A Quiet Flame - Hardcover

Kerr, Philip

4.19

8,073 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847243568 ISBN 13: 9781847243560

Publisher: Quercus, 2008

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Bernie Gunther, Berlin's hardest-boiled private eye, returns in this his latest outing. Moving the plot from Pre-War Germany to the dangers of Argentina in 1950 and the post-war world of Hitler's most notorious war-criminals, Kerr yet again delivers a powerful, compelling thriller.Posing as an escaping Nazi war-criminal Bernie Gunther arrives in Buenos Aires and, having revealed his real identity to the local chief of police, discovers that his reputation as a detective goes before him.A young girl has been murdered in peculiarly gruesome circumstances that strongly resemble Bernie's final case as a homicide detective with the Berlin police during the dog days of the Weimar Republic. A case he had failed to solve.Circumstances lead the chief of police in Buenos Aires to suppose that the murderer may be one of several thousand ex Nazis who have fetched up in Argentina since 1945. And, therefore, who better than Bernie Gunther to help him track that murderer down? Reluctantly Bernie agrees to help the police and discovers much more than he, or even they bargained for.Redolent with atmosphere and featuring compelling portraits of real characters such as Eva and Juan Peron, Adolf Eichmann, and Otto Skorzeny this novel ends up asking some highly provocative questions about the true extent of Argentina's Nazi collaboration and anti-Semitism under the Perons.

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Review:

Kerr brilliantly evokes the edgy atmosphere of the post-war period in one of the most gripping and accomplished detective novels published this year - Sunday Times (Sunday Times)

...somewhere between The Big Sleep and The Odessa File - Birmingham Post (Birmingham Post)

...a bleak tale but a funny and thrilling one...Kerr digs deeper into his hero's inner life than Chandler ever did and comes closer to creating something like a real person, though, one who it is possible to believe has seen humankind at its most despicable, and continues to do so, but has the strength not to let it destroy him or his ideals. Fond as I am of Bernie Gunther, I hope Kerr continues to throw at him the worst the world has to offer for many years to come - Daily Telegraph (Daily Telegraph)

one of the great achievements of contemporary crime fiction.powerful and impressive - The Observer (Observer)

cogently plotted odyssey.... cracking stuff - The Times (The Times)

He's in a league with John le Carr� and Alan Furst - Washington Post (Washington Post)

From the Back Cover:

Argentina, 1950.
Bernie Gunther arrives in Buenos Aires only to be caught up in the hunt for a killer. A young girl has been murdered in circumstances which strongly resemble those of Bernie's final case as a Berlin homicide detective, a case he didn't solve.
The local chief of police is convinced that the killer is to be found among the several thousand ex-Nazis who have come to Argentina since 1945. So who better than Bernie Gunther to help track him down?

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