Prussian Blue

This 12th installment in the "Bernie Gunther" series from Philip Kerr starts out in 1956, on the French Riviera--what one website calls the "framing scenes"--but the main story line revolves around an earlier investigation Bernie was involved in during Hitler's rise to power in the week before Hitler's 50th birthday in 1939. This was my first exposure to the series and Bernie is described on the author's website as follows: "He’s sardonic, tough-talking, and cynical, but he does have a rough sense of humor and a rougher sense of right and wrong. Partly that’s because he is a true Berliner. Partly it’s the result of life experiences. He was a sergeant in the Great War (like Hitler, winning a Second-Class Iron Cross, but, as he says, “most of the first-class medals were awarded to men in cemeteries”). His wife died in the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918 and he’s had a roving eye for women ever since, but not much luck in long-term relationships – it’s hard to have long-term relationships in Nazi Germany when people keep disappearing. Yet that’s good for business, because he’s a private investigator, and a lot of his cases have involved tracing missing persons. And by extension, murder.

He served eleven years as a homicide detective in Kripo (Berlin’s criminal police) and saw just about every form of deviance, corruption, and gratuitous violence before he jumped ship in ’33, when the National Socialists took over and began purging the force of all non-party members. He was a Kriminalinspektor with a serious reputation before he quit, and he never lost the contacts he made. They have been useful in his new, private role....He drinks too much, smokes excessively, and is somewhat overweight (but a Russian prisoner of war camp will take care of those bad habits). He’s a hero for our time just as he was in these thrillers. Beginning in Germany in the thirties, the ...Gunther novels have reached beyond the horrors of the Nazi regime, when the lunatics were running the asylum, through the viciousness of the Eastern Front, to the postwar world of starvation and exploitation, and on to the Cold War’s double dealing and ruthless disregard for morality or human life. Bernie is an equal-opportunity hater: the Ivans, the Frogs, the Brits, the Amis, and certainly the Krauts-because he’s seen them all in action and knows the blackness of their souls. He’s also a brave man, because when there is nothing left to lose, honor rules."

 The books are apparently not written in chronological order, so I'm not sure how critical it is to have read the earlier books to appreciate this one; I didn't find my lack of previous acquaintance with Bernie to be a detriment to my appreciation of this book. 

Bernie is initially confronted by an old enemy, Erick Mielke, acting through Bernie's former colleague in Kripo, Friedrich Korsch, who is now a Stasi enforcer. Mielke has tracked Bernie down and demands a task from him that Bernie is unwilling to take on. But failure to complete the assignment will result in dire consequences not only for Bernie, but for his estranged second wife. Bernie is to take a train to London and poison a double agent with thallium (the antidote to which is a painting pigment called Prussian blue), and although Bernie hates the target for her treachery towards him in the past, he will not sink to murder. He goes on the run, chased by Korsch, and it is his recollection of an earlier case with Korsch that is the main story. 

The New Yorker has a thoughtful and detailed review of the book as well as a thought piece on why readers find this character so compelling;  I highly recommend it. The Historical Novel Society calls it "a wonderfully well written and absorbing novel, full of fascinating historical detail." I would certainly read any other book in the series.