- Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (14 May 1990)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140114661
- ISBN-13: 978-0140114669
- Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 9.9 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 66,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Set against the backdrop of Hitler's rise to power, this tense thriller begins with Bernhard Gunther's investigation into the disappearance of a diamond necklace. He soon finds himself caught in a web of Nazi politics and organized crime.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you enjoy/enjoyed the old-school crime novels with characters like Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade, you'll enjoy March Violets, which is set in Berlin in 1936 and features tough-talking, hard-drinking, chain-smoking and cynical Bernhard Gunther. Gunther is an ex-cop, now private investigator hired by a rich businessman to find some jewelry that was stolen, and which had belonged to the businessman's recently murdered daughter. In addition, Gunther is "requested" by Herman Goering to find some important missing papers. I found Kerr's description of prewar Berlin and life in Nazi Germany to be very good, and considered the plot to be engrossing. These two elements are worthy of a 4- 4 1/2 star rating. What brought my overall rating of March Violets down to 3 1/2 stars is that I found that Kerr went somewhat overboard in portraying Gunther's tough guy attitude and in having Gunther speak ad nauseum in cliches. At times, I felt that Kerr was trying to create a satire of the type of detective novels that were popular in the '30s, '40s and '50s. March Violets is a good book that held my attention, and created enough interest to make me want to read the next book in Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy. However, unless you are a lover of crime noir books, March Violets is not a book that I'd recommend you rush out to buy and put at the top of your To Be Read list.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
If you like hard boiled fiction, then this is a must for you. Raymond Chandler is undisputed, but Kerr follows on nicely, with a unique and very historically correct detective novel. It captures the era nicely and is gritty. Might not be everyone's cuppa tea, but for those that are into hard boiled detective novels, give this one a spin.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I agree with 'Gargoyle'. Berlin in 1936 must have been a fascinating and horrible place. I was looking for a good story here, but also something that gave me the flavour of that place and that time. There are plenty of references to Nazism, Hitler salutes, thuggish behaviour, corruption and general cynicism, but none of it rang very true. More importantly, the central detective, Bernhard Gunther, is very much a Marlowe clone, a wise-cracking gumshoe, and while there's no reason, I suppose, why German private eyes at that time might not be like that - perhaps they did have a dry sense of humour and a good line in putdowns - everything about him shouts US crime fiction to me ; and the wisecracks become wearisome. One of the strengths of the very popular Scandinavian crime writers - Mankell, Nesbo, Karin Fossum et al. - at the moment is their ability to create a convincing context for their plotlines. This book doesn't do that.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Bullish outlook
Ex-cop, now PI, Bernie Gunther is, 'one of the only people in the city not to own a uniform', as he moves from routine divorce cases to mixing with the higher echelons of the... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Officer Dibble
march violets
my main interest in reading is detective series and i am always looking for new authors, I came across this author in a news paper review and sent for the book which was the first... Read more
Published 17 months ago by bill getty
Von Marlow
Well though not a war book, this story was as dambing of the Nazi movement as anything I have ever read. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mr. A. I. Harrison
Chandler it ain't.
Take a pre-war Berlin run by brutal security forces. Take a wisecracking Marlowesque private detective with an eye for the ampler fraulein. It should be intriguing but it's not. Read more
Published on 8 Jun 2009 by Gargoyle
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