Bernie Gunther is a young detective who gets the opportunity to join the homicide's department in this prequel to the series that ended up being the swan song by Philip Kerr. Gunther gets the order to help investigate into the killings of prostitutes by a figure known as 'Winnetou' by Berliners, in reference to the character from Karl May's novels. And the investigation will take Gunther to the darker side of the Berlin of the era.
This is the first book by Kerr I have ever read. And I have to say I am pleasantly surprised: nice and streamlined written style, with little touches and flourishes that give life to the text; well developed characters (even if of the card-board variety); and an amazing depiction of the life and atmosphere of an era (or at least as how we could imagine that era to be). The plot, the mystery, is also well told and developed, even if it is a little bit (a lot) obvious. The only big downside is the constant messages around strong-men-that-drink-and-get-all-the-women type. It gets a little bit too much, our hero your prototypical and boring charming rogue.
The best: the characters have personality; the atmosphere and the environment are top-notch
The worst: the killer is an obvious choice; those 'bad&violent-men-but-also-soft-inside' archetypes that perpetuate silly (and dubious) ideas around masculinity
Alternatives: older like "Man In The Queue"; Japanese like Edogawa or Kirino; Val McDermid or Camilla Läckberg
6/10
(English)
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