58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dark Care Rides Behind the Horseman, March 27, 2009
This review is from: A Quiet Flame (Bernie Gunther Novels) (Hardcover)
The Bernie Gunther series continues in, "A Quiet Flame". Kerr's books are most strongly redolent of Raymond Chandler (tone, dialogue, characters)and now of James Elroy in its macabre violence (quite similar to "Black Dahlia"). In this installment, Detective Bernie Gunther is on-the-run in Peronist Argentina.
As with the previous books, the ambiance is set by the corrupt, brutal, ruthless and ideologically-driven detritus of WW-II era Germany in the form of former Nazi Party functionaries, SS, security apparatus operatives and their victims. Gunther, is now fleeing Allied "justice" (the result of a frame-up). He arrives in Peronist Argentina, itself a microcosm of Nazism in the post-war period in the company of Eichmann and another former Nazi. The justice Gunther is avoiding is a cynical and opportunist type, a form of self-service best embodied in the so-called, "Operation Paperclip", a CIA sponsored program which spirited numerous Nazi war criminals to safety.
After being recruited by an urbane Argentine Secret Police colonel, Gunther encounters the usual byzantine twists-and-turns in his investigation of a brutal child murder and a disappearance, observing mordantly on all aspects of human behavior at every opportunity. His state of continued high dudgeon, inexhaustible supply of snappy repartee, sang froid and paladin spirit continue from previous books. Interestingly, Gunther has shed his tone of moral relativism and is now more stridently anti-Nazi and less equivocally accommodating than in previous adventures.
As is often the case with historical fiction, it is hard to separate factual matters from the author's imagination. This remains true in the present book. The various Nazis (the entire rogue's gallery of war criminals appears herein) use an abundance of invented dialogue, but their imagined thoughts seem quite congruent with reports of their actual behavior (e.g., the banal, bureaucratic temperament of the historical Eichmann meshes nicely with his fictional counterpart in this book). The romantic subplot is a throw-away, as has been the case with the previous Gunther novels.
The main plot concerns the doings of ex-Nazis in Argentina, which appears complicit in their schemes. The proto-fascist Peron government was enamored of the Nazis. It has been widely reported that between 5,000-8,000 war criminals found refuge there, usually with the aid of the US government, sometimes the Red Cross, the Vatican, sympathetic South American regimes and a "ratline" escape network. They found an especially warm welcome and refuge in Argentina (Paraguay, too).
Juan Peron was no friend of the Jews, an issue Gunther immediately confronts. His investigation of "Directive 11" (a secret edict signed into being by the Peron government in 1938 which served to stop Jews from coming to Argentina and also allowed for their repatriation to Germany, knowing their fate) is the crux of the book.
Of course, the US and Cuba did the same thing as Peronist Argentina when the hapless passengers on the "St Louis" were returned to be killed in Germany. So did many other countries. To cite but one other instance, Switzerland was the motive force behind the "J" designation on passports and rejected virtually all refugees, requiring financial "donations" from resident Swiss Jews to support the few allowed entry. Argentina, however, seems to have been near the vanguard of rejection, as anti-Jewish prejudices received official sanction there in Directive 11. It should be noted that the existence of Directive 11 has never been confirmed by the Argentine government, either then or now. Plenty of circumstantial evidence exists in support of the idea that this edict was signed and enforced. Some speculate on the existence of a "Directive 12", one which paralleled the "Final Solution". So does Bernie Gunther.
The book has been well received by critics (see WSJ, March 17, 2009, for example). As I've written before, the plots are more compelling than Furst's, the dialogue is worthy of Chandler, the history is accurate and the use of historical fiction to create the dialogue is convincing. The book meshes nicely with the previous entries in the series and should be read as part of the whole. On the other hand, it can be read and enjoyed independently.
In summary, I thought this book was interesting, well-written and thoroughly engrossing. Of all the current noir writers, I find Kerr the most compelling. I highly recommend this book.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
superb post WWII investigative thriller, March 20, 2009
This review is from: A Quiet Flame (Bernie Gunther Novels) (Hardcover)
In 1950 former Berlin police detective Bernie Gunther is stunned when he is accused of war crimes as he loathed the Nazis. Knowing the atmosphere is one of shoot first, he obtains haven in Argentina alongside many other Germans, almost all Nazis.
In Buenos Aires he begins to start his new life when local cop Colonel Montalban asks him to investigate the brutal murder of teenage Grete Wohlauf. The police officer points out to the German expatriate that the current homicide shares much in common with a cold case Gunther failed to solve in 1932 Germany. Gunther takes the cross Atlantic connection seriously even though the two homicides he investigated occurred almost two decades apart as much of the scum of German have come to reside in Peron's paradise. When another teen goes missing, Gunther agrees to slyly question his fellow expatriates in exchange for medical treatment for thyroid cancer. Meanwhile Anna Yagubsky begs Gunther to find out what happened to her missing Jewish aunt and uncle.
This is a superb post WWII investigative thriller that contains an ethical lead character who is assumed to be an amoral racist due to guilt by association; as everyone believes war criminal fled to Argentina. Thus fans receive a unique intriguing look at the Nazi haven under Peron's rule. The whodunit is well written while the missing persons' case adds to the sense of being in Buenos Aires in 1950 as Phillip Kerr continues to explore the Nazis this time after their defeat (see The Berlin Noir trilogy).
Harriet Klausner
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Edges on being a caricature of the series, July 31, 2009
This review is from: A Quiet Flame (Bernie Gunther Novels) (Hardcover)
I have liked all of the Bernie Gunther series. I think that the "Berlin Noir" trilogy is superb fiction, and I liked "The One From The Other". But this one feels as though Kerr were rushed or bored with the series, and this one almost descends into a caricature of the others. At times Gunther's wise-cracking asides turn ludicrous as one follows the other in a manic stream.
None of Kerr's other work has been nearly as successful as this series (though "Hitler's Peace" was very good) and this one feels as though Kerr just felt a need to keep the series going for the money. I have no problem with that, but more effort and care should have been taken.
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