the series). I also found that reading this book made a nice companion for the most excellent Foyle's War: Set 1 (The German Woman / The White Feather / A Lesson In Murder / Eagle Day) TV series.
***
A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson
For much of the book A Small Death in Lisbon is like reading two novels. One book follows the investigation by Inspector Ze Coehlo into the 1990's murder and possible sexual assault of a 16-year old daughter of a powerful Portuguese lawyer. The other one is the tale of German businessman and SS supporter Klaus Felsen who is 'persuaded' to move to Portugal and obtain wolfram (tungsten) for the Nazi war effort. Great fortunes are amassed and powerful connections established.
Wilson sets his tale in 20th century European history. He covers aspects of WW II that were new to this reader and from a German and Portuguese perspective - also unusual - and the reign of the conservative dictator Salazar and the revolution of 1974. Portugal's development as a modern society provides the background for much of the story.
Both those stories are interesting in their own right, but meander along and the reader is left to wonder how the two stories could possibly come together. Finally about midway into the book the author drops a clue. Things begin to pick up.
I partially agree with another reviewer (who, unlike me, did not like the book): there is a lot of drinking, smoking, sex, and violence. The sex and violence passages are descriptive without quite being gratuitously graphic, in my opinion, but others will disagree. To each his own, but some readers may want to be aware of these elements.
I probably would have given the book four stars, but in the last 100 pages or so the twin stories crash together as the tale reaches an exciting and satisfying resolution. As I closed the book cover, I actually said 'wow, what a finish'.
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