Greeks Bearing Gifts

January 15, 2018
Set in 1957, bestseller Kerr’s twisty 13th Bernie Gunther novel (after 2017’s Prussian Blue) finds the former Berlin cop employed as a lowly mortuary assistant in Munich. Fortunately, a bit of detective work he does on the side leads to a new job as a claims adjustor for a local insurance company. His first assignment takes him to Athens to look into the case of the Doris, a small ship that was on an expedition searching for ancient Greek artifacts when it caught fire and sank. Bernie talks with the Doris’s owner, a German diving expert, who soon meets a violent end—possibly at the hands of a wanted Nazi war criminal, who in 1943 helped put thousands of Greek Jews (including the Doris’s original owner) on trains to Auschwitz. Once again, Kerr shows Bernie contending bravely if futilely against powerful forces whose full evil becomes clear only at the end. The good news for series fans is that an even better career may lie ahead for Bernie—as a spy. Author tour. Agent: Caradoc King, A.P. Watt (U.K.).

Adding an arch tone to his delivery, narrator John Lee provides an extra layer of listening pleasure to the thirteenth installment of the adventures of Bernie Gunther. It's 1956, and the former police detective is now an insurance claims adjuster in Munich. Lee handles the accents and colorful characters, as well as Bernie's observations and the shifts in pacing, with steady hands. Bernie and his new partner unravel a murder that points to a WWII criminal who is still on the run. Lee and Kerr combine their storytelling talents to make this visit to the dark streets and alleys of Berlin bone chilling and emotionally satisfying. R.O. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine