Great story and narration

Some did not like Jonathan Keeble's narration. I think his gruff voice works well with Gunther's anti-hero persona, German accent not required (btw, there isn't just 'one' German accent). I also appreciate that Keeble is reading the whole series, which allows me to associate one voice with Gunther and brings the character closer i.m.o.

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Excellent

A great listen. Good and historically interesting storyline with faultless narration, as usual, by Mr. Keeble.

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Great stuff!

Enthralling storyline, first class narration. All in all a fabulous audiobook. I highly recommend. Looking forward to book two.

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1 person found this helpful

Excellent

Brilliant
Felt like I was there..
Taken back to another time in life.
Lest we forget .

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Brilliantly read.

Quite a lot of detailed violence but considering the setting to be expected. Having lived in Berlin the geography was accurate and interesting although Tegel airport is pronounced Tay-gal not Tee-gal. Gives an understanding of what it was like living under the Nazis and how it came about. Looking forward to the other novels in the series.

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Brilliant book excellently read

Great book.

Keeble's reading is a great performance. Only minus is the pronunciation of the German words.

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2 people found this helpful

Superbly written and read by the King

I’ll try anything that Keeble reads but I have a fascination about history and WW2.

It took a while to get in to but Bernie’s dry sense of humour pulled me in to this noir pre-war Berlin journey.

Really great read, and excellently read by the master.

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3 people found this helpful

Super and so very grounded in the more of Nazi Germany.

I thought about what to write and realised I just had to say “gripping”. Yep. That sums up your journey with Bernie.

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Excellent story and narration.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. The narration is excellent, and the storyline is brilliant.

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3 people found this helpful

"A silence born of shame."

Berlin in the preparations for the 1936 Olympic Games, and Bernhard Gunther, a private investigator specialising in finding missing persons, is hired by a steel multi-millionaire to find family diamonds stolen from the safe of his daughter when she and her husband were murdered, their bodies left to be consumed in the fire set to disguise the crime.
This is a fast paced, often brutal, noir detective story, first of the Bernie Gunter series. It is atmospheric with fine descriptions of even bit part protagonists, vividly forming visuals in the reader's mind's eye, with phrases such as a 'pickled walnut of a nose' and an old woman's foot being 'like a butcher's thumb in a thimble'. The language, like the action, can be crude and uncomfortable as Kerr summons up an impression of the period of change and violence.

Read by Jeff Harding, I was initially uncomfortable with the performance but within just a few pages he had become Bernie Gunther, also providing separate and convincing voices for the numerous other protagonists. It is an excellent performance, increasing the pleasure of an already irreverent, cynical and immersive book.

This has been my first encounter with Philip Kerr's Berlin noir detective series, recommended to me by my brother in law shortly before his death two years ago: his favourite author.

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1 person found this helpful