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A Quiet Flame: A Bernie Gunther Mystery

Author: Philip Kerr
Publisher: Quercus
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

2 reviews
Sales Rank: 2881

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.6

ISBN: 1847243568
EAN: 9781847243560
ASIN: 1847243568

Publication Date: March 6, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: First UK edition, first printing 2008. MINT in dustwrapper. From the UK's leading crime fiction specialist.

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Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars

A Quiet Masterpiece April 7, 2008
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

Fans of Philip Kerr's original trilogy of Bernie Gunther books were delighted last year when after a gap of 17 years, a fourth volume `The One from the Other' hit the bookshops in July.

Barely nine months on and there's a very welcome fifth book in the series. And while reading it, it becomes clear that there are plans for at least one more volume from `the thinking reader's thriller writer'

Ex-Berlin homicide detective/private eye/SS officer Bernie Gunther finds himself in Buenos Aries, Argentina in 1950 (read `The One From The Other' to find out why), a time when Juan Peron's government offered a safe haven for Nazi war criminals. The action switches largely between Berlin in 1932 - and Bernie's last abandoned case as a police officer when the mutilated body of a spastic teenage girl is discovered - and Buenos Aires in 1950 where he is invited to investigate a case with striking similarities.

What appears to be a simple case turns out to be anything but; twist is piled upon twist, and Gunther unwraps layer after layer until the final shocking revelation is revealed.

Once again, this is peopled with real personalities - Juan and Evita Peron, Adolf Eichmann, Joseph Mengele etc. - and blends fiction with conjecture based upon historical fact. It includes a chilling portrait of the man who was third ranked in the SS at the end of World War II, General Hans Kammler; perhaps the most heinous SS officer never to be caught.

Bernie Gunther is a great creation, never afraid to poke his nose into things he's been warned to keep out of. He's brave, principled and wisecracking - one character remarks he has a 'smart mouth' - and that gets him into trouble. He's a throwback to the golden age of Hammett and Chandler.

This intelligent, gripping thriller is richly detailed and tightly plotted. It has a moving ending (I won't give it away) that cries out for the sequel that will inevitably follow. All in all, this is top stuff.

So why not five stars? I'm benchmarking this against the best of Philip Kerr and it's not quite up there with 'A Philosophical Investigation' and one or two others.

But unfortunately, I have to agree with a previous reviewer's comments; this novel contains a whole slew of typos. Who the heck is responsible for proof-reading these books, and can I please have his job?

4 out of 5 stars

A quiet and disturbing book March 27, 2008
9 out of 11 found this review helpful

It's astonishing to me that Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther books still seem relatively little known. All the more pleasure for this reader, then, when another in the series appears unexpectedly on the bookshelves. This time Bernie is in Argentina in 1950, where thousands of Nazi fugitives and tens of thousands of refugees co-exist uneasily. It's the perfect location for some grimy, low-key action.

What a shame, then, that this excellent book has been so poorly copy-edited. We have mis-spelled and wrongly accented Spanish, "dyeing" spelled "dying", "Bernard Weiss" becoming "Bernhard Weiss" after a few pages, "practice" (the noun) repeatedly being spelled "practise" (the verb), "epicentre" being lazily used where "centre" was meant, and so on. Yes, the author must take some blame, but really - this is what editors are paid to pick up.