APRIL 2018 - AudioFile
Adding an arch tone to his delivery, narrator John Lee provides an extra layer of listening pleasure to the thirteenth installment of the adventures of Bernie Gunther. It’s 1956, and the former police detective is now an insurance claims adjuster in Munich. Lee handles the accents and colorful characters, as well as Bernie’s observations and the shifts in pacing, with steady hands. Bernie and his new partner unravel a murder that points to a WWII criminal who is still on the run. Lee and Kerr combine their storytelling talents to make this visit to the dark streets and alleys of Berlin bone chilling and emotionally satisfying. R.O. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
01/15/2018
Set in 1957, bestseller Kerr’s twisty 13th Bernie Gunther novel (after 2017’s Prussian Blue) finds the former Berlin cop employed as a lowly mortuary assistant in Munich. Fortunately, a bit of detective work he does on the side leads to a new job as a claims adjustor for a local insurance company. His first assignment takes him to Athens to look into the case of the Doris, a small ship that was on an expedition searching for ancient Greek artifacts when it caught fire and sank. Bernie talks with the Doris’s owner, a German diving expert, who soon meets a violent end—possibly at the hands of a wanted Nazi war criminal, who in 1943 helped put thousands of Greek Jews (including the Doris’s original owner) on trains to Auschwitz. Once again, Kerr shows Bernie contending bravely if futilely against powerful forces whose full evil becomes clear only at the end. The good news for series fans is that an even better career may lie ahead for Bernie—as a spy. Author tour. Agent: Caradoc King, A.P. Watt (U.K.). (Apr.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Greeks Bearing Gifts
"A terrifically complex tale ... a beautifully written novel by a gifted writer who has left us too soon." — Washington Post
“It doesn't take much to get swept into Gunther's latest adventure or taken in by his darkly witty commentary.” — Chicago Tribune
"Every bit as powerful and atmospheric and addictively page-turning as all the ones that came before it."— Christian Science Monitor
“For bereft Kerr aficionados, this is a draught of vintage, as themes of redemption are grippingly explored." — The Guardian
“Bernie Gunther…is back — which is good news for all readers… What makes this latest Bernie book notable is how it strikes a series of authentic notes.” — The Washington Times
“Beyond Marlowe, though, there’s Bernie…Bernie’s internal demons have always provided the compelling drama in this series, and here we loyal supporters are granted a ray of hard-won hope. It provides a great moment in an always-riveting series.” —Booklist, starred review
“In typical top form, Kerr provides valuable insights into the times...Inspired by real people and events, the latest novel by the celebrated author of the Berlin Noir trilogy is a deep but breezy work in which even the most trustworthy characters can harbor dark secrets.”—Kirkus Review, starred review
“An outstanding historical thriller steeped in intrigue with a superb narrative, pace, and characterization.”—Library Journal, starred review
“Once again, Kerr shows Bernie contending bravely if futilely against powerful forces whose full evil becomes clear only at the end.”—Publishers Weekly
“Greeks Bearing Gifts is the 13th Bernie book, each of them a polished gem of unsentimental detective writing echoing Chandler and Hammett in spirit, if not language. … The entire series of books balances on the shoulders of Bernie Gunther, surely one of the most likable and confounding characters in modern detective fiction — or, it should be said, in contemporary English literature in general. For that is what Kerr has created, not mere formulaic genre novels, and Bernie’s moral ambiguity has a lot to do with the magnetic power of Kerr’s work.” — San Antonio Express-News
APRIL 2018 - AudioFile
Adding an arch tone to his delivery, narrator John Lee provides an extra layer of listening pleasure to the thirteenth installment of the adventures of Bernie Gunther. It’s 1956, and the former police detective is now an insurance claims adjuster in Munich. Lee handles the accents and colorful characters, as well as Bernie’s observations and the shifts in pacing, with steady hands. Bernie and his new partner unravel a murder that points to a WWII criminal who is still on the run. Lee and Kerr combine their storytelling talents to make this visit to the dark streets and alleys of Berlin bone chilling and emotionally satisfying. R.O. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2018-01-23
In his 13th adventure, ever imperiled German detective Bernie Gunther investigates a string of murders in Greece with possible ties to Nazi war crimes.The year is 1957. The one-time Commissar of Berlin's Murder Comission is now hiding out in Munich as morgue attendant "Christof Ganz," happy to be "far away from Bernie Gunther and everything to do with him." That includes the common (wrong) assumption that since Bernie worked among loathsome Nazis during the war, he was one. After escaping a lethal trap set by a dirty cop from his past, Gunther accepts a job as claims adjuster for a powerful insurance company through influential attorney Max Merten. Sent to Athens to assess the sinking of a ship, he encounters a serious setback when its owner, former Wehrmacht Navy man Siegfried Witzel, is found shot through the eyes. Recognizing the M.O. as identical to the one used by a murderer during the war, a Greek cop named Leventis makes Gunther stay on the case, which points back to the confiscation of valuables from tens of thousands of Jews from Salonika who were sent to Auschwitz. In typical top form, Kerr (Prussian Blue, 2017, etc.) provides valuable insights into the times, exposing the moral failings of Adenauer's amnesty for Nazi war criminals and the widespread hatred of Germans in Greece, which in the face of Germany's so-called economic miracle has yet to receive a penny in reparations. As ever, Gunther's mordant witticisms run through the book. Of a tall, attractive woman offering him her charms, he says, "Her dark brown hair was as long as Rapunzel's and I was seriously thinking of weaving it into a ladder so that I might climb up and kiss her."Inspired by real people and events, the latest novel by the celebrated author of the Berlin Noir trilogy is a deep but breezy work in which even the most trustworthy characters can harbor dark secrets.
