The One From the Other - Philip Kerr

After the great disappointment of the last Bernie Gunther novel I read (Prague Fatale, see below), I can happily say that this, despite the horrible title, is one of the very best.  Written in 2006, it was Kerr's return to Bernie after 15 years, and leads straight into its successor, A Quiet Flame, which I really rated.

The plotting is brilliant, the theme (nobody is who they seem) maintained throughout, and there is the essential element of extreme jeopardy for our hero.  It's set in 1949 and finds Bernie running a hotel overlooking the Dachau concentration camp.  He is hooked in to the conspiracy by, as usual, an attractive woman and the story spirals out from there.  I certainly didn't see any of the twists coming.

There is also a long prologue set in Berlin and Jerusalem in 1937.  I kept wondering how this was relevant.  But then, brilliantly, it was.

Fiercely recommended.

Prague Fatale - Philip Kerr

The latest Bernie Gunther exercise in Nazi Noir turns out to be something of a disappointment.  For all the fascination of the context, it is nothing more than a locked room mystery in the Agatha Christie mode, and once you've recognised that it's easy to guess who done it on the traditional Christie least-likely model, complete with hopelessly overwrought 'motive'.  Even the writing, normally the saving grace of any Kerr novel, stands in sore need of editing.  There is a terrible misstep somewhere near the middle when Gunther becomes a mere mouthpiece for Kerr who has decided to stray in post modern irony.  All in all, the book is far too long for what is at best a literary caprice.  I'm sorry I disliked it so much because I was delighted with the other Gunther novels I've read recently (A Quiet Flame, If the Dead Rise Not), and I will certainly look out for the next, A Man Without Breath.  On that score, a word of congratulation to Kerr and his publishers.  I really don't like the modern practice of banging a preview of the end of every book.  Kerr/Quercus have come up with a much better idea - log on to his website, sign up for his newsletter, and read it there.