- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (28 Mar 1991)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 014011467X
- ISBN-13: 978-0140114676
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 12.7 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 249,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
A brutal murderer on the streets is not unusual for Berlin in 1938. But this one is killing young Aryan girls and the Jew who has been framed proves innocent. Private Eye Bernie Gunther finds himself on the trail of the killer, and must pursue some very high-powered suspects.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
THIS SECOND BOOK in Kerr's "Berlin Noir" trilogy (collected in one paperback volume by Penguin) is set in Berlin of 1938. Bernie Gunther returns in a another noir thriller, this time involving a serial killer specializing in young German girls. The police are baffled and Gunther is "persuaded" to temporarily rejoin the force and lead the investigation. Meanwhile, some elements of the Nazi party attempt to use the killings to stir up anti-Jewish rioting. Once again, Kerr's research, writing and incorporation of German idioms is brilliant.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I found this book to be truly gripping, I just couldn't put it down and spent many a morning regretting a late night spent in the underworld of 1930's Berlin. Full of gritty violence and slick humour, I would highly recommend it to fans of the detective genre who are looking for something that little bit different.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
14 reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
A Well-Written, Well-Researched Crime Noir Set in Pre-War Nazi Germany!
26 July 2008
Format:Paperback
The Pale Criminal is the second book in Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy featuring Bernie Gunther, a tough-talking, hard-drinking, chain-smoking, cynical ex-cop, now private detective. The Pale Criminal takes place in 1938 Germany (mostly Berlin) and has Gunther working a case involving the murder of several teeange German girls. The Kripo (police) are unable to make progress in the case and Gunther is "requested" by Reinhard Heydrich, second in importance in the SS only to Heinrich Himmler, to temporarily rejoin the Kripo to take charge of the investigation. The interesting, though at times slow moving, plot reveals that some members of the Nazi party want to use the multiple murders to further incite anti-Jewish feelings. I found Kerr's description of pre-war Berlin and life in Nazi Germany to be engrossing, and it made me feel like I was right there experiencing the tension that permeated life in these times. The Pale Criminal is a good book that held my attention, and created enough interest to make me eager to read the third book in Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy.
24 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Universe of moral chaos
17 Sep 2005
Format:Paperback
It is August 26, 1938. Arthur Nebe, Kripo head, meets Bernhard Gunther, private investigator, in the middle of the night. It seems that Heydrich thinks Bernie would be useful to him if he were back in Kripo.
Frau Lange is a new client. She wants Bernie to find out who is blackmailing her. To investigate the case he goes to stay in a clinic in Wannsee. Psychoanalysis has been banned, psychotherapy is the order of the day. Dr. Meyer, Bernie's physician, is a Jungian. Homosexuality is a criminal offense under the German Penal Code Section 175. Bernie's partner is murdered, the alleged blackmailer commits suicide, and Bernie is back at Kripo with a higher rank. He is working at Heydrich's behest to solve a serial murder case. He is now Kommissar Gunther.
There are four dead girls and another missing. When Bernie learns from the Kripo head of unoffficial mercy killings, he knows that things have already gotten worse than he imagined. The body of the fifth victim is found through an anonymous call to Kripo.
A suspect who through investigation becomes a nonsuspect turns up dead and a sixth girl, a fourteen year old attending a fee paying school, is missing. A schoolmate of the girl recalls a man wearing a uniform stopping his car near the school. Some of the men start to believe that one of their squad members has killed the nonsuspect. Gunther eliminates the man from the squad notwithstanding his protests that his actions are nothing compared to actions of higher officials.
In order to break open the case the squad decides to use another young girl as bait. Two SS men are responsible for the crimes. Bernhard Gunther solves the mystery just before Kristallnacht. The book is outstanding. The dark morally chaotic universe of National Socialism is portrayed admirably.
Frau Lange is a new client. She wants Bernie to find out who is blackmailing her. To investigate the case he goes to stay in a clinic in Wannsee. Psychoanalysis has been banned, psychotherapy is the order of the day. Dr. Meyer, Bernie's physician, is a Jungian. Homosexuality is a criminal offense under the German Penal Code Section 175. Bernie's partner is murdered, the alleged blackmailer commits suicide, and Bernie is back at Kripo with a higher rank. He is working at Heydrich's behest to solve a serial murder case. He is now Kommissar Gunther.
There are four dead girls and another missing. When Bernie learns from the Kripo head of unoffficial mercy killings, he knows that things have already gotten worse than he imagined. The body of the fifth victim is found through an anonymous call to Kripo.
A suspect who through investigation becomes a nonsuspect turns up dead and a sixth girl, a fourteen year old attending a fee paying school, is missing. A schoolmate of the girl recalls a man wearing a uniform stopping his car near the school. Some of the men start to believe that one of their squad members has killed the nonsuspect. Gunther eliminates the man from the squad notwithstanding his protests that his actions are nothing compared to actions of higher officials.
In order to break open the case the squad decides to use another young girl as bait. Two SS men are responsible for the crimes. Bernhard Gunther solves the mystery just before Kristallnacht. The book is outstanding. The dark morally chaotic universe of National Socialism is portrayed admirably.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A gritty crime mystery worth reading
26 April 2011
Format:Paperback
The Pale Criminal is the second book in Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy that he wrote back in the late '80s and early '90s. The trilogy features Bernie Gunther, a former cop who now makes a living as a private detective in Germany in the late 1930s. After writing these first three books, Kerr changed direction and showed his range by writing several stand-alone novels in the genres of science fiction, historical fiction, and thriller. In 2006 he returned to his beginnings and has since written four more books featuring Gunther.
Young girls are going missing and later turning up dead and brutalized in Berlin. None of the victims have been Jewish and all of them fit the Aryan stereotype tauted by Hitler's regime as the master race. Bernie Gunther, is forced back into working for the German police by the SS because the case surrounding the missing girls seems to be leading nowhere.
Gunther is an intriguing character. He's crass, politically incorrect, and has his vices. But underlying those characteristics is a man who will take any steps necessary in order to see that the guilty are punished, whether they're a Nazi or a Jew, and that the innocent are protected irregardless of who they are as well.
The plot is gritty and at times a little slow in unfolding. But it does an excellent job of creating the type of atmosphere I would imagine existed in Germany at that time in history. I enjoyed it but would not recommend it to those of a sensitive nature.
Young girls are going missing and later turning up dead and brutalized in Berlin. None of the victims have been Jewish and all of them fit the Aryan stereotype tauted by Hitler's regime as the master race. Bernie Gunther, is forced back into working for the German police by the SS because the case surrounding the missing girls seems to be leading nowhere.
Gunther is an intriguing character. He's crass, politically incorrect, and has his vices. But underlying those characteristics is a man who will take any steps necessary in order to see that the guilty are punished, whether they're a Nazi or a Jew, and that the innocent are protected irregardless of who they are as well.
The plot is gritty and at times a little slow in unfolding. But it does an excellent job of creating the type of atmosphere I would imagine existed in Germany at that time in history. I enjoyed it but would not recommend it to those of a sensitive nature.
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