Customer Reviews

Death in Berlin

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

M.M. Kaye's evocative writing style submerges the reader in her tale of murder and intrigue in 1950's Berlin. As with her other "Death" books, she gives us a cast of characters caught up in a series of murders as both victims and suspects rather than investigators, denying the reader any comforting distance from the unfolding tale. Miranda Brand, while a typical Kaye heroine in many respects (she's young, beautiful, british, fairly intelligent and trying to take a holiday), is more believable in her reactions to the events of the story than many of the other Kaye heroines.

However, the success of this and the other "Death" novels for me does not hinge on the characters or even the intricacy of the mysteries, but on the atmosphere of suspense which permeates them. It is this atmosphere which causes me to reread them over and over. "Death in Berlin", with it's WWII backstory and grim scenery is among the best of the series. The other strength of these novels is their description of the society created by the families of British soldiers posted abroad. M.M. Kaye had ample experience as a child, a young woman, and a married adult in this social situation and she uses it with skill.

I recommend "Death in Berlin" in particular, and the rest of the series in general, both for M.M. Kaye's amazing descriptive talents and for the wonderful glimpse into far-off places and times told by somebody who was there.

Death in Berlin takes the reader back to Berlin after the end of W.W.II via the heroine. A typically well written M.M. Kaye mystery, it immerses the reader in Berlin following the war, but before reconstruction. One can feel the grit and smell the dank concrete, overlain with soot and death. Ms. Kaye has the ability to convey the scenery and setting of her books so that the reader's senses are also involved in the story.

I didn't know anything about M.M. Kaye, and picked this book up at random while browsing at the library. As I started to read, I was impressed by the author's ability to create an authentic 1950's atmosphere-then I realized it WAS actually written in the early 50's. The book was on the library's "new release" shelf, so I had assumed it was by a modern writer. After laughing at my self, I sat down and read the rest of the book. It would have been worth reading for the author's firsthand observations of post-war Germany, but it was also quite successful as a suspense novel. The only weak point in the story is the characterization of the heroine Miranda, a young fashion model. She starts out as a bit of a stereotypical ingenue right out of a vintage ladies' magazine - the kind of feeble-minded beauty who screams and falls down while running out of a haunted mansion. Fortunately for the reader, Miranda soon begins to develop more depth,learns to decode the behavior of the older people around her, and ends up being fairly interesting in her own right.

The cover blurb compares the author to Agatha Christie, and I suppose that makes some sense,as both writers were British females who wrote mystery novels set in a British upper middle class milieu. But I didn't see much resemblance other than that. I never found any of Christie's characters believable, and her plots were fun but didn't seem to be occurring in the real world. By contrast, the characters in M.M. Kaye's book did seem real, and the suspense was created by an accumulation of small details that gradually work up to a sense of impending doom without ever seeming to go over the top. There were a few (rather annoying) Christie-like touches,with diguises and altered clocks,etc., but for the most part the story works because of the author's psychological insights into her characters' emotions and aspirations.

The book feels trifle like Murder on Orient Express! But it is engrossing and the feeling of menace is captured quite efficiently by this writer! Funny too are the antics of the little boy!

I have bought everything I can find of M.M. Kaye as she is a wonderful author.

Death in Berlin has all the Kaye trademarks: unusual settings, a beautiful enchanting heroine, and the typical hero - expressionless, indifferent, yet likeable. Somewhat. This book is a must read as the plot is intruiging, the style, as usual, is amazing.

I am a fan of MM Kaye but I must admit one of my least favourites is Death in Berlin - partly because the hero is particularly wooden even by MM Kaye standards and the heroine a little too unassuming. Even though Kaye was familiar with Berlin (Most of her settings are authentic -she actually lived in the places she wrote about) I feel that this book did not do justice to that great city. Death in Zanzibar, Death in Cyprus and Death in Kashmir are, in my opinion, her best Death in books and will be more appreciated by readers of modern romance.

I wasn't sure I'd enjoy Germany as much as the exotic settings M.M. Kaye chose for all her other mysteries. But somehow she manages to make the battered Berlin of 1953 feel every bit as strange and menacing as Kashmir or Kenya.

M.M. Kaye likes to weave her stories around a bright, good-looking, feisty ingénue, and in this case we're following the adventures of lovely young Miranda Brand, who has just been invited to spend a month's holiday in the British sector of Berlin by her handsome military cousin Robert and his wife Stella.

In the train entering Berlin, poor Miranda has the misfortune of stumbling upon the body of a murdered Brigadier. It's not the last body she'll discover, either. In no time she finds herself Suspect Number One in the eyes of a very attractive investigator named Simon Lang.

The plot revolves around a theft of diamonds worth millions that dates back to the war days when Europe was in chaos. Stolen diamonds don't normally excite me. But in this case, the jewels work beautifully as a motivator.

From the very beginning of Miranda's ill-fated holiday, her nerves are out of order, and she can't say why. She keeps hearing stealthy sounds and seeing shadows that flicker when they shouldn't. She feels watched. The reader shares her dread, yet somehow knows M.M. Kaye won't let any serious harm come to Miranda. I don't have a strong stomach for horror and appreciate the gentle suspense you often get with well-wrought vintage crime fiction.

Clever subplots muddy the mystery. And romantics can look forward to various manifestations of love, healthy and unhealthy.

I enjoyed Death in Berlin thoroughly and recommend the entire "Death in" series. I envy readers who are just starting to read these mysteries!