Cover Image: Prussian Blue

Prussian Blue

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Philip Kerr’s long suffering and world weary policeman Bernie Gunther returns in this superb novel which straddles WW2. With astonishing skill, Kerr keeps two stories on the go, the earlier being set in Bavaria in April 1939, with the blue touch-paper for war already lit and Europe simply waiting for the bang: the second story takes us to October 1956, with a large part of Germany suffering under another tyranny – that of the Russian puppet government of the so-called German Democratic Republic. The two stories appear to be spinning happily along in their own unconnected orbits, but Kerr brings them ever closer together until they meet in a dazzling finale.

Bernie Gunther fans will already be aware of the company he is forced to keep in the years before and during Hitler’s war. Previous books have found him working uneasily alongside such monsters as Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler and Gruppenführer Arthur Nebe, but it is his relationship with SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich that Kerr (left) has explored in the greatest depth. Now, Heydrich, ever mindful of his place in Hitler’s hierarchy, sends Gunther to Hitler’s Bavarian retreat in Berchtesgaden, ostensibly to investigate the murder of a minor functionary, but hopeful that Gunther’s investigations will embarrass Martin Bormann, personal secretary to the Führer, and Heydrich’s political rival.

The parallel 1956 story finds Gunther struggling to keep his false identity as a hotel concierge in the French Riviera. In The Other Side of Silence, the previous book in the series, Gunther became tangled in a net of espionage and treachery involving the writer Somerset Maugham, a former Nazi war criminal, and the British Secret Service. A British woman he befriended – and bedded – now proves to have been a ‘person of interest’ to the GDR, and in particular Erich Mielke, the boss of the East German Ministry for State Security, better known as the Stasi. Mielke travels to the Cote d’Azur, and makes Gunther an offer he can’t refuse. He must either go to England and kill Anne French, preferably with the GDR’s poison of choice, Thallium. The alternative? To be disposed of by the gang of Stasi thugs Mielke has brought with him from East Berlin.

The human link between these two episodes in Gunther’s life is a fellow policeman called Friedrich Korsch. In his former life, Korsch helped Gunther discover who actually put the bullet from a Mannlicher hunting rifle through the head of a corrupt bureaucrat called Karl Flex on that brisk April day seventeen years earlier. Korsch is nothing if not a survivor. Unlike Gunther, who is forced to sail the post-war seas like a latter day Flying Dutchman, Korsch has taken the King’s Shilling – or at least Erich Mielke’s Deutschmark – and is under strict orders to make sure his former boss gets to England to kill the fugitive Anne French.

Gunther escapes his Stasi minders and goes on the run in rural France. By hook or by crook, his aim is to get himself into West Germany where he stands a better chance of being protected from the East German thugs who want him dead. As he travels north and east, the two stories begin, slowly but inexorably, to converge. They used to say that all roads lead to Rome. In this novel, all roads lead to abandoned mines dug deep into a hillside in the Saar region – the Schlossberghöhlen. Here, Gunther tracks down the Berchtesgaden killer, and is violently reunited with the former policeman who helped track him down.

Kerr’s genius lies in the fact that he allows Gunther to drink Schnapps and share a cigarette with some of the most notorious killers of the twentieth century. He allows Gunther to make silent moral judgments on those with whom he is forced to rub shoulders, but when it comes to making big decisions, Gunther always takes the path which allows his head to remain connected to the rest of his body. The dialogue, as always, bristles with wisecracks. Kerr lets his hero come to within a cigarette paper’s thickness of signing his own death warrant, but grants Gunther the wit and wisdom to talk – or fight – his way out of potentially fatal confrontations.

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This is the twelfth in Philip Kerr’s popular Bernie Gunther series. It is 1956 and Bernie is still in France working as a concierge in a hotel in Cap Ferrat. But he also remains on the books of the GDR’s Stasi, and is summoned by Erich Mielke to travel to England kill a former girlfriend on his using thallium. To persuade Bernie that the Stasi means business he undergoes a mock execution, which has the effect of persuading him to flee, back to Germany. While on the long drive from the south of France, he thinks back to his chequered police career and goes back to April 1939, when he was given a job by Reinhard Heydrich and Arthur Nebe to solve the shooting of a civil engineer, Karl Flex, in Bavaria. The sensitive element is that Flex was on Hitler’s cherished Berghof on the (now-notorious) terrace overlooking the Obersalzberg when he was shot. Hitler was not present at the time and Bernie was told by Martin Bormann to ensure he quickly cleared the matter up, and apprehended the killer before Hitler’s imminent return to his beloved Bavaria. There Bernie uncovers a dangerous nest of resentment and high-level murderous corruption.
In the narrative Philip Kerr provides a critical examination of the ruthless Nazi ethos of force, will and mendacity. While Bernie is by no means a perfect cop, he isn’t a Nazi, dislikes Hitler and his cronies intensely and he attempts to do what is right by the times’ skewed moral code. Even though Prussian Blue is part of a series, the books can be read with enjoyment on their own. This is a wonderfully well written and absorbing novel, full of fascinating historical detail.

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Prussian Blue is #12 in a series of which I have not previously read any.

Does that make it difficult to follow what is happening, or work out who the characters are? Not at all.
Bernie Gunther, a German detective, is a strong character, and the book works well as a stand alone.

The novel is set over two timelines, 1939 and 1956. I admit to struggling with this concept somewhat to begin with, hence only 4 instead of 5 stars, but in the end you can see why the author wrote in this way. It is quite a long book, I think it probably could have been a little shorter with little or no detriment to the storyline.

Thank you to Quercus Books via Netgalley for providing a digital copy of Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

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Well written, with a great story and a lot of suspense. The perfect ingredients of a book you can hardly want to put down!

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Bernie Gunther in the pay of the Stasi

Another great outing for Bernie Gunther and keeping up the high standard of Philip Kerr’s previous works.

This time Bernie falls out with Stasi Chief Erich Meilke, not the best of things to do. Kerr continues his rich grasp of period detail as his anti-hero moves into the 1950s.

I found the final sequences were somewhat implausible, but overall a very entertaining return for this great literary character.

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Another great story featuring the incomparable Bernie Gunther. Even better than the last in the series and that was great too. Please keep them coming!

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Kerr's sense of time and place is impeccable. And in this umpteenth episode of the hard boiled and world-weary Berlin detective's life we are transported between postwar France and Hitler's mountain retreat in the months leading up to the Second World War. As usual Gunther finds himself in a difficult moral situation, and has to make unpleasant choices.

This novel seemed much longer than previous Gunther books, but I was never tempted to leave it before the end.

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The praise for this book cannot be high enough- I am biased due to my long time love all things Bernie Gunther! This book doesn't let long time fans down but I also feel it does allow for people who are new to this book series to enter this world! The title of this book refers to antidote for Thalium, whereby Bernie is involved in another criminal enterprise! The success of this series is the character of Bernie- he's very much a man who is neither saint nor sinner and so you as the reader can live vicariously through him without feeling compromised. He is often caught in the web of Nazi or Stasi intrigue but he never loses his own humanity! Prussian Blue is set across two timelines separated by 17 years and this serves to show that despite the end of the Nazi era, nothing has fundamentally changed! It is a wonderfully intricate story, with excellent character details and a fabulous sense of time and place! Despite this being #12 in the series, it shows that good writing and a character who walks off the page, never has sell by date! I'm waiting for more Mr Kerr!!!

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Brilliant - Bernie on form!
The mix of detective story with historical figures is a winner when it's done well.
Mr Kerr does a great job in the Bernie Gunther series - and this episode is a highlight.
The book gives you insights into the insane world of Hitler's inner circle, while still building the Berbie Gunther legend.
I would highly recommend this book to readers both new to Bernie Gunther and those that are returning.

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Visiting the Tea House

In this latest addition to the adventures of Bernie Gunther, Bernie finds himself in 1956 hunted through France by a gang of murderous East German Stasi agents, led by a former colleague from Berlin Kripo days. The link character reminds Bernie of a dramatic case from 1939 when an architect was shot dead on the balcony of Hitler’s Berghaus in Obersalzberg. Afraid that a sniper could just as easily shoot the Leader himself, Bernie is ordered by Heydrich to investigate and solve the case as quickly as possible.

Prussian Blue is as good as expected from this author, a substantial, thoroughly satisfying read. I found myself wanting to savour it, but instead devouring it. I empathised strongly with Bernie’s own disquiet: is protecting Hitler tantamount to being a Nazi oneself? Could he have acted differently and if so, could much evil have been avoided? No easy answers here – Bernie is branded a fascist by a number of his Stasi opponents – yet, Mielke and his fictional minions behave in much the same way as the Nazis of earlier years. Once again, Philip Kerr explores in his fiction many of the lesser known characters and dilemmas thrown up by the Nazi era.

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From mid-October 2016 through to early January 2017 I read all eleven of the Bernie Gunther series. Helpfully (in March 2017) a new, 12th instalment in the Bernie Gunther series - 'Prussian Blue' - has just arrived to help with my withdrawal symptoms.

Whilst there are rich rewards for any reader who has followed Bernie throughout the 12 novels, 'Prussian Blue' can also be enjoyed as a stand alone novel.

'Prussian Blue' picks up, in 1956, exactly where previous novel 'The Other Side of Silence' left off, with Bernie still living and working in the French Riviera.

Bernie cannot refuse a dinner invitation from Erich Mielke, the Stasi chief, who long time readers know as an old adversary. Before long Bernie is being hunted through France by a group of Stasi agents, one of whom is a former Kripo colleague, which prompts a detour back to 1939, when both men were tasked with solving a murder at Hitler's Berghof, hise mountain retreat in Bavaria, prior to the Fuhrer’s 50th birthday celebrations.

As usual Philip Kerr skilfully weaves to the two stories together, illuminating day-to-day life in Nazi Germany and the high levels of brutality and corruption, whilst simultaneously providing readers with interesting new developments, and plenty of excitement too, for Bernie in his “present day” life.

'Prussian Blue' is a splendid addition to the series which will satisfy long-term fans but leave them wanting more. This series appears to have plenty more mileage. As always Philip Kerr finishes by explaining a bit more about the real historical characters who populate this gripping novel, Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for the next one.

4/5

I'll add a review onto Amazon UK once the book is published - it's currently only open to Vine participants

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I first discovered Philip Kerr on a visit to Partners & Crime bookstore in New York in 2007 (now closed unfortunately). A chat with one of the staff seeking some recommendations for new crime writers introduced me to Philip Kerr, I have been a fan of his Bernie Gunther series ever since. Gunther is a tough murder detective struggling to maintain his integrity, pursue criminals and steer through the political maze of Nazi Germany. Gunther is a great character that you return to in each novel with enthusiasm, Kerr also has a good eye for historical detail and the realities of surviving and/or flourishing under the Nazi regime.

Prussian Blue is the 12th in the series, each book stands alone and their is next to no dependency on having read it's predecessors so you could jump in with Prussian Blue or start at the beginning with March Violets. Prussian Blue starts in 1956 with Gunther working in a hotel on the French Riviera trying to lead a quiet life, he becomes entwined in an operation ordered by Erich Mielke the head of the Stasi and things go downhill from there. The plot flits between 1956 and a case that Gunther had in 1939 just before the start of the war. It's tense, atmospheric and at times quite humorous, well worth reading.

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The arrival of a new Bernie Gunther novel by Philip Kerr is an annual treat and you know that you will be guaranteed an intoxicating and enticing combination of historical accuracy and knowledge, brilliant characterisations, beautifully crafted dialogue, plots that capture the imagination and of course, Bernie himself, world worn, cynical, conniving, ingenious and tired but with a sense of right and wrong and a determination to do the right thing as long as it benefits him.

I will not detail the plot but just say that it follows on from the last book and draws you in from the first page. A stunning achievement and one that I read through in one exhilarating and exhausting day.

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With Philip Kerr on his twelfth Bernie Gunther book, you might think that this is a series that should by now be running out of steam, not a bit of it. This is superb and atmospheric reading with two concurrent storylines from different eras separated by seventeen years. Yet, in essence, so little has changed. It begins in 1956 with the charmless Deputy Head of the Stasi, General Erich Meilke, an old foe, cornering Bernie into a meeting at the French Riviera. He wants Bernie to poison an agent he previously encountered, Anne French, in Britain with thallium for which the only known antidote is Prussian Blue paint.

Whilst Bernie is less than fond of Anne, he is not really keen to carry out Meilke's orders, only to discover Meilke is leaving little to chance by deploying an old Kripo colleague of Gunther's, Friedrich Korsch, and other Stasi agents to ensure that Bernie follows orders. Bernie manages to escape intending to go to Germany. This triggers Gunther's memories of Friedrich Korsch when in 1939 he assisted Gunther on a murder investigation in Hitler's exclusive mountain retreat of Obersalzberg with its community of high ranking Nazis. Karl Flex, a low level engineer, is shot on the terrace of Hitler's home and Martin Boorman wants the best detective on the case. Heydrich sends Gunther to investigate and to find dirt on Boorman. This is a real headache of a politically charged case which places Gunther amidst the ambitious jostling for power by high ranking murderous and corrupt Nazis. The two tales converge in a tense finale at the same place in some quartz caves.

The secret to the success of this series is the battle hardened, courageous, wily and complex character of Bernie Gunther. He is a good man trying to do the right thing but forced into moral compromises by the ruthless men and the tumultuous times he lives in. So he does things he is not proud of but given the amoral cesspit he is barely surviving in, a pawn in the political intrigues of the Nazi and Stasi big men, he only does what he has to do. He speaks the truth to monstrously insane, ruthless, mendacious and corrupt men which ironically makes it a valuable commodity to them. The similarities between the Nazis and the Stasi are plain to see in the novel. Philip Kerr creates a wonderful and compelling narrative using history and real life characters. At the end of the book he gives us a rundown of the actual fates of the characters in the story. Simply brilliant storytelling and a stupendous series. Thanks to Quercus for an ARC.

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I would like to thank Netgalley and Quercus Books for an advance copy of Prussian Blue, the twelfth novel to feature Bernie Gunther.

It is late 1956 and Bernie is considering his options as the hotel on the French Riviera where he works is closing for the season when General Erich Mielke of the GDR Stasi approaches him with the offer of a new identity in return for a small favour. Bernie doesn't like the sound of the favour and absconds, hunted across France by the Stasi in the form of Friedrich Korsch, a former colleague. The meeting with Korsch reminds Bernie of the last case they worked together in 1939. A man was shot dead on the terrace of Hitler's Bavarian hideaway, the Berghof, and Martin Bormann phones Reinhard Heydrich in a panic asking for his best detective to solve the case before Hitler's birthday party.

I thoroughly enjoyed Prussian Blue, much of that is down to Bernie's cynical, sardonic first person narrative but also because both timelines with their separate plot lines offer a tight, tense read. I got so involved I had to put the book down and walk away a couple of times before the stress of Bernie's predicaments overcame me. It's that good.

The juxtaposition of real historical characters and the fictional ones adds a certain frisson to the read because the reader knows that these characters are as bad as they are portrayed and if they had been fictional some of their actions would be hard to believe. Mr Kerr does an excellent job of conveying the sense of menace, paranoia and fear which pervaded the 1939 Nazi period and which was alive and thriving in the 1956 GDR. Early on in the novel Bernie reflects on this with the French phrase "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" (the more it changes the more it's the same thing). The overriding message is that greed thrives in a totalitarian regime, whether it's Mielke's ostentatious gluttony or Bormann's extortion.

Bernie Gunther is a masterclass in characterisation. He is smart and has his own moral code which isn't necessarily yours or mine but above all he is a survivor. His cynical take on life in Nazi Germany is extremely amusing, especially as he doesn't exclude his own behaviour from the commentary. He exudes the all the unease of a man forced to work with people he doesn't like or trust to ensure his own survival. How he does that is often ingenious but often just lucky.

I have no hesitation in recommending Prussian Blue as an excellent read. It is long but absorbing, informative, funny and very well done. It's another great addition to the series.

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Unlike the earlier books in this series which were relatively short and sharp, this is loose and protracted: there's a framing story set in 1956 which picks up from the previous book, The Other Side of Silence; then, when Gunther goes on the run, his memory flips back to 1939 and we have another story which is more interesting. In the 1939 story Gunther is sent to The Berghof, Hitler's private home, after a man is shot on the terrace there: as well as finding the murderer, Gunther is set by Heydrich to spy on Martin Bormann, involving him in the corrupt politics of Nazi power.

As usual, Gunther wisecracks his way through both stories, something which I find wearying. But what Kerr does so well is to wind in real, well-researched history with a fine eye for the telling detail. His inside take on the inner circles of the Third Reich make this series worth considering, and here he drops in some of the latest research on Nazi use of addictive metamphetamines.

There are a few small slips in the historical recreation (would anyone really say 'go figure' in 1939?) but what let this book down for me was the needlessly-long story: it takes too long to get going, too long to play out, too long even to get to the end - 550 pages to tell a story that is, at heart, much shorter.

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