Prime Suspect

Bernie Gunther & Berlin Noir (Sleuth)

 

The latest Bernie Gunther novel by Philip Kerr (pictured above) hit American bookstores last week (March 18, 2010). If The Dead Rise Not is the sixth Bernie Gunther novel but it is the prequel to the Berlin Noir Trilogy.

Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels give us readers an eyes-wide-open tour of Nazi Germany and all the evils (both big and small) that the Nazis inflicted on the German citizens and the world during WWII. Bernie was a police detective of the old Wiemar Republic. When he sees the Nazis begin to takeover, he leaves the official police to first become a hotel "house" detective at the famous Adlon Hotel in Berlin and later forced backed into the Nazi police force by Heydrich.

After the Berlin Noir Trilogy, Kerr continued to tell Bernie's story and the story of Germany following WWII in one novel. The next tells of Bernie's defection to Argentina where he soon finds himself investigating a murder that is eerily like a murder he investigated back in Berlin. The third and most recent post Berlin Noir novel, as I mentioned above, is set before the first novel of the triloby to fill in Bernie's backstory and relate how major characters first appeared in Bernie's life.

Bernie is a great sleuth. He isn't perfect. He tries to help people in need and often breaks the law to do so. His morals and values change according to new realities. The supportuning characters that pop up in the novels are interesting and feel real. And Bernie also runs into all the top Nazis even the Leader himself during his investigations and gives us bone-chilling descriptions of men that haunted and still haunt the dreams of those that lived through Nazi Germany and WWII. The writing is crisp and the dialogue snappy as in the best noirs.

Listed below are the Bernie Gunther Novels in publishing order. The year listed following the year published is the date in which the action of the novel takes place.

Bernie Gunther Novels

1. March Violets* (1989) - 1936
2. The Pale Criminal* (1990) - 1938
3. A German Requiem* (1991) - 1947
4. The One From The Other (2006) - 1949
5. A Quiet Flame (2008) - 1950
6. If The Dead Rise Not (2010) - 1934

*The first three novels are also refered to as Berlin Noir and are available in one volume.

Publishers:

• Viking, London.
• Quercus, London. (From 2008)
• Putnam, New York.

Cara Black (Author)

 

Cara Black writes a thrilling crime series set in Paris in the 1990s. Her sleuth is a private investigator and computer security expert named Aimee Leduc. Aimee along with her partner, a dwarf named Rene, solve murders and kidnappings and other crimes in the seedier neighborhoods of Paris. Each novel takes place in a different section of Paris's 20 arrondissements. She expertly weaves the mystery with the history of the neighborhood and its current multicultural character. The stories are firmly set in the 1990s and deal with issues like immigration, terrorism, the legacy of Nazism in Paris from WWII, and even the death of Princess Diana. These too are woven into Cara's mysteries to make them grander and give a more universal scope to her novels.

Cara's 10th Aimee Leduc Mystery, Murder in the Palais Royal, was published on March 1, 2010. I am in the middle of reading #5 Murder in Clichy.

I have to confess, I always thought Cara Black was a resident of Paris. Her knowledge and description of the City of Lights is so detailed, I thought only a native could write like this. But, no. Cara lives in one of my other favorite cities, San Francisco. However, she visits Paris frequently on research trips (one of the joys of being a writer!).

Cara Black is a featured author at the Tucson Festival of Books this weekend in my hometown. She along with Libby Fischer Hellmann, Shilpa Agarwal, and Suzanne Arruda will discuss mystery writing in foreign lands in a forum called "Other Countries, Other Crimes." On Sunday, Cara and Libby will talk about the emergence of the female private investigator in mysteries in a forum called "Good Girls and Bad Guys."

Visit Cara Blacks website for much more on Aimee Leduc, Paris, and her book tour. http://www.carablack.com/

Aimee Leduc Mysteries

1. Murder in the Marais (1998)
2. Murder in Belleville (2000)
3. Murder in the Sentier (2002)
4. Murder in the Bastille (2003)
5. Murder in Clichy (2004)
6. Murder in Montmarte (2005)
7. Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis (2007)
8. Murder in the Rue de Paradis (2008)
9. Murder in the Latin Quarter (2009)
10. Murder in the Palais Royal (2010)

Publishers:

• Soho Press, New York

www.sohopress.com