22 February 1956 – 23 March
2018
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© Shotsmag.co.uk
On Friday 23rd
March 2018 the crime writing community were notified of the sad death of
Scottish crime writer Philip Kerr by his wife novelist Jane Thynne via Twitter.
Philip Kerr
was best known for his Bernie Gunther novels with the first one in the series March Violets being published in 1989. March Violets introduced readers to his
sardonic, tough talking former soldier who fought in World War I on the Turkish
Front and also an ex-cop. Gunther went on to work as a private eye in the pre
World War II. The series blended fact and fiction and set mostly in Berlin,
as Gunther carried out investigations against the backdrop of the rise of the
Nazis, whose reach he is always trying to escape.
In March Violets Bernhard Gunther is a
private eye, specializing in missing persons. And in Hitler's Berlin, he's
never short of work... Winter 1936. A man and his wife shot dead in their bed.
The woman's father, a millionaire industrialist, wants justice - and the
priceless diamonds that disappeared along with his daughter's life. As Bernie follows the trail into the very
heart of Nazi Germany, he's forced to confront a horrifying conspiracy.
March Violets was followed by The
Pale Criminal which was published in 1990 and A German Requiem in 1991. The first three novels later became known
as The Berlin Trilogy and were
published as such in 2012.
In 1992 his
standalone novel A Philosophical
Investigation was published. Set in London
2013: a world in which serial murder has reached epidemic proportions.
Tested positively by the government as one disposed to criminal violence, a serial killer breaks into the computer to erase his name, where he discovers a list of others so accused and hits on the horrifying idea: what if he were to become a killer of serial killers? A Philosophical Investigation was well received on publication with the narrative unfolding from a dual perspective. The killer's being told in first person and the detective's is told in third.
This was
followed in 1993 with Dead Meat and Gridiron in 1995, The
Shot in 1999, Dark Matter (2002),
Hitler’s Peace (2012) amongst
others. The most recent standalone being
The Most Frightening Story Ever Told
in 2016.
He returned
to the Bernie Gunther novels after a 15 year gap with The One
From the Other in 2006. This was
followed by A Quiet Flame (2008), If the Dead Rise Not (2009), Field Grey (2010), Prague Fatale (2011), A Man
Without Breath (2013), The Lady from
Zagreb (2015), The Other Side of
Silence (2016) and Prussian Blue
in 2017. His novel If The Dead Not Rise
won the Crime Writers Association Ellis Peters Historical Award in 2009 as well
as the Premio RBA de Novela Negra. It
also won the Barry Award for Best British Novel. The novels Field
Grey, The Lady of Zaregb and Prussian Blue were all shortlisted for
an Edgar Award for Best Novel in 2012, 2016 and 2018 respectively.
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| © Shotsmag.co.uk (Philip Kerr & Jane Wood) |
The latest
book in the Bernie Gunther series Greeks
Bearing Gifts is due to be published in April this year. In Greeks
Bearing Gifts, it is Munich, 1956. Bernie Gunther has a new name, a
chip on his shoulder, and a dead-end career when an old friend arrives to repay
a debt and encourages “Christoph Ganz” to take a job as a claims adjuster in a
major German insurance company with a client in Athens, Greece. Under the cover of his new identity, Bernie
begins to investigate a claim by Siegfried Witzel, a brutish former Wehrmacht
soldier who served in Greece during the war. Witzel’s claimed losses are large
, and, even worse, they may be the stolen spoils of Greek Jews deported to Auschwitz.
But when Bernie tries to confront Witzel, he finds that someone else has gotten
to him first, leaving a corpse in his place.
Enter Lieutenant Leventis, who recognises in this case the highly
grotesque style of a killer he investigated during the height of the war. Back
then, a young Leventis suspected an S.S. officer whose connection to the German
government made him untouchable. He’s kept that man’s name in his memory all
these years, waiting for his second chance at justice… Working together, Leventis and Bernie hope to
put their cases–new and old–to bed. But there’s a much more sinister truth to
acknowledge: A killer has returned to Athens…one who may have never left.
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| © Shotsmag.co.uk (Janet Ellis, Philip Kerr & Mike Ripley) |
He was also
wrote children’s novels using the name P B Kerr as well as a number of non-fiction
books under his own name.
Over the
years Shots have reviewed a number of his books including The
Other Side of Silence, Hand
of God, The
Lady of Zaregb, A
Man Without Breath, Prague
Fatale and Field
Grey. A 2011 interview on the Shots website can be found here. The Guardian have also reported on his death.
His passing is a great loss to so many; his family, authors and readers. He will be solely missed.
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