March Violets (Unabridged)
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4.2 • 22 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Hailed by Salman Rushdie as a “brilliantly innovative thriller-writer,” Philip Kerr is the creator of taut, gripping, noir-tinged mysteries set in Nazi-era Berlin that are nothing short of spellbinding. The first book of the Berlin Noir trilogy, MARCH VIOLETS introduces listeners to Bernie Gunther, an ex-policeman who thought he’d seen everything on the streets of 1930s Berlin–until he turned freelance and each case he tackled sucked him further into the grisly excesses of Nazi subculture. Hard-hitting, fast-paced, and richly detailed, MARCH VIOLETS is noir listening at its best and blackest.
“Echoes of Raymond Chandler but better on his vivid and well-researched detail than the master”–Evening Standard
Customer Reviews
Too suave
March Violets just didn’t work for me. Bernie Gunther feels too suave and self-styled — more like a performance of the “cool noir detective” than a real person, which makes him emotionally flat and hard to connect with. The book also leans into old-school sexism, with women written as props or clichés, and it’s packed with overused, often silly noir metaphors that try too hard to sound clever. Overall, the tone is detached and overly stylised, prioritising slick lines over depth, so the story ends up feeling shallow rather than truly gripping.