An Appreciation: Philip Kerr and his Bernie Gunther series

Philip Kerr

Philip Kerr, a prolific writer best known for his Nazi-era-based Bernie Gunther series died March 23, less than two weeks before the release of his latest novel, Greeks Bearing Gifts. His thirteenth book in the series, which received a Kirkus starred review, has Gunther investigating murders in Greece in 1957, which may be tied to Nazi war crimes.

Readers were first introduced to Gunther in Kerr's trilogy Berlin Noir. Gunther, not a member of the Nazi Party, is a detective trying to stay alive and out of a concentration camp while Hitler ruled Germany. Wisecracking and scornful, Gunther is a good cop with a moral compass trapped in the maelstrom of the Nazi era. He is shrewd, cynical and always calculating his chances of survival.

In several interviews, Kerr said the idea for Bernie Gunther came to him when he thought about what Raymond Chandler would have done if Philip Marlowe lived in Berlin and not Los Angeles.

Yes, Kerr's novels are hard-boiled like Chandler's, but Kerr creates stories with moral complexities and crimes that are both personal and political. More than history books, the Gunther novels give readers a visceral feeling for the horrors, atrocities, and evils the Nazis brought to the German people and the world. Along with Gunther, we are drawn into the treacherous world he must navigate to solve crimes for his Nazi bosses and save his own skin.

The three novels comprising Berlin Noir include March Violets (1989), The Pale Criminal (1990) and The German Requiem (1991). Kerr then went on to write other novels and children's books, saying in interviews he needed a break from his time immersed in the Nazi era. He didn’t resume writing about Gunther again until 2006 with the novel, The One for the Other, about the search for a Nazi war criminal.

The novels in the series do not take place in chronological order. Some take place during the war others begin after the war with stories linked to the war years. Always they are historically accurate, and real-life Nazi officers including Reinhard Heydrich, Rudolph Hess, and Hermann Goring make their appearance.

Kerr’s final Bernie Gunther novel, Metropolis, will be published posthumously, according to Kerr’s editor, Marian Wood, quoted in Kerr’s New York Times obituary.

A complete list of Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series:

March Violets (1989), The Pale Criminal (1990),The German Requiem ( 1991), The One for the Other (2006), A Quiet Flame (2008), If the Dead Rise Not (2009), Field Gray (2010), Prague Fatale (2011), A Man Without Breath (2013), The Lady From Zagreb (2015), The Other Side of Silence (2016), Prussian Blue (2017), Greeks Bearing Gifts (2018), Metropolis (2019).