A German Requiem by Philip Kerr

A German Requiem is the final novel in the Bernie Gunther mystery trilogy "Berlin Noir" by Philip Kerr. The three books were published from 1989 to 1991 and the author makes major strides in each book. In A German Requiem, it is 1947 and we find detective Bernie Gunther married and living in Berlin with his new wife, Kristen. Things are not going too well, as he suspects she is having sex with occupying American officers in exchanges for scarce supplies. Berlin is a mess, with people surviving on whatever they can make on the black market, or through prostitution, and the biggest concern is staying out of the way of the Russians.

Gunther is still making a living as a PI, barely, when he gets a case in Vienna investigating the arrest and imprisonment of an old police colleague, Becker, who was a corrupt cop, a ruthless SS man, and is now a smuggler who has been accused of murder. Becker has called on Gunther to help get him out of jail, but there are a hundred plot twists that come our way before that case is resolved. Turns out almost every Nazi except Hitler has faked his death and made their way to Vienna, and most of them are now spying on the Russians for the U.S. army. Gunther not only has to deal with them, but there is a Russian trying to kill him at almost every turn.

Once again Kerr gets our heads spinning with one plot twist after another, but, as in his other novels, it is history that is the most intriguing aspect of this book. Kerr paints an amazingly clear picture of the difficulty of life after the war. While they were defeated, the German people suffered for many years after the war was over, and some might say it was not over until the Berlin wall finally fell. The Russians are a brutal enemy and we can see Kerr begin to paint the path for Gunther to engage in the Cold War.