Bernie Gunther

Miserable day outside although not quite as cold as yesterday. So rather than go out I'm showcasing my small collection of Bernie Gunther books - German detective in a series of books written by Philip Kerr. Although they interlock a little the books do not follow a chronological sequence. In "A Quiet Flame" we meet him in 1950 on a boat to Buenos Aires, in the Peron era, with a number of a war criminals escaping retribution in Europe. But there are episodes set in 1932 when he was a detective at the "Alex" - police HQ on Alexanderplatz. This was the first of the books I came across and my favourite closely followed by "Prague Fatale" which is set mostly in Berlin and, of course, Prague. And involves Reinhard Heydrich. Bernie's relationship with the Nazis is not a good one. The books are fictional but have loose links with real events such as Heydrich being murdered. But they do not pretend to be reconstructions of history. Not the case with the odd man out "HHhH" which does make some claim to historical truth and was for that reason lambasted in a review by one of our war historians (Andrew Roberts I think, but I'm not sure). I've tagged it on because I found it quite enjoyable and because of the link with Prague Fatale. Some years ago I indexed a book on the operation to kill Heydrich and the novel certainly seems to have some truth in it.