Edinburgh born Philip Kerr (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Kerr) and (http://www.philipkerr.org/) has served up some pretty successful historical crime/thrillers set in Germany and elsewhere during the 1930s, the Second World War and the Cold War. Should you wish to immerse yourself in these shady worlds and gain an introduction to the work of Kerr I’d recommend this compilation. It brings together ‘March Violets’ (1989), ‘The Pale Criminal’ (1990) and ‘A German Requiem’ (1991). A very short summary is as follows. Ex-policeman Bernie Gunther thought he’d seen everything on the streets of 1930s Berlin. But then he went freelance, and each case he tackled sucked him further into the grisly excesses of Nazi subculture. 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… Some counterpoint to the floral, scent laden peacetime pleasures of your back garden in Clydesdale this Summer.
848 pages in Penguin paperback edition
ISBN 978-0140231700
Philip Kerr