Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* The first volume in Kerr's Bernhard Gunther series, starring a classic Chandler-Hammett PI in Germany in 1936, captures a moment ideal for detective fiction: a country in the wake of a gloriously decadent era, the Weimar Republic, confronted by a new regime of unimagined repression. Gunther's response to the changing times tough-talking cynicism seems perfect until he realizes, as we have done several steps ahead of him, that this particular incarnation of governmental groupthink is like no other. The plot itself a Ross Macdonald-like hornet's nest of corruption and family secrets, overlaid with connections to the new gang of thugs in power would be right at home in Chandler's fictional Bay City, except that names like Goring and Himmler, both of whom are accorded vivid cameos, carry a resonance far beyond your garden-variety power-hungry politician. As Gunther tracks the murderers of a husband and wife, and the theft of a diamond necklace and sundry papers damaging to the murdered woman's father a corrupt politician struggling to keep his share of filthy lucre away from the Nazis it becomes clear that the resolution of the case, if any is possible, will pale in comparison to what awaits the average German, cynic and patriot alike. A fine example of how a skilled crime writer can use the genre's formulas to enhance the drama of individual men and women caught in the vise of history.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
