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    Prussian Blue
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    Prussian Blue
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    Prussian Blue
    Audiobook17 hours

    Prussian Blue

    Written by Philip Kerr

    Narrated by John Lee

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From New York Times-bestselling author Philip Kerr, the much-anticipated return of Bernie Gunther, our compromised former Berlin bull and unwilling SS officer. With his cover blown, he is waiting for the next move in the cat-and-mouse game that, even a decade after Germany's defeat, continues to shadow his life.
     
    The French Riviera, 1956: The invitation to dinner was not unexpected, though neither was it welcome. Erich Mielke, deputy head of the East German Stasi, has turned up in Nice, and he's not on holiday. An old and dangerous adversary, Mielke is calling in a debt. He intends that Bernie go to London and, with the vial of Thallium he now pushes across the table, poison a female agent they both have had dealings with.

    But chance intervenes in the form of Friedrich Korsch, an old Kripo comrade now working for Stasi and probably there to make sure Bernie gets the job done. Bernie bolts for the German border. Traveling by night, holed up during the day, Bernie has plenty of down time to recall the last time Korsch and he worked together.

    It was the summer of 1939: At Hitler's mountaintop retreat in Obersalzberg, the body of a low-level bureaucrat has been found murdered. Bernie and Korsch are selected to run the case. They have one week to solve the murder-Hitler is due back then to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. Lucky Bernie: it's his reward for being Kripo's best homicide detective. He knows what a box he's in: millions have been spent to secure Obersalzberg. It would be a disaster if Hitler were to discover a shocking murder had been committed on the terrace of his own home. But the mountaintop is home to an elite Nazi community. It would be an even bigger disaster for Bernie if one of them was the murderer.

    1939 and 1956: two different eras, seventeen years apart. And yet, not really apart, as the stunning climax will show when the two converge explosively.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 4, 2017
    ISBN9780399566479
    Unavailable
    Prussian Blue
    Author

    Philip Kerr

    Philip Kerr is the bestselling author of the Bernie Gunther thrillers, for which he received a CWA Dagger Award. Born in Edinburgh, he now lives in London. He is a life-long supporter of Arsenal. Follow @theScottManson on Twitter.

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    Reviews for Prussian Blue

    4/5

    131 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A detective novel not for the faint of heart or professionals who know too much about this world. There is nothing quaint or eccentric about the main character, Bernie Gunther, just survival in spite of his non-pc speech in his world of either Nazi Germany or socialist post-war Europe. Although taking place in the past 20th century decades of the 30s and 50s, it is clear that the problems of not only free speech, free expression, and liberty in general, that we are dealing with today are reflected in this good work of fiction.
    • 2/5
      If you like roadkill-flat characters engaged in non-stop action surrounded by continuous details of Nazi palaces and procedures along with non-stop internecine battles between big and middle-sized Nazis, and, yes, portraits of the pissed-off townfolk of Bavaria, then this is your book. Of course, you also get the Berliner detective (A Sam Spade reincarnation) leading the charge and spouting off in front of the SS and Gestapo and even the STASO (all three often trying to kill him) as any red-blooded detective should.

    • 5/5
      This was a really, really long book and I LOVED it!! I think this is my second Bernie Gunther book and I'm wondering why? I know I'm late jumping on this bandwagon, like really late. As for its length, I know if I'm buying a book and spending $30, I don't want to be done with it in a few hours. I want it to last. This one does that. Also, this one was about WWII, right before WWII. It takes place in Bavaria during the week before Hitler's big birthday celebration in a town that was all about him. Which was a few months before Germany invaded Poland. And real German bigwigs names were used. It even tells you at the end of the book the crimes they committed, if they served time and when they died. These people were not nice. The book goes back and forth from that week to after the war to around 1956. When Bernie is tracked down and they need his services again to kill an English agent. Lots of intrigue, secrets, crimes, lack of ethics, typical German palm greasing and backstabbing run rampant in this book. And, of course, Gunther's humor. An awesome read and I've got some back reading to catch up on. Huge thanks to Penguin Group Putnam for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.
    • 5/5
      Masterful!Like a rat on a treadmill Bernie Gunther is once more caught up in the games of those from his past. It's 1956 and Erich Mielke, deputy head of the dreaded Stasi, has invited Gumther to dinner to put a proposition to him. Gunther refuses. That defiance comes at a price--his life. Now Gunther is on the run. Chased from Nice to Germany, pursued by a former Kripo associate, Gunther recalls the last time he saw Friedrich Korsch.1939 a mountaintop village in Obersalzberg--Hitler's retreat. Bernie is sent to investigate a murder to ensure the safety of 'the leader' when he arrives for his birthday celebrations. The timeline is short and intense. Bernie is in danger from an unknown killer and from those who give him his orders.I vacillated between 4 and 5 stars, but came down on the side of 5 as I've kept thinking about the background to this novel long after reading it, the dark confrontations of life in Nazi Germany pre the invasion of Poland, the graft and corruption--the decedent absolutism and unlawful acquisition and manufactured evidence. Into this maelstrom of indifference and power, Gunther is thrown. Always a step away from his own destruction, a witness to the brutal demise of others, harsh punishments, and an ironical longing for the proper avenues of investigations. Gunther almost naively continually tries for the unattainable in this political climate of hate and greed--Justice!How Gunther continues to come through with some form of conscience and positive core values continually amazes.Always defiant, if not openly, Gunther tries to be what he espouses--a policeman committed to finding the truth, even when finding that truth puts himself at risk. As the layers of happenings are unravelled, the false premises discarded, and the kernel of truth looked for, Gunther places himself in a dangerous position. The politically correct story, the alternative, that is wanted by those in power is far from what Gunther uncovers. Part of that uncovering leads into hints of the future that we've already seen in another case.Cleverly executed, Kerr once more comes up with a crime noir winner. Bernie Gunther, disenchanted, hard boiled, sardonic and at at times outright crazy (thanks to the amphetamines he's given on his arrival in Obersalzberg), admirer of cats (look for those occasions) is a winner.A NetGalley ARC
    • 3/5
      This is another Bernie Gunther adventure split between time periods. The story starts in 1959 as the Stassi attempt to pressure Bernie into tying up a loose end from the preceding case (The Other Side of Silence) by killing one of their agents. While on the run from the Stassi Bernie recalls an earlier case in which he had worked in 1939. A shooting had occurred on the terrace of Hitler's mountain retreat and Martin Bormann, who controls the entire area, is frantic to have the case solved and kept under wraps lest Hitler abandon the facility as unsafe. Gunther's investigation reveals the major financial corruption in which many Nazi leaders are engaged, while others truly believe that Hitler is the answer to Germany's problems. Gunther does his job as a detective in the face of opposition from both the killer and from warring factions within the Party. Although technically, one supposes, a police procedural in the 1939 case, the frame narrative is more of a thriller as Gunther battles to save himself from the Stassi. Overall, the series is more hard-boiled in that Gunther, although an official investigator, functions in some ways like a private investigator and every case ending leaves the reader aware that Gunther is helpless against the overall corruption.
    • 4/5
      A great Bernie Gunther story; and great history.
    • 4/5
      Another great story of Bernie Gunter and his sardonic wit. Two story lines one from 1939 Bavaria and the other from 1956 France combine nicely.
    • 3/5
      This is the twelfth novel in Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series, begun back in the early 1990s with his Berlin Noir trilogy. Since returning to the series in 2006, Kerr has been banging them out one a year, with no appreciable loss in quality. And over the twelve books, we’ve seen Bernie survive WWII, bounce around South America, Cuba, Germany, and now it’s the mid-1950s and he’s a concierge at a small hotel on the Riviera. Each of the Gunther novels have followed the same template – what Bernie is doing now, and how he gets himself out of the bad situation he seems to have got himself into, and a narrative set at some point before, or during, the Second World War, when he worked for various iterations of the Berlin police. In Prussian Blue, a face from the past turns up and blackmails Bernie into murdering a woman in England, so he goes on the run. That face from the past was Bernie’s criminal assistant during an investigation into a murder in Obersalzberg, Hitler’s mountainside retreat in Bavaria, which he had to solve in a week before Hitler arrived to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. Unfortunately, Obersalzberg, administered by Hitler’s private secretary, Martin Borman, is rife with corruption, and there is no shortage of suspects. Just make matters worse, Borman doesn’t much care if the crime is solved, just as long as he has someone he can put in front of a firing squad. Which he soon finds. But Gunther also has a suspect. Unfortunately, the murder is linked to the millions Borman and his cronies are ripping off from the Third Reich. And while Borman’s brother, who hates him, is waiting in the wings to bring him low, he and Gunther have been out-maneuvred. Worth reading.
    • 4/5
      LINDA'S BOOK OBSESSIONBook Reviewer and lover of books My Review of “Prussian Blue” by Philip KerrI would like to thank First to Read, Marian Wood Books/Putnam and Penguin books for the ARC of “Prussian Blue” by Philip Kerr, for my honest review.The genres of this book are fiction and adventure. There is some mystery and a touch of history. The author uses two timelines, to tell us the story, 1939 and 1956.The author introduces us to Bernhard Gunther (Bernie) in 1956 when he is on his way to meet his estranged wife at a hotel, and instead meets with Erich Mielke, who becomes the head of the East German Stasti. Bernie Gunter is a detective with a special gift to solve crimes. Bernie is described as honest as one can be, resourceful, having a moral compass, and telling how he feels about something.(shooting from the hip, so to speak) In both timelines, this irritates his superiors. Bernie also has the terrible luck of finding superiors , with less ethical intent,who want to use him and his talents.Erich Miekle has deceived Bernie into meeting him and wants Bernie to kill a woman using thallium insuring her a torturous death. The only antidote is Prussian Blue, a pigment in paint. It seems that Bernie really has no choice if he wants to survive.Going back to 1939, Bernie is at Reinhard Heydrich’s beck and call to find out who shot and killed a man on Hitler’s terrace at Oberslzberg. Heydrich also wants Bernie, in a detective capacity, to also “spy” on Martin Bormann and other officials that work for Hitler. Again, Bernie really has no choice. The authors describe most of the characters in 1939, as complex, evil, and power-hungry. There are many suspects that fit the description of the killer, and many who would have wanted to kill this person. Martin Bormann wants this case revolved before Hitler’s birthday, which gives Bernie a week.In both timelines, Bernie finds himself in danger, and trying to use his wits to survive. There are times when we see Bernie feeling as “no one’s man”, and frustrated at the politics and situations.I enjoyed this intriguing and exciting book and would highly recommend it!!Share this: Author: lindasbookobsessionLINDA'S BOOK OBSESSION Blog at WordPress.com.