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A Quiet Flame: A Bernie Gunther Mystery
 
 
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A Quiet Flame: A Bernie Gunther Mystery (Paperback)

by Philip Kerr (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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A Quiet Flame: A Bernie Gunther Mystery + The One from the Other: A Bernie Gunther Mystery + Berlin Noir ('March Violets', 'The Pale Criminal' and 'A German Requiem') (Penguin Crime/Mystery)
Price For All Three: £20.07

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Product details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Quercus Publishing Plc (2 Oct 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1847245587
  • ISBN-13: 978-1847245588
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 4,450 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
Kerr brilliantly evokes the edgy atmosphere of the post-war period in one of the most gripping and accomplished detective novels published this year - Sunday TimesCogently plotted odyssey...cracking stuff - The TimesOne of the great achievements of contemporary crime fiction...powerful and impressive - Observer

The Times
Cogently plotted odyssey....cracking stuff

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

A Quiet Flame: A Bernie Gunther Mystery
71% buy the item featured on this page:
A Quiet Flame: A Bernie Gunther Mystery 4.2 out of 5 stars (12)
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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (10)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Quiet Masterpiece, 7 April 2008
By G. J. Oxley "Gaz" (Tyne & Wear, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Quiet Flame: A Bernie Gunther Mystery (Hardcover)
Fans of Philip Kerr's original trilogy of Bernie Gunther books were delighted last year when after a gap of 17 years, a fourth volume `The One from the Other' hit the bookshops in July.

Barely nine months on and there's a very welcome fifth book in the series. And while reading it, it becomes clear that there are plans for at least one more volume from `the thinking reader's thriller writer'

Ex-Berlin homicide detective/private eye/SS officer Bernie Gunther finds himself in Buenos Aries, Argentina in 1950 (read `The One From The Other' to find out why), a time when Juan Peron's government offered a safe haven for Nazi war criminals. The action switches largely between Berlin in 1932 - and Bernie's last abandoned case as a police officer when the mutilated body of a spastic teenage girl is discovered - and Buenos Aires in 1950 where he is invited to investigate a case with striking similarities.

What appears to be a simple case turns out to be anything but; twist is piled upon twist, and Gunther unwraps layer after layer until the final shocking revelation is revealed.

Once again, this is peopled with real personalities - Juan and Evita Peron, Adolf Eichmann, Joseph Mengele etc. - and blends fiction with conjecture based upon historical fact. It includes a chilling portrait of the man who was third ranked in the SS at the end of World War II, General Hans Kammler; perhaps the most heinous SS officer never to be caught.

Bernie Gunther is a great creation, never afraid to poke his nose into things he's been warned to keep out of. He's brave, principled and wisecracking - one character remarks he has a 'smart mouth' - and that gets him into trouble. He's a throwback to the golden age of Hammett and Chandler.

This intelligent, gripping thriller is richly detailed and tightly plotted. It has a moving ending (I won't give it away) that cries out for the sequel that will inevitably follow. All in all, this is top stuff.

So why not five stars? I'm benchmarking this against the best of Philip Kerr and it's not quite up there with 'A Philosophical Investigation' and one or two others.

But unfortunately, I have to agree with a previous reviewer's comments; this novel contains a whole slew of typos. Who the heck is responsible for proof-reading these books, and can I please have his job?
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A quiet and disturbing book, 27 Mar 2008
This review is from: A Quiet Flame: A Bernie Gunther Mystery (Hardcover)
It's astonishing to me that Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther books still seem relatively little known. All the more pleasure for this reader, then, when another in the series appears unexpectedly on the bookshelves. This time Bernie is in Argentina in 1950, where thousands of Nazi fugitives and tens of thousands of refugees co-exist uneasily. It's the perfect location for some grimy, low-key action.

What a shame, then, that this excellent book has been so poorly copy-edited. We have mis-spelled and wrongly accented Spanish, "dyeing" spelled "dying", "Bernard Weiss" becoming "Bernhard Weiss" after a few pages, "practice" (the noun) repeatedly being spelled "practise" (the verb), "epicentre" being lazily used where "centre" was meant, and so on. Yes, the author must take some blame, but really - this is what editors are paid to pick up.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Barnburner of a novel., 8 Mar 2009
By John Coffey - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is the best of the Berlin noir series; it's a beautifully constructed novel. A measure of Kerr's skill as a story teller is that the novel appears totally seamless despite a complex flashback technique. A chilling study of totalitarianism.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars "And unawares Morality expires
Nor public flame nor private dares to shine;
Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine!
Lo! Read more
Published 4 days ago by Leonard Fleisig

4.0 out of 5 stars Gunther in Argentina
The fourth Bernie Gunther thriller (The One from the Other) saw the ex-police detective get caught up in the sordid post-World War II smuggling of Nazis out of Europe. Read more
Published 5 days ago by A. Ross

4.0 out of 5 stars As usual, Kerr delivers a good story
Philip Kerr is a decent writer. His 1930s Berlin and 1950s Argentina settings in this book feel authentic and atmospheric. Read more
Published 2 months ago by D. J. Keyworth

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine storytelling.
Sadly I have reached the end of the Bernie Gunther stories by Philip Kerr, I shall miss him. This stories mix of pre-war Berlin and post-war Argentina was quite wonderful, I'm... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Michael Gale

4.0 out of 5 stars Horst (Wessel) Whisperer
Mr Kerr doesn't need to shout to be heard, and has produced another beautifully understated and crafted novel in the Bernie Gunther series, transferring the action from Germany to... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Yggdrasil

4.0 out of 5 stars The best of the Bernie Gunther novels (so far)
Kerr's increasingly Chandler-esque Berlin detective Bernie Gunther makes his 5th appearance in 'A Quiet Flame'. Read more
Published 5 months ago by S. J. Buck

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written, intelligent novel
I have not read Phillip Kerr before but was attracted to this book by the reviews on here. Whilst I do not like the main character Bernie Gunter - indeed I found him deelpy... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Penylan

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant read
I enjoyed reading this book. Not only it's a well written crime novel, it also provides a credible insight into pre- Nazi Germany helping to understand context for their ascend... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Nomad in Caledonia

4.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant read
The latest Philip Kerr novel seems once again to have slipped in under the radar. He really has made the whole Nazi period his own - concentrating not just on the obvious war... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Jl Adcock

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