Prussian Blue

There are, of course, endless novels about the Nazis, who exercise a morbid fascination—they're the embodiment of evil, the enemies of everything politically decent.

What I like about Philip Kerr's detective stories is that he reduces the Nazis to their banal core. He depicts them as ruthless philistine thugs, and their political "ideology" as a mere cover for theft and violence.

In Prussian Blue, detective Bernie Gunther goes to the outwardly picturesque spiritual home of Nazism, Berchtesgaden, and exposes the financial and sexual corruption behind the twee Alpine scenery of Hitler's rural retreat. It's a chilling, very convincing read.

I came upon the novels of Philip Kerr later in life.

They were unique in as much as his main character, Bernie Gunther, was a German before, during, and after the Nazi party came to power. The tightrope Gunther had to tread between being a good German cop and having to deal with Nazi higher-ups without himself ever becoming a Nazi is what makes the series thrum with tension.

I had the great good fortune to meet Philip at the L.A. Times Book Fair to which we were both invited some years ago. Spending time with him was for me… show more.