A Quiet Flame

by Philip Kerr Narrated by Paul Hecht

Overview

In this riveting historical mystery novel from New York Times bestselling author Philip Kerr, Bernie Gunther trails a serial killer in 1950's Buenos Aires ...

Buenos Aires, 1950. After being falsely accused of war crimes, Bernie Gunther-like the Nazis he has always despised-has been offered a new life and a clean passport by the Perón government. But the tough, fast-talking ex-Berlin detective doesn't have the luxury of laying low. The local police pressure Bernie into taking on a case in which a girl has turned up gruesomely mutilated. What's more, her murder just might be linked to a missing German banker's daughter and a long-unsolved case Bernie worked back in Berlin before the war. After all, the scum of the earth has been washing up on Argentina's shores-state-licensed murderers and torturers-so why couldn't a serial killer be among them?

Editorial Reviews

Marilyn Stasio

Every time we're afraid we've seen the last of Bernie Gunther, Philip Kerr comes through—as he does in A Quiet Flame—with another unnerving adventure for his morally conflicted hero.
—The New York Times

Kirkus Reviews

Hitler is history, but Bernie Gunther, the SS guy with a heart of gold, is alive and well, and chasing dirty rats in Argentina. World War II didn't quite go the way it was supposed to-the Third Reich having lasted noticeably less than 1,000 years-but the Nazis are still in there pitching. The setting has shifted to Argentina, that happy haven for Adolf Eichmann, Josef Mengele and the like-minded. From this hate-mongering group, exempt steel-shelled, mushy-hearted Bernhard Gunther, famous once as the policeman Berlin's malefactors loved to hate. True enough, Bernie eventually left the force to put in some obligatory time among the goose-steppers, but what's a man to do when he's a born survivalist? The SS or the concentration camps (Auschwitz, Treblinka, etc.) were the sole choices available even to an iconic sleuth whose case-cracking record had long been the stuff of headlines. " ‘You were a hero of mine,' " says Colonel Montalban, Argentina's top cop, as Bernie modestly averts his eyes. Bernie senses that what Montalban has planned for him will seriously interfere with his own plans. Having arrived in Argentina the hard way-consider an unpleasant detour to a Russian prison camp-Bernie now regards himself as a noncombatant. Just find this missing German girl for me, says Montalban, adding reassuringly that it's the kind of case Bernie has always excelled at. But somehow Bernie is not reassured, since over Montalban's siren song, he hears another kind of rhythm-the sound of jackboots marching toward him. Warts and all-Kerr makes little attempt to hide them-Bernie Gunther (The One from the Other, 2006, etc.) remains endearing, entertaining and eminently forgivable.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170788590
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	01/27/2012
Series:	Bernie Gunther Series , #5
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos