Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

The last Bernie Gunther novel. An absolute delight as is the whole series. The final novel goes back to Bernie's early days and his arrival at Kripo from Vice and a series of murders he is tasked with solving. This series is masterfully created and with the timelines bouncing across a near forty year range the stories are interconnected and crafted beautifully. An element of sadness that I have reached the end of the series in truth, highly recommended.

Good story, intriguing plot. Lots of interesting characters. Would recommend to others. Great author!

I read Metropolis with both pleasure and sadness. With Philip Kerr’s untimely death last year, this will be the last of the series and it’s a fitting end as it takes the reader right back to the start of Bernie Gunther’s career.

He’s promoted to the homicide squad to investigate the murder of prostitutes. Then war veterans are being killed and the investigation takes another turn. The plotting is superb, filled with the unexpected. What I really enjoy is the setting and period detail. The mix of social history and strong sense of location takes the reader right to the heart of the era. It’s the end of the Weimar and national socialism hasn’t yet become the driving force. It’s a clever story, with more than a passing nod to the Fritz Lang film of the same name. Some glimpses of utopia, but in the main, it’s the dark underbelly of life that Gunther explores with his usual cynicism. A fitting end to a distinctive and different crime series.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

I have been a massive fan of Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series for a long time so was delighted when Quercus and Netgalley offered me the chance to read an advance copy.

Once again, Bernie is his usual flawed self - doesn't do everything strictly by the book and likes a bit too much alcohol. However, it was nice to revisit him in his earlier days (this is set in 1928) and see a little bit more innocence/naivety in the character.

The writing, as always, was fantastic and some of the lines I read again just to savour the sentiment or appreciate how it was written (doesn't happen too often when I read to be honest!). The plot was simple yet complex enough to be intriguing and believable.

The ending was a perfect Bernie Gunther series ending. I wouldn't say that this is one of the best, in terms of plotting, in the series but that was a high standard that Kerr set for himself. I was gutted to hear of his loss last year so I'll just have to satisfy my love of his work by re-reading Bernie's escapades; of which this one is certainly worth revisiting.

Long before it was fashionable to write detective fiction set in Nazi Germany, Philip Kerr created his Berlin Noir trilogy. That series established an entire genre and inspired a generation of crime writers to set their stories not in Agatha Christie’s golden age of the English upper class but instead in Berlin’s sleazy backstreets. Unlike Alan Furst – whose first Night Soldier novel came out at much the same time as the original Bernie Gunther book in the late 1980s – Kerr wrote crime novels against a wartime backdrop, not spy stories as such.

Bernie himself is no aristocrat engaged in elegant espionage; he’s a streetwise city bull, a proper copper. Bernie’s story spans three decades, from his first murder case in the late 1920s through to his time as a fugitive exile in the 1950s. It’s entirely appropriate that this, the final Gunther book penned by Philip Kerr (and I sincerely hope that the series is allowed to end here) takes place at the start of Bernie’s career in the murder squad. We end at the beginning.

And what a great story to start and finish with. This is Germany before the Nazis take power. National Socialism is a rising force and anti-Semitism is widespread, but fascism hasn’t yet completely corrupted societal norms. A serial killer is murdering prostitutes so Bernie is promoted from the vice squad to the prestigious homicide investigation. Before he can make much headway, another series of killings begins – and this time the victims are crippled war veterans…

Metropolis works perfectly as an historical police procedural, with genuinely intriguing multiple plotlines that are populated by actual characters from the time period. Bernie gets to experiment with the cutting edge of police investigative methods and forensic science, and the trail leads him from high society to underworld mob bosses, via various real-life figures who’ll play a significant role in years to come.

The book’s title is also provocative. It might simply be a reference to the filmmakers peripherally involved in the story – or was Kerr making an oblique reference to the socialist undertones of Fritz Lang’s film?

Yet while the historical detail and criminal investigation are the strong points of Metropolis, Kerr’s writing doesn’t do justice to the intoxicating atmosphere of the hedonistic heyday of Weimar Berlin. Sure, permissive and excessive indulgence has its squalid side – but this Germany was also creative, vibrant and exhilarating. Kerr concentrates instead on the sordid aspects of soiled lives.

Bernie is already jaded, repelled by the decadence around him, fast becoming the cynical misanthrope of the later novels. Fair enough; his experiences in the Great War were enough to scar any psyche. But Kerr’s writing itself is weary; the dialogue is flat, absent snappy asides or subtle insight. The political observations are laboured, and the social commentary feels artificial. Metropolis is a good story, spoiled by stilted storytelling.

This isn’t the best of the Bernie Gunther books, then, but it’s less of a slog than the previous couple which zigzag back and forth across multiple timelines. Not the place to start if you are new to the series: go back to March Violets to meet Bernie at his best.

For established fans of the series, however, Metropolis is an acceptable farewell to old friends.

7/10

Farewell to Philip Kerr and farewell to his marvellous and unforgettable character Bernie Gunther. I read this with a sense of sadness but also gratitude to such a gifted author who wrote so beautifully and sardonically and also so accurately as his research was methodical and accurate.

He ends with the beginning as we go back to the beginning of Bernie's career as a Berlin detective and the book is a delight from start to finish.

I will miss him.

Dial M for Murder

Set in Germany’s Weimar Republic this is chronologically the earliest of the Bernie Gunther thrillers. Published in 2019 it is the last to be written by Philip Kerr before his untimely death last year.

In decadent 1920s Berlin, a serial killer, is murdering prostitutes and scalping their corpses. Bernie Gunther, recently enlisted to the homicide team, joins the investigation. Suddenly the murders of the prostitutes stop and instead crippled war veterans become the victims of a murderer armed with a .25 pistol. While most of his colleagues think this is a new killer, Bernie has his doubts.

As usual with the Bernie Gunther novels, one of the most fascinating aspects is how Kerr presents the politics and social milieu in which they are set. Here we have decadent night clubs, effete English writers, sex tours, poverty, street gangs, experimental film directors, rising Nazi brutality and fledgling democracy. One of the most powerful scenes comes when Bernie is disguised as a klutz, a legless war veteran begging on his ‘cripple-cart’.

Fritz Lang and his wife, Thea Von Harbou, appear in the book and there is a nice running theme referencing their contemporary murder movie, M.

Metropolis is a welcome addition to the series although by no means the best. I think a new comer would be better to start with one of the earlier novels, Berlin Noir, for example, or The One from the Other, or my own favourite, Prague Fatale. In any case it is sad that there will be no more and the reader remain ignorant of Bernie’s ultimate fate.

It's a bit weird when you start a series with the last book and you get angry when you discover that the series is amazing.
I love historical mystery and this was very good, so good I didn't wanted it to finish.
I was fascinated by the atmosphere, the richness of the details and how the Weimar era Berlin is described.
This book is dark and atmospheric, enthralling and engaging. It's a great reading experience and it's a great mystery.
I loved the well researched historical background, the fleshed out characters and the plot.
The mystery is solid, entertaining and you're never sure what's going to be the next twists in the plot.
I loved it and will surely read the previous books in this series.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Quercus Books for an advance copy of Metropolis, the fourteenth novel to feature Berlin detective Bernie Gunther.

In 1928 Bernie is offered a job at the Murder Commission which turns out to be a baptism of fire as he joins the investigation into the murder and scalping of prostitutes, the fourth happening on his first day. These murders lose their priority when the self styled “Dr Gnadeschuss” starts shooting war veterans.

I thoroughly enjoyed Metropolis from the warm introduction by Ian Rankin who shares some memories of the author to the afterward which identifies the historical characters and tells what happened to them after 1928. In between that there is a very good novel which held my attention from start to finish.

The novel, as ever, is told from Bernie’s first person point of view and while still cynical in tone it is tempered by a certain youthful callowness. I hesitate to say naivety or innocence but they lurk in the background. I like the young Bernie at the start of his career, just as I like the older, more jaded Bernie in the other novels. This Bernie is haunted by his experiences in the trenches and to put a modern spin on it unsurprisingly has PTSD but he also has optimism and a desire to solve his cases.

The historical setting of inter-war Berlin is very well drawn as Babylon or Sodom and Gomorrah, depending on the interlocutor. All its problems are on display, the overt sexuality and seediness, the poverty, the anti semitism, the crime, the desperation and the emerging Nazi Party. It’s fascinating and put together naturally.

The plot, which seems like an afterthought in this review, is gripping. It is full of twists and turns as Bernie slowly makes his way through conflicting reports and some unwelcome help to a solution, which, when it comes, probably kills some of his naivety and optimism.

It is sad to know that this Bernie’s final outing as the series has brought me much pleasure over the years so perhaps it is fitting that this final excursion takes the reader back to where it all began and closes the circle.

Metropolis is a great read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

After I'd got over the disappointment that this - Metropolis - the final Bernie Gunther book (RIP Philip Kerr), was not going to advance or conclude Bernie's "present day" narrative, I quickly began to appreciate it on its own terms.

Metropolis takes us right back to 1928 and the moment a young Bernie joins the murder squad. It's an eventful moment as four prostitutes have been murdered in as many weeks. All hit over the head and then scalped with a sharp knife. Then a second series of murders starts, this time it's crippled WW1 veterans who beg in Berlin.

Metropolis is classic Bernie Gunther. As the title suggests, it references the work of Fritz Lang and part of the plot echoes Lang's classic 1931 film 'M' (amusingly towards the end of this book Bernie relates his ideas for a film to Lang's wife Thea Von Harbou). Thea Von Harbou is just one of many real life personalities who populate this book. And, as usual, Philip Kerr explains who they all were in a helpful Author's Note at the end.

If, like me, you are mourning the end of this wondeful series then be reassured this is a fine way for Bernie Gunther to bow out. If you've never read any of these books then you're in for a treat and Metropolis is as good a place as any to start as, in terms of Bernie's time line, it's at the start. That said, I think it's probably best to read them in order of publication - they get better and better.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2750976191

https://twitter.com/nigeyb/status/1111258642215587840

This is the 14th book In the Bernie Gunther series, Written before the sad and untimely death of the author Philip Kerr. I actually have most of the series in my tbr pile but this came up on netgalley and caught my interest so here is my review

Set in 1928 , Berlin is a place of debauchery, prostitution, transvestites, bars and sex clubs, drinking is rife, sex is currency, beggars and homeless are everywhere, corrupt cops, anti semitism and drug dealers on the streets. it’s a new Babylon as the author describes at a time when the Weimar Republic Is coming to its end, before Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power.

A young Bernie Gunther working in vice , is promoted to the murder squad , by the Berlin Chief of the Criminal Police, Bernhard Weiss, to work alongside highly experienced top cop the “Big Buddha” Ernst Gannet. they begin to hunt for a serial killer responsible for killing and scalping 4 prostitutes, dubbed the Silesian Station Killings.

Soon A second set of murders begins. The killings of old war veterans and beggars, taunted by the killer in letters to the papers, the murder squad slow down their investigation in the prostitute murders to concentrate on this new string of more public killings.

Yet Bernie is approached by the father of the fourth victim part time prostitute Eva Angerstein. Erich Angerstein , A Berlin Crime Kingpin asks him to continue the investigation on a promise of information in regards to other open crimes from the Crime Boss.

Bernie is a somewhat innocent yet flawed young detective in his ways, a heavy drinker, at times a dreamer, he often goes against the wishes of his superiors and looks at other evidence himself, using help from others not strictly above board in hunt of answers. He also has a wicked sense of humour and wit which is prevalent through the whole book and really does help make the book for me.

The Finale is cleverly plotted and leads to a very interesting end, its intricate, intelligent and also emotional.

This book is quite dark in the sense that the nazi threat is looming large and the constant references only remind you of what is to come to Germany in the not too distant future.

The Inviting writing, told in the 1st person, with stunning attention to detail is so easy to read. I felt drawn into 1920s Berlin. It’s a compelling, captivating tale and at times it almost felt charming.

It’s beautifully written and just a pleasure to read. The use of some of the language from 1920s Berlin are a great addition, I enjoyed looking up the meaning of some while others were obvious it still added to the story for me.

On this one book I have read and I can see the reason so many readers loved this Author and the world will be a lesser place without his writing.

A 5 ⭐️ triumph and not only one the books of 2019 but one of the best since I started reviewing. I can not wait to discover the rest of the series from book 1 over the next year or 2

Metropolis is the final Bernie Gunthar novel by Philip Kerr and it is an excellent finale to the series.

Set in 1928 in Berlin Metropolis sees Gunthar appointed to the Murder Commisson and tasked with solving the murders of prostitutes and war veterans.

The author weaves in real life characters as well as the fictional ones and even finds time for Bernie's trademark humour.

This series has been excellent from start to finish and Kerr who sadly passed away last year has left an outstanding legacy

Thoroughly recommended

I've been with Bernie Gunther since the beginning - 1989 and the publication of "March Violets" the first in the series of 14 novels about a street savvy Berlin police detective whose working life as a cop mirrors the rise of Nazism in 1930's Germany through the years of World War II and beyond to a divided Germany of the Cold War era. Over the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's, I've travelled with him throughout Germany to various towns and cities in Eastern Europe and to Cuba, Greece, Argentina and even Monte Carlo.
Bernie started out as a policeman but when the Nazis gained power he resigned from the force became a private detective, although the Nazis never forgot him and he was forced into carrying out investigations for the regime's propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and Reinhard Heydrich, one of the main architects of the Holocaust
In this, Philip Kerr's final book (he died last year, aged 62) it's 1928; the dying days of the Weimar Republic a few years before Hitler gained power.
Bernie has been moved from the Vice Squad to a place on Berlin's Murder Commission. He is immediately drawn into investigating the Silesian Station killings. Four prostitutes are victims of a serial killer, dubbed "Winnetou" by the media, because after murdering these women, he scalps them. (Winnetou is the fictional Native American hero of several Western novels written by Karl May, one of Germany's most successful writers whose books sold more than 200 million copies.)
Many Berliners would like to see the city's streets cleared of women they regard as "degenerates" but Bernie discovers that one of the victims is the daughter of the boss of one Berlin's criminal rings who will do anything to find his daughter's killer.
Just as he starts work, a second series of killings begins. This time the targets are crippled ex soldiers who beg in the city’s streets. As he delves into Berlin's underworld, Bernie meet with some of Germany's major artists, including George Grosz and Otto Dix whose works would later be banned by the Nazis. He's ordered to give Thea von Harbou - wife of the German film director Fritz Lang - a tour of the police HQ and details of the murders as she seeks ideas for screenplays for her husband's films.
Bernie goes undercover, posing as a crippled ex serviceman, to draw out the serial killer who has taken to taunting the police by sending letters to Berlin newspapers. His inquiries also lead him into the seedy underbelly of Weimar Berlin, drinking in night clubs such as the Cabaret of the Nameless. All the while, the threat of Nazi brutality and anti-Semitism looms large as Bernie draws closer to the shocking truth. He may be cynical, but deep down he's a decent guy - a good cop trying to stick to the rule of law. Jane Kramer of The New Yorker summed up Bernie as “one of crime fiction’s most satisfying and unlikely survivors: the good cop in the belly of the beast,”.
I'm going to miss him.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Quercus Books for a copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.

This is Philip Kerr's swansong after his untimely and much lamented death last year, and he leaves us with a gloriously detailed portrayal of the dying days of the Weimar Republic in Berlin, the chilling rise of Nazism and Hitler in the city of Berlin. He returns us to Bernie Gunther's early days as a detective working in vice, but now promoted to the Murder Commission by the Chief of the Criminal Police, the lawyer and Jew Bernard Weiss. For some time, Jews have been fair game and every Jew in public life carries a gun, the best kind of life insurance they can buy. The legacy of WW1 is writ large in Germany, with crushing poverty and starvation, squalor, rising inflation, women forced to work as prostitutes to survive, and the presence on the streets of mentally and physically afflicted crippled war veterans begging and a troubled political establishment hanging on by its fingernails. Side by side in the Berlin metropolis is its reputation as another Babylon, drowning in decadence, with its growing sex tourism, overt signs of debauchery in the bars and clubs, queers and transgenders shamelessly flaunting themselves, a city of messed up morality. At the heart of it is the arts and culture of 1928 including people such as Fritz Lang with his film Metropolis, and 'degenerate' artists like George Grosz.

Into this febrile atmosphere, a serial killer has been targeting prostitutes, hitting them over the head with a hammer and scalping them. This has not caused many ripples in the city, where the underlying feeling is that the killer is only doing what is necessary, clearing the filth off the streets. But the fourth victim, Eva Angerstein, has a father in a powerful position in Berlin's criminal rings fraternity and he will do anything to get hold of his daughter's murderer, including helping Bernie in his investigations. With the reputation of the police in tatters with the killer still at large and many in Berlin gunning for Weiss, another serial killer emerges, wanting to rid Berlin of the constant reminders of Germany's past failures and shame, by exterminating the crippled war veterans, malingerers who are essentially vermin. The latest killer is not alone in his inability to abide anything less than 'perfection', there are doctors, ostensibly looking after veterans, openly espousing eugenics. In a investigation where it is difficult to be a honest cop, the flawed Bernie walks the tightrope, determined to find a killer, not always making the wisest decisions, seeking justice for the victims but in the end forced to be pragmatic given the political volatility that defines the era.

Philip Kerr is a brilliant storyteller, he evokes the turbulent atmosphere of 1928 Berlin, in a historical novel that features real life characters of the time, and captures a Berlin and Germany that is inexorably heading towards the horrors of Nazi rule and WW2. His final Bernie Gunther novel is superb and an absolute joy to read, and I still haven't come to terms that there will be no more. I am going to have to go back and reread at some point in the future. The worst aspects of reading about this time in history with its rising populism is that our contemporary world is being marked by its own nightmare rise in populism, and the inevitable darkness that follows in its wake. Love, love, love this novel and this series. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.