Metropolis by Philip Kerr

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Son's (Penguin Publishing Group

The book will be on sale on April 9, 2019

Hardcover - 384 pages

I received a copy of this book (via Edelweiss) for a fair & impartial review

Ever since I read my first book about Bernie Gunther some years ago, I was hooked. With Bernie Gunther, Philip Kerr has created a different hero, in a different time. Bernie Gunther is a homicide detective in Berlin's Kriminalpolizei (Kripo) during the Nazi time. Not an easy task under normal circumstances, and even more so during these turbulent times. That could be why Bernie Gunther is tough, rough and cynical, but with a very special sense of humor.

"He's sardonic, tough-talking, and cynical, but he does have a rough sense of humor and a rougher sense of right and wrong. Partly that's because he is a true Berliner." (Philip Kerr)

In his latest book, Metropolis, Kerr takes us back to the very beginning; that is, to tell the story how Gunther ended up at the Kripo. Having been in Vice for some years he is honoured to be offered the very prestigious post and accepts without further ado. More or less immediately, he is thrown into a  a serial murder case, aiming at prostitutes and war invalids begging in the streets. Gunther thinks it is the same murderer, and he decides to go undercover to find some traces of the illusive murderer.

As he tries to concentrate on the murder case, he is nevertheless affected by corruption within his own force. The Nazi party begins to infiltrate the state organism and anti-semitism is ripe. You don't know who you can trust. The theatre world is booming and as he is about to go undercover, he meets a make-up artist. She helps turning him into a realistically looking, handicapped war veteran. She is strong and witty and Gunther finds a soulmate.

The story takes place in 1928, during the Weimar republic, in a Berlin still suffering from World War I. Gunther is a disillusioned war hero, and it is his cynicism that helps him survive. Kerr visualises a Berlin, raw, with its vices, dark underworld of criminal gangs, prostitution and perverse sex clubs. It takes my mind to Christopher Isherwood's  Farewell to Berlin. The same decadence and lack of trust in the future. A fight to survive and living by the day. It is so well done.

Metropolis as a title for the book is very well chosen. It gives us the connection to Fritz Lang's famous, urban dystopian film from 1927. This is how we are imagining a city going towards its doom. To make an even stronger connection, Fritz Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou, are side characters in the novel. Bernie Gunther moves between the different layers of society and seems at home in all of them. Berlin is an interesting background, although always present, in this Bernie Gunther's first murder case with the Kripo.

In Metropolis we meet a younger and less experienced man than we meet in later books. His memories of the war are still ripe and affects him. His wife died in 1918 in the Spanish influenza pandemic, and privately he is a little bit lost. Or maybe, he is just afraid to be hurt again. He is a ladies' man, so never short of temptations. Gunther is a very likeable character, although he sometimes takes short cuts. His intentions are good at least, and it is good to meet a character who sticks to his belief in what is right or wrong.

I can highly recommend this, or any of Kerr's other books about Gunther. The stories are good and the time is very well portrayed and researched. That is with most of his books; they fit into a time and circumstances that are interesting to read about. On top of this, you always get a good murder mystery. If you have not read any of Kerr's books about Bernie Gunther, this is a good one to start with.

There is a Bernie Gunther fan site which is very interesting to read. There is also information about Kerr's other books.

Unfortunately, Philip Kerr died in March 2018 of cancer. Just before, he finished his 14th Bernie Gunther novel, Metropolis.