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.

Greeks bearing gifts: A Bernie Gunther thriller

Recommended Reading Order

1
March Violets
Philip Kerr
272 pages
10 hours of reading
3.8(12219)Add rating
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
2
The Pale Criminal
A Bernie Gunther Novel
Philip Kerr
288 pages
11 hours of reading
4.0(7329)Add rating
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.
3
A German Requiem
Philip Kerr
320 pages
12 hours of reading
4.0(6346)Add rating
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.
4
The one from the other
Philip Kerr
4.0(348)Add rating
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.
5
A quiet flame
Philip Kerr
448 pages
16 hours of reading
4.1(281)Add rating
'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?
6
Bernie Gunther: If The Dead Rise Not
Philip Kerr
448 pages
16 hours of reading
4.0(196)Add rating
An instant classic in the Bernie Gunther series, with storytelling that is fresher and more vivid than ever. Berlin, 1934: The Nazis have secured the 1936 Olympiad for the city but are facing foreign resistance. Hitler and Avery Brundage, the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, have connived to soft-pedal Nazi anti- Semitism and convince America to participate. Bernie Gunther, now the house detective at an upscale Berlin hotel, is swept into this world of international corruption and dangerous double-dealing, caught between the warring factions of the Nazi apparatus. Havana, 1954: Batista, aided by the CIA, has just seized power; Castro is in prison; and the American Mafia is quickly gaining a stranglehold on the city's exploding gaming and prostitution industries. Bernie, who has been unceremoniously kicked out of Buenos Aires, has resurfaced in Cuba with a new life, seemingly one of routine and relative peace. But Bernie discovers that he truly cannot outrun the burden of his past: He soon collides with a vicious killer from his Berlin days, who is mysteriously murdered not long afterward-and an old lover, who may be the murderer. If the Dead Rise Not is everything fans have come to expect from Philip Kerr: twisted intrigue, tight plotting, quick-witted one-liners, a hang-by-your-thumbs ending, and, most significant, a richer, wiser Bernie Gunther.
7
Field Grey
Philip Kerr
576 pages
21 hours of reading
4.2(163)Add rating
'One of the greatest anti-heroes ever written' LEE CHILD 'A man doesn't work for his enemies unless he has little choice in the matter.' So says Bernie Gunther. 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, and soon he finds himself in a place with which he is all too familiar - a prison cell. After exhaustive questioning, he is flown back to Berlin and yet another prison cell with a proposition: work for French intelligence or hang for murder. The job is simple: he is to meet and greet POWs returning to Germany and to look out for one in particular, a French war criminal and member of the French SS who has been posing as a German Wehrmacht officer. The French are anxious to catch up with this man and deal with him in their own ruthless way. But Bernie's past as a German POW in Russia is about to catch up with him - in a way he could never have foreseen. Bernie Gunther's seventh outing delivers more of the fast-paced and quick-witted action that we have come to expect from Philip Kerr. Set in Cuba, a Soviet POW camp, Paris and Berlin, and ranging over a period of twenty years from the Thirties to the Fifties, Field Grey is an outstanding thriller by a writer at the top of his game.
8
Prague fatale
Philip Kerr
4.1(159)Add rating
'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.
9
A Man Without Breath
Philip Kerr
4.2(96)Add rating
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…
10
The lady from Zagreb
Philip Kerr
4.0(3158)Add rating
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.
11
The Other Side of Silence
Philip Kerr
352 pages
13 hours of reading
3.9(106)Add rating
The French Riviera, 1956. A world-weary Bernie Gunther is working under a false name as a hotel concierge. His attempts to keep his nose clean go horribly awry when a wartime acquaintance sucks him into a blackmail plot involving one of the most famous British writers of the 20th century and the Cambridge Spies. Bernie is missing his old detective life when his past walks through the door in the shape of Harold Hennig, a former captain in the Nazi security service - the man who, in 1945, was responsible for the deaths of thousands, among them a woman Bernie loved. Hennig now enjoys 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. A shared love of bridge draws Bernie to Maugham's magnificent villa, where Maugham tells him of the existence of a very compromising photograph. Taken in 1937, it shows Maugham among a group of naked men beside a swimming pool - one of whom is the infamous spy and homosexual, Guy Burgess, who, with Donald Maclean, has recently defected to Moscow. Hennig has the photograph and is demanding $50,000 for its release. Bernie is reluctant to become Maugham's agent but his former life has made him as vulnerable to blackmail as Maugham himself. Not only that - he has a massive score to settle with Hennig.
12
Prussian Blue
Philip Kerr
4.3(219)Add rating
France, 1956. Bernie Gunther is on the run. If there's one thing he's learned, it's never to refuse a job from a high-ranking secret policeman. But this is exactly what he's just done. Now he's a marked man, with the East German Stasi on his tail. Fleeing across Europe, he remembers the last time he worked with his pursuer: in 1939, to solve a murder at the Berghof, Hitler's summer hideaway in the Bavarian Alps. Hitler is long dead, the Berghof now a ruined shell, and the bizarre time Bernie spent there should be no more than a distant memory. But as he pushes on to Berlin and safety, Bernie will find that no matter how far he thinks he has put Nazi Germany behind him, for him it will always be unfinished business. The Berghof is not done with Bernie yet.
13
Greeks bearing gifts: A Bernie Gunther thriller
Philip Kerr
4.1(132)Add rating
Will it be unlucky thirteen for Bernie Gunther? Find out in the latest installment in this internationally bestselling and acclaimed series. LEE CHILD calls Bernie Gunther 'one of the greatest anti-heroes ever written' TOM HANKS says 'Kerr leads us through the facts of history and the vagaries of human nature' ALAN FURST calls Philip Kerr 'one of the greatest master story-tellers in English'
14
Metropolis : a Bernie Gunther thriller
Philip Kerr
4.0(3114)Add rating
Berlin, 1928, the dying days of the Weimar Republic shortly before Hitler and the Nazis came to power. It was a period of decadence and excess as Berliners - after the terrible slaughter of WWI and the hardships that followed - are enjoying their own version of Babylon. Bernie is a young detective working in Vice when he gets a summons from Bernard Weiss, Chief of Berlin's Criminal Police. He invites Bernie to join KIA - Criminal Inspection A - the supervisory body for all homicide investigation in Kripo. Bernie's first task is to investigate the Silesian Station killings - four prostitutes murdered in as many weeks. All of them have been hit over the head with a hammer and then scalped with a sharp knife.Bernie hardly has time to acquaint himself with the case files before another prostitute is murdered. Until now, no one has shown much interest in these victims - there are plenty in Berlin who'd like the streets washed clean of such degenerates. But this time the girl's father runs Berlin's foremost criminal ring, and he's prepared to go to extreme lengths to find his daughter's killer.Then a second series of murders begins - of crippled wartime veterans who beg in the city's streets. It seems that someone is determined to clean up Berlin of anyone less than perfect. The voice of Nazism is becoming a roar that threatens to drown out all others. But not Bernie Gunther's ...

Die Berlin-Trilogie
Feuer in Berlin / Im Sog der dunklen Mächte / Alte Freunde - neue Feinde
Philip Kerr
1072 pages
38 hours of reading
3.6(19)Add rating
Berlin Noir – Philip Kerrs phantastische Thrillertrilogie aus der deutschen Vergangenheit In seiner Berlin-Trilogie um den Privatdetektiv Bernhard Gunther gelingt es Philip Kerr, die schmutzig-düstere Atmosphäre des Dritten Reichs und der Berliner Nachkriegszeit in der Form eines spannenden Kriminalromans heraufzubeschwören. Geschickt verwebt er die historischen Ereignisse und Protagonisten mit seinen Kriminalgeschichten – eine atemberaubende Mischung. «Kerr ist die europäische Krimi Entdeckung der letzten Jahre.» RADIO BREMEN
Berlin Noir
Philip Kerr
880 pages
31 hours of reading
4.3(6881)Add rating
Ex-Policeman Bernie Gunther thought he'd seen everything on the streets of 1930's Berlin. And even after the war, amidst the decayed, imperial splendour of Vienna, Bernie uncovered a legacy that made the wartime atrocities look lily-white in comparison.