The Pale Criminal

The second in the late Philip Kerr's iconic 'Berlin Noir' trilogy, The Pale Criminal sees detective Bernie Gunther return to hunt one of the most evil killers in human history. 
 
It is 1938 and Bernie Gunther is back on the mean streets of Berlin with his new partner, Bruno Stahlecker, another ex-police officer. But on a seemingly straightforward stakeout, Bruno is killed, and Bernie suddenly finds himself tapped for a much bigger job. 
 
A serial sex murderer is killing Aryan teenage girls in Berlin - and what's worse, he's making utter fools of the police. Gunther is forced to accept a temporary post in Obergruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich's state Security Service, with a team of men underneath him tasked purely with hunting the killer. 
 
But can he trust his team any more than he can trust his superiors? 
 
An unflinching, fast-paced thriller exploring the grisly excesses of Nazi subculture, The Pale Criminal will be loved by fans of Robert Harris and Frederick Forsythe. 
 
'For Christmas, I would like all of Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir novels.' Sam Mendes, Guardian 
 
'Blends high-powered storytelling with a rich piece of historical re-creation' Independent 
 
'Kerr makes his star turns - Heydrich, Himmler, et al - eerily believable' The Times 
 
'Powerful period flavour; a gruff, subversive hero; Kerr delivers the good' Literary Review 
 
'Echoes of Raymond Chandler . . . vivid and well-researched' Evening Standard

Blends high-powered storytelling with a rich piece of historical re-creation

Kerr makes his star turns - Heydrich, Himmler, et al - eerily believable

Powerful period flavour; a gruff, subversive hero; Kerr delivers the goods

Echoes of Raymond Chandler...vivid and well-researched

Philip Kerr was born in Edinburgh and read Law at university. He stayed on to read Law and Philosophy as a postgraduate, most of this German, which was when he first became interested in German twentieth century history. 
 
He worked first as a copywriter at a number of advertising agencies, including Saatchi &amp; Saatchi, but spent most of his time researching an idea he'd had for a novel about a Berlin-based policeman. And following several trips to Germany - and a great deal of walking around mean streets of Berlin - his first novel, March Violets, was published in 1989 and introduced the world to the iconic tough-talking detective Bernie Gunther. 
 
Since then he has written and published ten universally lauded Bernie Gunther novels, and is currently working on his eleventh. He has won both the RBA International Prize for Crime Writing, and the CWA Ellis Peters Historic Crime Award.

Bernie Gunther is back on the mean streets of Berlin with his new partner, Bruno Stahlecker, another ex-police officer. But on a seemingly straightforward stakeout, Bruno is killed, and Bernie suddenly finds himself tapped for a much bigger job. 
 
A serial sex murderer is killing Aryan teenage girls in Berlin - and what's worse, he's making utter fools of the police. Gunther is forced to accept a temporary post in Obergruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich's state Security Service, with a team of men underneath him tasked purely with hunting the killer. 
 
But can he trust his team any more than he can trust his superiors? 
 
An unflinching, fast-paced thriller exploring the grisly excesses of Nazi subculture, The Pale Criminal will be loved by fans of Robert Harris and Frederick Forsythe.

A German Requiem

The third in the late Philip Kerr's universally acclaimed Berlin Noir trilogy, A German Requiem sees detective Bernie Gunther enter the new and terrifying world of post-war Vienna. 
 
In the bitter winter of 1947 the Russian Zone is closing ever more tightly around Berlin. So when an enigmatic Russian colonel asks Bernie Gunther to go to Vienna, where his ex-Kripo colleague Emil Becker faces a murder charge, Bernie doesn't hesitate for long. Despite Becker's unsavoury past, Gunther is convinced that shooting an American Nazi-hunter is one crime he didn't commit. 
 
But Vienna is not the peaceful haven Bernie expects it to be. Communism is the new enemy, and with the Nuremberg trials over, some strange alliances are being forged against the Red Menace - alignments that make many wartime atrocities look lily-white by comparison. 
 
Vividly evoking the atmosphere of postwar Vienna, A Germen Requiem brings all Philip Kerr's pace and mordant wit to the tangle of guilt, suspicion, and double-dealing that laid the foundations for the Cold War. 
 
'For Christmas, I would like all of Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir novels' Sam Mendes, Guardian 
 
'Philip Kerr is the contemporary master of the morally complex thriller' New York Observer

Philip Kerr is the contemporary master of the morally complex thriller...

In the bitter winter of 1947 the Russian Zone is closing ever more tightly around Berlin. So when an enigmatic Russian colonel asks Bernie Gunther to go to Vienna, where his ex-Kripo colleague Emil Becker faces a murder charge, Bernie doesn't hesitate for long. Despite an unsavoury past, Gunther is convinced that the shooting of an American Nazi-hunter is one crime Becker didn't commit. 
 
But Vienna is not the peaceful haven Bernie expects it to be. Communism is the new enemy, and with the Nuremberg trials over, some strange alliances are being forged against the Red Menace - alignments that make many wartime atrocities look lily-white by comparison. 
 
Vividly evoking the atmosphere of postwar Vienna, A Germen Requiem brings all Philip Kerr's pace and mordant wit to the tangle of guilt, suspicion, and double-dealing that laid the foundations for the Cold War.

March Violets, The Pale Criminal, A German Requiem

Berlin Noir

From the master thriller writer, dive into the acclaimed detective Bernie Gunther series, soon to be an Apple TV+ series 
 
'[Philip Kerr's] Bernie Gunther novels are extraordinary' Ian Rankin 
 
The first three in the Bernie Gunther series, March Violets, The Pale Criminal and A German Requiem are true crime classics that transport readers to the rotten heart of Nazi Berlin, and introduce the cynical, wise-cracking private eye who sought justice within it. 
 
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. A trail that ends in the hell that is Dachau... 
 
THE PALE CRIMINAL 
 
It is 1938 and Bernie Gunther is back on the mean streets of Berlin with his new partner, Bruno Stahlecker, another ex-police officer. But on a seemingly straightforward stakeout, Bruno is killed, and Bernie suddenly finds himself tapped for a much bigger job. 
 
A serial sex murderer is killing Aryan teenage girls in Berlin - and what's worse, he's making utter fools of the police. Gunther is forced to accept a temporary post in Obergruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich's state Security Service, with a team of men underneath him tasked purely with hunting the killer. 
 
But can he trust his team any more than he can trust his superiors? 
 
A GERMAN REQUIEM 
 
In the bitter winter of 1947 the Russian Zone is closing ever more tightly around Berlin. 
 
When an enigmatic Russian colonel asks Bernie Gunther to go to Vienna, where his ex-Kripo colleague Emil Becker faces a murder charge, Bernie doesn't hesitate for long. Gunther is convinced that shooting an American Nazi-hunter is one crime he didn't commit. 
 
But Vienna is not the peaceful haven Bernie expects it to be. Communism is the new enemy, and with the Nuremberg trials over, some strange alliances are being forged against the Red Menace - alignments that make many wartime atrocities look lily-white by comparison.

Ex-Policeman Bernie Günther thought he'd seen everything on the streets of 1930's Berlin. But then he went freelance, and each case he tackled sucked him further into the grisly excesses of Nazi sub-culture. And even after the war, amidst the decayed, imperial splendour of Vienna, Bernie uncovered a legacy that made the wartime atrocities look lily-white in comparison . . .

Gridiron

A Sunday Times bestseller, Gridiron is a dazzling thriller set in LA from ‘England’s answer to Michael Crichton’ (Financial Times)

I loved Gridiron. It is truly original disaster novel with a theme that is awesome

Brilliant thriller about a computerised building that turns into a killing machine

Kerr paces the action, teases and controls... The novel is all the more powerful for being close enough to contemporary truth for this skillful writer to engender a real sense of horror... Severely frightening

Ingeniously gruesome... I found myself turning the pages in feverish anticipation

Philip Kerr was born in Edinburgh in 1956. He is the author of more than 20 books, including seven Bernie Gunther novels, several standalone thrillers, and six books in the young-adult series Children of the Lamp under the pen name of P.B. Kerr. He divides his time between London and Cornwall.

Los Angeles, 1988 
 
Ray Richardson, a brilliant architechnologist, has created a dazzling new building: 'The Gridiron', in the heart of L. A. 
 
The Gridiron represents the state-of-the-art in smart buildings: every aspect of the building, from temperature control to security, is controlled by an intricate computer system. On the eve of the building's official opening, a team gathers to put the finishing touches to Ray's new masterpiece. But there are a couple of unexplained deaths, which the team at first puts down to saboteurs. It is only when they discover how bizarre these deaths are that they realise the building - through its computer - is controlling them, and is set to destroy its creators.

Philip Kerr

'Fast-paced, laconic, unpredictable, and witty'

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 have been shot dead in their bed. The woman's father, a millionaire industrialist, wants justice - and the priceless diamonds that disappeared along with her life. 
 
As Bernie follows the trail into the cesspit that is Nazi Germany, he's forced to confront a horrifying conspiracy. One that takes him to the very heart of the administration, and, finally, to Dachau . . . 
 
Stylishly written and powerfully evocative, March Violets transports readers to the rotten heart of Nazi Berlin, and introduces a private eye in the great tradition of Hammett and Chandler.

March Violets

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Praise for March Violets

'Wonderfully sharp and satirical'

'Fast-paced, laconic, unpredictable, and witty'

'An impressive debut'

'Wonderfully sharp and satirical'

'Fast-paced, laconic, unpredictable, and witty'

'An impressive debut'

'Wonderfully sharp and satirical'

'Fast-paced, laconic, unpredictable, and witty'

'An impressive debut'

Books by Philip Kerr

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