Bernie Gunther is the ideal narrator for Philip Kerr's bleak tale of the dirty deals made by victors & vanquished alike in post-war Germany. Having learned that there's no way to distinguish 'the one from the other' the cynical P.I. has the moral clarity to see through the deceit & hypocrisy of both friend & foe. Munich 1949: Amid the chaos of defeat it's home to all the backstabbing intrigue that prospers in the aftermath of war. A place where a private eye can find a lot of not-quite-reputable work: cleaning up the Nazi past of well-to-do locals abetting fugitives in the flight abroad sorting out rival claims to stolen goods. It's work that fills Bernie with disgust
- but it also fills his sorely depleted wallet. Then a woman seeks him out. Her husband has disappeared. She's not looking to get him back
- he's a wanted man who ran one of the most vicious concentration camps in Pol&. She just wants confirmation that he's dead. It's a simple enough job. But in post-war Germany nothing is simple...