A Brilliant (and Long-Awaited) Return to Form! - Rated 
Back in the early '90s, Kerr wrote the amazing "Berlin Noir" trilogy of detective novels set before, during, and after World War II. Featuring the sharp-tongued Berlin PI Bernie Gunther, they were packed with detail about the era, and eagerly awaited by fans of noir crime. Unfortunately, since then, Kerr went on to write a slew of largely forgettable blockbuster thrillers (including his last, the absolutely terrible "Hitler's Peace"). Some 15 years later he has surprisingly returned to Gunther and produces an absolute gem of a cynical noir equal to the original trilogy.
Aside from a lengthy prologue set in 1937 (which finds Gunther traveling to Palestine on behalf a crooked SD officer and meeting with Hagganah and the infamous Hajj Amin El Husseini), the book takes place in 1949, as Germany struggles to put itself back together. Gunther isn't trying too hard though -- with his second wife in a mental hospital, he "manages" his dead father in-law's hotel, which is located uncomfortably close to the Dachau concentration camp. When his wife dies of flu, Gunther puts the hotel on the market and heads to Munich to become a private detective once again. There, he finds his services in great demand -- mainly those of the "missing persons located" variety.
The postwar years were a bureaucratic disaster, and there were thousands of ex-Nazis who weren't accounted for. A series of cases has Gunther trying to track down what happened to several of these, including one involving a stunning blonde who wants to remarry but can't until her husband (a death camp commandant) is proven dead. This is the catalyst for Gunther's getting involved in a very tangled web of Nazis on the run, the Catholic Church pipeline which helped them escape, the occupying forces, the CIA, and all the sordid corruption of the postwar era, when everyone was running some kind of scam. What makes the story especially engaging is the Gunther himself served in the SS, and did things in the war that still haunt him. Like everyone else in the story, he's guilty, complicit, and can't change the past -- but if anything, that's made him more morally rigid and cantankerous.
The plot is very complicated, as Gunther disappears down the rabbit hole of the hunt for ex-Nazis. Kerr keeps it altogether with expert pacing, shovelfuls of colorful metaphors, oodles of period detail, doses of violence (usually visited upon Gunther), sardonic dialogue, and fascinating tidbits of historical record (such as Hajj Amin, German discussions with Hagganah, the Malmedy Massacre, and the Jewish vigilante death squads known as the Nakam). It's great stuff, and makes one yearn for more of Gunther's misadventures. Fortunately a fifth book, titled "A Quiet Flame," is slated to appear in 2008 and will pick up his story right where this one left off!
A welcome return to form - Rated 
Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy was an excellent series of 3 novels featuring wise-cracking down at heel detective Bernie Gunther. Although set in one of the most over-worked periods of history - Nazi Germany - Kerr avoided the obvious pitfalls by making his stories stand out by way of their intelligent writing and clever plots. And after 3 he stopped!
Like another reviewer here, I thoroughly agree that some of Kerr's later work was ill-judged. For a while he was billed as Britain's answer to Michael Crichton - and went in a completely different direction from historical fiction. Some of them were truly awful, so I had worries about a return of his most well-known creation.
Worry not, Bernie Gunther fans. This is a cracking return to form. Kerr's writing style seems to rise several notches when he returns to this style of book. The historical detail is bang-on, and the plot, pace and dialogue all retain the Chandleresque appeal of the earlier books. The finale is a real page-turner. Enjoy.
The one from the other - Rated
I have been a great fan of Philip Kerr's writing since the release of Pale Criminal and March Violets. After 15 years of waiting the latest Bernie Gunther novel 'The one from the other' is every bit as enjoyable as the previous books and a welcome return to his blistering form.
Set in post war Berlin this story captures the intensity of this period in which private detective Bernie Gunther is caught between the remnants of the defeated Nazi regime and a constantly changing world under the influence of the allies. Super Book you will not be disapointed.
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