- Paperback: 389 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (23 Feb 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0143116487
- ISBN-13: 978-0143116486
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.9 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,947,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A Quiet Flame
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Product Description
Review
He's in a league with John le Carré and Alan Furst - Washington Post
Kerr brilliantly evokes the edgy atmosphere of the post-war period in one of the most gripping and accomplished detective novels published this year - The Sunday Times
cogently plotted odyssey.... cracking stuff - The Times
one of the great achievements of contemporary crime fiction…powerful and impressive - The Observer
...a bleak tale but a funny and thrilling one...Kerr digs deeper into his hero's inner life than Chandler ever did and comes closer to creating something like a real person, though, one who it is possible to believe has seen humankind at its most despicable, and continues to do so, but has the strength not to let it destroy him or his ideals. Fond as I am of Bernie Gunther, I hope Kerr continues to throw at him the worst the world has to offer for many years to come - Daily Telegraph
...somewhere between The Big Sleep and The Odessa File - Birmingham Post --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Kerr brilliantly evokes the edgy atmosphere of the post-war period in one of the most gripping and accomplished detective novels published this year - The Sunday Times
cogently plotted odyssey.... cracking stuff - The Times
one of the great achievements of contemporary crime fiction…powerful and impressive - The Observer
...a bleak tale but a funny and thrilling one...Kerr digs deeper into his hero's inner life than Chandler ever did and comes closer to creating something like a real person, though, one who it is possible to believe has seen humankind at its most despicable, and continues to do so, but has the strength not to let it destroy him or his ideals. Fond as I am of Bernie Gunther, I hope Kerr continues to throw at him the worst the world has to offer for many years to come - Daily Telegraph
...somewhere between The Big Sleep and The Odessa File - Birmingham Post --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"'He's in a league with John le Carre and Alan Furst.' Washington Post"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Fans of Philip Kerr's original trilogy of Bernie Gunther books were delighted in 206 when after a gap of 16 years, a fourth volume `The One from the Other' hit the bookshops in July.
Barely 15 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 and private eye 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?
Barely 15 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 and private eye 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?
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Nor public flame nor private dares to shine;
Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine!
Lo! thy dread empire Chaos is restor'd,
Light dies before thy uncreating word;
Thy hand, great Anarch, lets the curtain fall,
And universal darkness buries all." Alexander Pope
Bernie Gunther's flame is certainly a quiet one. He's a good detective, but a flawed man. The key though to Gunther's appeal is the fact that no one is more aware of his failings than Gunther himself. Philip Kerr does an excellent job evoking this self-reflection in his most recent Bernie Gunther detective story, "A Quiet Flame".
For those new to Kerr's Bernie Gunther stories, Gunther is a detective. He is German and during most of the series, set in the 1930s and 1940s we saw Gunther working as a detective in Berlin. He is virulently opposed to the Nazis to the point where many of his colleagues accuse him of being a communist. Yet, first and foremost Gunther wants to be a detective, he wants to solve cases and would like nothing better than to be left alone to do his job. However, he went along. Once the war came he found himself in the SS. He's not proud of his behavior and accepts the fact that he is guilty of `the crime of survival'. He says to himself, ruefully, that if he were truly a good man, he'd be dead because he would have stood up against the Nazis.
Now, it is 1950, and Bernie has fled Europe. He is wanted (wrongfully) for being a war criminal after having his identity stolen but he uses his new identity to escape to Argentina. Upon arrival he finds he has exchanged the madness and machinations of the Nazi regime for that of Juan and Eva Peron's. He is forced into taking on a murder mystery that has occurred within the German (Nazi) émigré community, a brutal murder that bears a stark resemblance to a brutal unsolved murder Gunther investigated in the 1930s in Berlin. The book progresses on two paths. The first path is Gunther's reflections back on the unsolved Berlin murder and the second involves his current investigation. The paths not being parallel finally merge and Gunther is left to deal with the startling consequences of his investigation.
Quiet Flame is an entertaining story and one that lives up to the high quality of Kerr's writing in his previous Gunther novels. His characterization of Gunther is first rate even if he never really fleshes out the characters of his secondary protagonists. Gunther is portrayed with a great deal of nuance. There is goodness about him but he is fully aware of how unclean his hands are. This nuanced look makes the more black-and-white portrayal of the Argentine and German bad guys seem somewhat superficial. That's not a major issue though as the excellent portrayal of Gunther and the book's pacing kept me turning the pages. It's easy to paint a decent, flawed man with nuance but pretty hard to avoid the broad strokes when dealing with unrepentant killers.
All-in-all this is a worthy addition to the Bernie Gunther series. L. Fleisig
Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine!
Lo! thy dread empire Chaos is restor'd,
Light dies before thy uncreating word;
Thy hand, great Anarch, lets the curtain fall,
And universal darkness buries all." Alexander Pope
Bernie Gunther's flame is certainly a quiet one. He's a good detective, but a flawed man. The key though to Gunther's appeal is the fact that no one is more aware of his failings than Gunther himself. Philip Kerr does an excellent job evoking this self-reflection in his most recent Bernie Gunther detective story, "A Quiet Flame".
For those new to Kerr's Bernie Gunther stories, Gunther is a detective. He is German and during most of the series, set in the 1930s and 1940s we saw Gunther working as a detective in Berlin. He is virulently opposed to the Nazis to the point where many of his colleagues accuse him of being a communist. Yet, first and foremost Gunther wants to be a detective, he wants to solve cases and would like nothing better than to be left alone to do his job. However, he went along. Once the war came he found himself in the SS. He's not proud of his behavior and accepts the fact that he is guilty of `the crime of survival'. He says to himself, ruefully, that if he were truly a good man, he'd be dead because he would have stood up against the Nazis.
Now, it is 1950, and Bernie has fled Europe. He is wanted (wrongfully) for being a war criminal after having his identity stolen but he uses his new identity to escape to Argentina. Upon arrival he finds he has exchanged the madness and machinations of the Nazi regime for that of Juan and Eva Peron's. He is forced into taking on a murder mystery that has occurred within the German (Nazi) émigré community, a brutal murder that bears a stark resemblance to a brutal unsolved murder Gunther investigated in the 1930s in Berlin. The book progresses on two paths. The first path is Gunther's reflections back on the unsolved Berlin murder and the second involves his current investigation. The paths not being parallel finally merge and Gunther is left to deal with the startling consequences of his investigation.
Quiet Flame is an entertaining story and one that lives up to the high quality of Kerr's writing in his previous Gunther novels. His characterization of Gunther is first rate even if he never really fleshes out the characters of his secondary protagonists. Gunther is portrayed with a great deal of nuance. There is goodness about him but he is fully aware of how unclean his hands are. This nuanced look makes the more black-and-white portrayal of the Argentine and German bad guys seem somewhat superficial. That's not a major issue though as the excellent portrayal of Gunther and the book's pacing kept me turning the pages. It's easy to paint a decent, flawed man with nuance but pretty hard to avoid the broad strokes when dealing with unrepentant killers.
All-in-all this is a worthy addition to the Bernie Gunther series. L. Fleisig
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Absolutely Brilliant. I loved this book . great story. exciting location. and more character development. you can read this as a stand alone novel but the best way is as part of the series.You learn so muh more with each story and Bernie Gnther is becoming one of the most rounded detectives in fiction. One quibble he finds a babe every where, they fall for him and it doesn't work out ( no further spoilers) A love interest is all very well but it all seems to easy. Any way i am already to follow Bernie to Cuba.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Gunther up against Nazis and Argentine Fascists
A corker. "A Quiet Flame" retraces murder detective Gunther's last years on the Berlin police force under the Weimar Republic and takes him to 1950 Buenos Aires as a refugee from... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Blue in Washington
Flaming Good
Bernie Gunther is a brilliant creation. In some ways he's just another hard boiled cop full of wisecracks and with an eye for the ladies- he could easily be cliched and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by DN PERKS
Bernie at his best
Gunther never fails to surprise in his quests. The twists and turns are unbelievable, making it very hard to put the book down. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Moira
Don't Cry for Me Bernie Gunther
As familiarity is said to breed contempt, it is perhaps not surprising that I found 'A Quiet Flame' less satisfactory than Bernie Gunther's four previous outings. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Quicksilver
A sophisticated and stylish Berlin Noir murder mystery
A Quiet Flame is a good place to start with Philip Kerr's "Berlin Noir" novels. What a great read it os being suspenseful, full of historic detail, and also pleasingly literate and... Read more
Published 16 months ago by A Common Reader
It's Eichmann, folks!
Bernie has always seemed to have had easy access to the hierarchy of the Nazi Party. In truth, Kerr is a bit of a name-dropper. That's okay. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Gargoyle
Excellent
Philip Kerr's detective appears once more to delight his fans.
It's 1950 and Bernie Gunther has managed to join the exodus of Nazis escaping to Argentina. Read more
It's 1950 and Bernie Gunther has managed to join the exodus of Nazis escaping to Argentina. Read more
Published 18 months ago by N. Brett
What a story....
Philip Kerr's "A Quiet Flame" is my second Bernie Gunther novel. Somewhat late to the game, I recently read, enjoyed, and reviewed "If The Dead Rise Not", giving it five stars. Read more
Published on 15 April 2010 by Jill Meyer
Good Stuff but Kerr Should Leave the Chandler Style to Chandler
I like Philip Kerr's novels featuring his German cop Bernie Gunther but I wish he would wean himself off the excruciating Raymond Chandler pastiche style which can be amusing when... Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2010 by John Fitzpatrick
Begins well, unwinds into darkness and hurries off abruptly
Gunther in Argentina entwined again within the unwelcome brace of Naziism and its peroist manifestation. Read more
Published on 21 Sep 2009 by John Harpur
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