Bernie Gunther Series

This series follows a private detective navigating the turbulent decades of Nazi Germany and post-war Europe. With an unflinching gaze at reality, he investigates cases that pull him into society's darkest corners. The series offers a sharp critique of political regimes and the moral complexities of the era, as its protagonist struggles to survive and maintain his integrity.

Recommended Reading Order

March Violets
Philip Kerr
272 pages
10 hours of reading
Discover the first crime novel in the late Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series - Berlin Noir - set in Hitler's Germany during the 1930s . . . Winter, 1936. A man and his wife shot dead in their bed, their home burned. The woman's father, a millionaire industrialist, wants justice - and the priceless diamonds that disappeared along with his daughter's life. He turns to Bernhard Gunther, a private eye and former cop. As Bernie follows the trail into the very heart of Nazi Germany, he's forced to confront a horrifying conspiracy. A trail that ends in the hell that is Dachau . . . Stylishly written and powerfully evocative, Kerr's crime classic transports readers to the rotten heart of Nazi Berlin, and introduces a private eye in the great tradition of Hammett and Chandler. 'Wonderfully sharp and satirical' Times 'An impressive debut' Guardian 'Fast-paced, laconic, unpredictable, and witty' Evening Standard 'For Christmas, I would like all of Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir novels' Sam Mendes, Guardian
1
3.8
The Pale Criminal
A Bernie Gunther Novel
Philip Kerr
288 pages
11 hours of reading
Set in 1930s Berlin, the story follows hard-boiled detective Bernie Gunther as he confronts a chilling serial killer who is wreaking havoc in the city. This gripping mystery delves into the dark underbelly of society, showcasing Gunther's relentless pursuit of justice amidst a backdrop of political tension and moral ambiguity. The novel promises to keep readers on the edge of their seats with its intricate plot and rich historical context.
2
4.0
A German Requiem
Philip Kerr
320 pages
12 hours of reading
Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels have won him an international reputation as a master of historical suspense. In A German Requiem, the private eye has survived the collapse of the Third Reich to find himself in Vienna. Amid decaying imperial splendor, he traces concentric circles of evil and uncovers a legacy that makes the wartime atrocities seem lily-white in comparison.
3
4.0
The one from the other
Philip Kerr
Bernie Gunther, Kerr's beloved protagonist, takes center stage in this fast-paced, twist-filled historical thriller that turns his acclaimed German trilogy into a surprise-laden quartet.
4
4.0
A quiet flame
Philip Kerr
448 pages
16 hours of reading
'One of the greatest anti-heroes ever written' LEE CHILD Posing as an escaping Nazi war-criminal Bernie Gunther arrives in Buenos Aires and, having revealed his real identity to the local chief of police, discovers that his reputation as a detective goes before him. A young girl has been murdered in peculiarly gruesome circumstances that strongly resemble Bernie's final case as a homicide detective with the Berlin police. A case he had failed to solve. Circumstances lead the chief of police in Buenos Aires to suppose that the murderer may be one of several thousand ex Nazis who have fetched up in Argentina since 1945. And, therefore, who better than Bernie Gunther to help him track that murderer down?
5
4.1
If The Dead Rise Not
Philip Kerr
455 pages
16 hours of reading
As Berlin prepares for the 1936 Olympic Games, Bernie is caught between violently opposing factions in a story that comes full circle in 1950s' Cuba.
6
4.0
Field Grey. Mission Walhalla, englische Ausgabe
Philip Kerr
567 pages
20 hours of reading
It is 1954 and Bernie is in Cuba. Tiring of his increasingly dangerous work spying on Meyer Lansky, Bernie acquires a boat and a beautiful companion and quits the island. But the US Navy has other ideas...
7
4.2
Prague fatale
Philip Kerr
544 pages
20 hours of reading
'The Prague Fatale' is Bernie Gunther's eighth outing. Set in Prague in 1942, it delivers all the fast-paced and quick-witted action that we have come to expect from Philip Kerr. It is an outstanding thriller by a writer at the top of his game.
8
4.1
A Man Without Breath
Philip Kerr
Berlin, March 1943. The mood in Germany is bleak after their stunning defeat at Stalingrad. Private Investigator Bernie Gunther is at work in the German War Crimes Bureau – weary, cynical but well aware of the value of truth in a world where that’s now a rarity. When human remains are found deep in the Katyn Forest, Bernie is sent to investigate. Rumour has it that this mass grave is full of Polish officers murdered by the Russians. For Josef Goebbels, proof of Russian involvement is sure to destroy the Western Alliance, giving Germany a chance to reverse its devastating losses. But supposing the truth is far more damaging to the German cause? It’s Bernie Gunther’s job to give Goebbels what he needs. But when there’s nothing left for Gunther to lose, the compulsion to speak the truth becomes ever stronger…
9
4.2
The lady from Zagreb
Philip Kerr
576 pages
21 hours of reading
Summer 1942. When Bernie Gunther is ordered to speak at an international police conference, an old acquaintance has a favour to ask. Little does Bernie suspect what this simple surveillance task will provoke ...One year later, resurfacing from the hell of the Eastern Front, a superior gives him another task that seems straightforward: locating the father of Dalia Dresner, the rising star of German cinema. Bernie accepts the job. Not that he has much choice - the superior is Goebbels himself. But Dresner's father hails from Yugoslavia, a country so riven by sectarian horrors that even Bernie's stomach is turned. Yet even with monsters at home and abroad, one thing alone drives him on from Berlin to Zagreb to Zurich: Bernie Gunther has fallen in love.
10
4.0
The Other Side of Silence
Philip Kerr
400 pages
14 hours of reading
It is 1956 on the French Riviera. A world-weary Bernie Gunther is working as concierge at the Grand Hotel, St Jean Cap Ferrat, living under a false name. The Riviera retains its louche glamour even in these gloomy post-war years - a sunny place for shady people. Bernie plays bridge to stave off boredom and misses his old detective life. Then his past walks through the door in the shape of Harold Hennig, a former captain in the Nazi security service. Bernie never forgets a face, especially when it belongs to a mass murderer who, in 1945, was responsible for the deaths of thousands, among them a woman Bernie loved. Since the war, Hennig has enjoyed a lucrative career as a blackmailer. Hennig's target on the Cote d'Azur is a famous resident with a dark past and plenty to hide - the writer, Somerset Maugham
11
3.9
Prussian Blue
Philip Kerr
550 pages
20 hours of reading
Bernie Gunther is on the run. Ordered by Erich Mielke, head of the East German Stasi, to murder an acquaintance of his by thallium poisoning, he finds his conscience is stronger than his desire not to be murdered in turn. Now he must stay one step ahead of Mielke's retribution. The man Mielke has sent to hunt him is an ex-Kripo colleague, and as Bernie pushes towards Germany he recalls their last case together. In 1939, summoned by Reinhard Heydrich to the Berghof: Hitler's mountain home in Obersalzberg. A low-level German bureaucrat had been murdered, and the Reichstag deputy Martin Bormann, in charge of overseeing renovations to the Berghof, wanted the case solved quickly. If the Fuhrer were ever to find out that his own house had been the scene of a recent murder - the consequences wouldn't bear thinking about. And so begins perhaps the strangest of Bernie Gunther's adventures, for although several countries and seventeen years separate the murder at the Berghof from his current predicament, Bernie will find there is some unfinished business awaiting him in Germany.
12
4.3
Greeks Bearing Gifts
Philip Kerr
464 pages
17 hours of reading
Bernie Gunther's back - the 13th instalment in this internationally bestselling and acclaimed series
13
4.1
Metropolis
Philip Kerr
496 pages
18 hours of reading
Berlin detective Bernie Gunther bows out at last in the 14th and final instalment of this internationally bestselling and award-winning series featuring 'one of the greatest anti-heroes ever written'
14
4.0

Related books

Berlin Noir
Philip Kerr
Now published in one paperback volume, these three mysteries are exciting and insightful looks at life inside Nazi Germany -- richer and more readable than most histories of the period. We first meet ex-policeman Bernie Gunther in 1936, in March Violets (a term of derision which original Nazis used to describe late converts.) The Olympic Games are about to start; some of Bernie's Jewish friends are beginning to realize that they should have left while they could; and Gunther himself has been hired to look into two murders that reach high into the Nazi Party. In The Pale Criminal, it's 1938, and Gunther has been blackmailed into rejoining the police by Heydrich himself. And in A German Requiem, the saddest and most disturbing of the three books, it's 1947 as Gunther stumbles across a nightmare landscape that conceals even more death than he imagines. (For a review of Kerr's latest novel, The Grid, see our Thrillers section.)
4.3