Prussian Blue
An utterly gripping and page-turning historical thriller
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4.7 • 112 Ratings
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- £5.49
Publisher Description
'One of the greatest anti-heroes ever written' LEE CHILD
France, 1956. Bernie Gunther is on the run. If there's one thing he's learned, it's never to refuse a job from a high-ranking secret policeman. But this is exactly what he's just done. Now he's a marked man, with the East German Stasi on his tail.
Fleeing across Europe, he remembers the last time he worked with his pursuer: in 1939, to solve a murder at the Berghof, Hitler's summer hideaway in the Bavarian Alps. Hitler is long dead, the Berghof now a ruined shell, and the bizarre time Bernie spent there should be no more than a distant memory.
But as he pushes on to Berlin and safety, Bernie will find that no matter how far he thinks he has put Nazi Germany behind him, for him it will always be unfinished business. The Berghof is not done with Bernie yet.
Perfect for fans of Raymond Chandler and John le Carré.
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PRAISE FOR PHILIP KERR
'Kerr leads us through the facts of history and the vagaries of human nature' TOM HANKS
'One of the greatest master story-tellers in English' ALAN FURST
'One of the most memorable and original characters' THE SUNDAY TIMES
'Bitterly, darkly funny' SUNDAY HERALD
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Edgar-finalist Kerr's stunning 12th Bernie Gunther novel (after 2016's The Other Side of Silence) races along on two parallel tracks. In the first, set in 1956, Bernie, who's been working as a hotel concierge in Cannes, flees France because he bailed out of performing a hit for Stasi chief Erich Mielke, killing a Stasi agent in the process. The hazardous journey takes him by train, bicycle, and foot toward West Germany. In the main narrative, set in April 1939, SS Gen. Reinhard Heydrich, Bernie's boss, orders him to Berchtesgaden, Hitler's mountain retreat. A sniper has fatally shot Karl Flex, a civil engineer in Martin Bormann's employ, on the deck of Hitler's villa, the Berghof. Bernie has mere days to solve the crime before Hitler returns to Berchtesgaden to celebrate his 50th birthday. Trying to identify Flex's killer and bring him to justice proves to be the least of Bernie's worries. Kerr once again brilliantly uses a whodunit to bring to horrifying life the Nazi regime's corruption and brutality. Author tour.)
Customer Reviews
Prussian Blues!
I'm going to be feeling blue as I've just finished reading it!
For me it's the best one that Kerr's written recently involving Gunther and thankfully he's kept him still alive.
Roll on the next one!