March Violets cover art

March Violets

Bernie Gunther, Book 1

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March Violets

By: Philip Kerr
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
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About this listen

Brutal ex-convicts or the Nazi elite - in Bernie Gunther's world it's hard to tell who are the real gangsters. Hard-boiled noir thriller for fans of Raymond Chandler and John le Carré.

Ex-Berlin cop and private detective Bernie Gunther has seen his share of bad guys. But when the worst guys of all are the ones running the show, it's much harder to stay out of their reach.

Hired by a wealthy industrialist to investigate the murder of his daughter and her husband in an apparent botched robbery, Bernie soon finds himself drawn into the complex - not to mention lethal - internal politics and corruption of the Nazi party. When Hermann Goering himself calls Bernie in with a task for him that throws his existing case into a whole new light, he must weigh up his hatred of the Nazis against his desire to stay alive.

©2016 Thynker Limited (P)2021 Quercus Editions Limited Espionage Historical Modern Detectives Mystery Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense Fiction

Critic Reviews

"One of the greatest anti-heroes ever written." (Lee Child)
All stars
Most relevant  
…a good read (or listen to be precise) with Jonathan Keeble - whom I got to know and admire from the Simon Scarrow “Eagles of the Empire” series - the prefect narrator. A good insight into the underside of pre-war Germany, and Bernie ticks every gumshoe box, but isn’t that half the fun…

A tad stereotypical, but…

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I have read all the Bernie Gunther books and really enjoyed them. This is the first one I have purchased on Audible and was disappointed with the narration, everyone sounded English and Bernie sounded like he was an old Dr Watson who should be wearing a tweed suit, whereas, Bernie Gunther besides being German is young and athletic. If you can ignore that, the story is well written and worth reading.

Narration doesn’t match characters

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Berlin Noir starts here. Phillip Kerr inserts the hard-boiled noir detective to the brutal streets of 1930s Berlin. A clever plot and a wisecracking and deeply flawed protagonist in Bernie Gunther make for a compelling read.

Marlowe in Berlin

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The novel's protagonist is bombastic, patronising, misogynistic and lacking in any appealing personal attributes and yet is apparently devastatingly attractive to intelligent and accomplished women. Such lazy, predictable and one-dimensional characterisation makes this shallow gum shoe an unconvincing flawed hero
Example of his crassness: He says at that the only thing worse than going to bed with an ugly woman is waking up next to an ugly woman.
Facile and unfunny dialogue like this, on top of a humdrum plot with superficial characters, made March Violets an irritating listen, despite Jonathan Keebler's usual outstanding narration.
I didn't finish.

Predictable, disparaging and sexist

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