Berlin Noir: March Violets; The Pale Criminal; A German Requiem | 
 enlarge | Author: Philip Kerr
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  62 reviews
Sales Rank: 30365
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 848
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.5
ISBN: 0140231706
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780140231700
ASIN: 0140231706
Publication Date: January 1, 1994
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Now published in one paperback volume, these three mysteries are exciting and insightful looks at life inside Nazi Germany -- richer and more readable than most histories of the period. We first meet ex-policeman Bernie Gunther in 1936, in March Violets (a term of derision which original Nazis used to describe late converts.) The Olympic Games are about to start; some of Bernie's Jewish friends are beginning to realize that they should have left while they could; and Gunther himself has been hired to look into two murders that reach high into the Nazi Party. In The Pale Criminal, it's 1938, and Gunther has been blackmailed into rejoining the police by Heydrich himself. And in A German Requiem, the saddest and most disturbing of the three books, it's 1947 as Gunther stumbles across a nightmare landscape that conceals even more death than he imagines. (For a review of Kerr's latest novel, The Grid, see our Thrillers section.)
Product Description
Ex-policeman Bernie Gunther thought he'd seen everything on the streets of 1930s Berlin. But then he went freelance, and each case he tackled sucked him further into the grisly excesses of Nazi subculture. And even after the war, amidst the decayed, imperial splendour of Vienna, Bernie uncovered a legacy that made the wartime atrocities look lily-white in comparison...
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| Customer Reviews: Read 57 more reviews...
 Great Hard Boiled Fiction November 23, 2008
This is the best noir I have read in a while. The spin here is that the intrigue is easily set in 1939 Germany. Hitler, Goerring and Himmler rule and there is enough danger to go around without a former cop getting wrapped up in the the arson of a pair of lovers, stolen jewels and the murder of a gay assistant to a top Nazi along with the Jewish underground and communist anarchy suffering a slow, violent death. Without the violence of "Red Harvest" (Dashiell Hammett) or the over the top mannerisms of "The Long Goodbye" (Raymond Chandler) it still maintains every bit of the darkness that gives the genre its name. This is good stuff. Plus this book is a trio of novels, so it should last me a bit at the rate I'm reading. This is a good break from Leonard and Hiassen.
 An Intriguing Concept Which Falls Short October 26, 2008
It's an interesting premise. What if a Hammett or Chandler story took place in Nazi Germany? Setting the noir genre in a fascinating period of history seems like a winning idea. The problem with the concept however, becomes readily apparent.
Bernie Gunther has the requisite sardonic wit and trouble appropriately follows him, but Marlowe or Spade would never join a political party, so he is necessarily an outsider. His explicit distaste for nazism makes him seem unrealistically sanctimonious and prevents the story from truly being immersed in the events of the time. Instead, the historical and political aspects, as interesting as they are, seem tacked on to what is otherwise a decent noir story. Are we to believe he is the only man in Germany to object to nazism? In the end, the perspective on the events of the time are from an outsider's perspective, so you get the sense that it is a documentary from the history channel instead of a story from someone who was there at the time.
As for the March Violets story itself, it suffers a bit from too many characters. (Did three of them really need to be named Deiter, Deitz, and Deils? :-)). Characters pop up 200 pages after being briefly introduced.
Simply Fantastic June 23, 2008
I enjoy reading historical fiction, and from all the positive reviews of the book I gave it a shot even though I don't normally read detective stories. The first few pages read almost like a cliche detective story and I was afraid I made a mistake in purchasing. My doubts were quickly erased as the story unveiled a well written book with fantastic characters and gripping plots. Kerr really opened my eyes to how life was for non-nazis in germany and the historical aspects of the book were a great learning experience. How the three books are setup to be pre-war, during the war and post-war was fascinating as well, you really get a well rounded sense of the times.
Overall, amazing read and I personally look forward to re-reading this sometime in the future. Kerr has certainly made a fan of me.
Great read February 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the best book around. I've recommended it to all my friends and they love it too. It takes the hard-nosed PI thriller and turns it 360 degrees. If Raymond Chandler was a German in WWII, this is what he would have written. Buy this book, read it, and be thoroughly entertained.
too much of a good thing July 30, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
How many metaphors can you cram into a single sentence? Read this book to find out. How many Berlin street names do you really need to know? NOT this many. The atmosphere of prewar Berlin under the Nazis rings true, but the story is as far fetched as the character. It IS good enough to keep you reading to the end, but that's about all.
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