The most irritating thing about the book is the way in which the author constantly feels the need to explain the contemporary references to Nazi Germany. "The DAF? Ah, you mean the German Labour Front!"
"Dr.Goebbels, the Minister for Propaganda and Popular Enlightenment, I presume?"

Total junk!


At Least As Good As Chandler   July 25, 2001
 18 out of 19 found this review helpful

Picked up this book while browsing in a book store, being a big fan of Chandler and Ellroy etc. it was immediately appealling and proved exceptional, couldn't put it down. An excellent complilation, you really get to know the main character and the research into Berlin life and the rise and effects of the Nazis (appears) very well researched and is convincing. Berlin Requiem starts with a gap of over six with the war over and you are desperate to find out how the anti-Nazi of the early stories (pre-war years) survived. Each of the three story lines are excellently complex yet sufficiently explained to be plausable and certainly based on realistic circumstances. With Himmler dabbling in the black arts and the infighting within the Nazi party, and the Soviets getting the cold war off to a good start in post war Vienna, the plots put major figure heads at the centre where most authors would have feared to tred. I hope the authors other works are as good as I will be buying more. An excellent holiday or travel read, but be aware you may not be much company!


Disturbing, shocking, very good   March 16, 2001
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Once you start reading you will not be able to put it away. But be ready for unexpected, even shocking events. I was very much moved by Germay's post-war description in a German Requiem. I first borrowed the triology from a library. Then I wanted my husband to read it also and bought it from Amazon. Buy this, you will not be dissapointed.


The best crime books of the decade.   September 18, 2000
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Philp Kerr has created an obviously interesting scenario, the cool detective - a Philip Marlow in Nazi Germany. In this trilogy, Kerr follows his hero, Bernie Gunther, through the power plays of pre-war Germany to the daily struggle for survival that followed defeat and occupation.

Here you can witness this talented writer before he began his present career of churning out airport books or film sripts thinly disguised as novels. It's a great find and your only dissapointment will be that Kerr can not seem to find his way back to this level of work. I bought five copies for friends- and I'm not usually that generous.