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Philip Kerr returns with his best-loved character, Bernie Gunther, in the fifth novel in what is now a series: a tight, twisting, compelling thriller that is firmly rooted in history.

A Quiet Flame opens in 1950. Falsely fingered a war criminal, Bernie Gunther has booked passage to Buenos Aires, lured, like the Nazis whose company he has always despised, by promises of a new life and a clean passport from the Perón government. But Bernie doesn't have the luxury of settling into his new home and lying low. He is soon pressured by the local police into taking on a case in which a girl has turned up dead, gruesomely mutilated, and another'the daughter of a wealthy German banker'has gone missing. Both crimes seem to connect to an unsolved case Bernie worked on back in Berlin in 1932. It's not so far-fetched that the cases might be linked: after all, the scum of the earth has been washing up on Argentine shores'state-licensed murderers and torturers'so why couldn't a serial killer be among them?

But Argentina, just like Germany, holds terrible secrets within its corrupt halls of power. When beautiful Anna Yagubsky seeks Gunther out, desperate for help, to find out what happened to her Jewish aunt and uncle who have disappeared, he is drawn into a horror story that rivals everything he has tried so hard to leave behind half a world away.

In this new postwar world, Bernie Gunther is a man without a name or a country, but still in full possession of his conscience. He is ?the right kind of hero for his time'and ours.' (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review )

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Library Journal Review

British novelist Kerr's fifth Bernie Gunther thriller finds the German private detective in 1950 Argentina, where he has fled with other "Old Comrades" after his identity was compromised (see The One from the Other). Bernie's past as a police officer involuntarily absorbed into the SS continues to dog his heels. Recognized by Colonel Montalban of Juan Peron's secret police, he is forced into investigating an apparent lust murder and the disappearance of a wealthy young girl. The first case has eerie similarities to an unsolved homicide that Bernie investigated in Berlin in 1932; the second ties in with an attempt to seize Nazi plunder hidden in Swiss banks. But the situation becomes complicated as the detective risks his life to track down and interrogate several ex-Nazis involved in nefarious deeds. Authentic period detail, biting wit, sparkling metaphors, and an engaging character whose moral ambiguity places him in perilous situations make this a read to savor. Fans of the earlier series titles will love the extended sections that re-create the grimly decadent atmosphere of the last days of the Weimar Republic. Highly recommended for public libraries.-Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tuscon (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

At the start of Kerr's stellar fifth Bernie Gunther novel (after The One from the Other), the former Berlin homicide detective seeks exile in Argentina in 1950, along with others connected to the Nazi past (one of his fellow ship passengers is Adolf Eichmann). A few weeks after Gunther arrives in Buenos Aires, a local policeman, Colonel Montalban, asks his help in solving the savage murder of 15-year-old Grete Wohlauf. Montalban has noticed similarities between this crime and two unsolved murders Gunther investigated in 1932 Germany. Another teenage girl's disappearance heightens the urgency of the inquiry. In exchange for free medical treatment for his just diagnosed thyroid cancer, Gunther agrees to subtly grill members of the large German community. A secret he stumbles on soon places his life in jeopardy. Kerr, who's demonstrated his versatility with high-quality entries in other genres, cleverly and plausibly grafts history onto a fast-paced thriller plot. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* The fifth Bernard Gunther novel finds the former German PI and reluctant SS member on a boat to Argentina in 1950, lumped in with the Nazis whom he baited in the earlier novels. It's one of those dirty deals that give noir its color: a Chandleresque, anti-authoritarian private eye forced to travel in the company of Adolf Eichmann, and like Eichmann, counting on the kindness of strangers in this case, Juan Péron and the promise of a clean passport. Unfortunately, the deal gets dirtier once Bernie lands in Buenos Aires and is forced to investigate the disappearance of a German banker's daughter a case that bears striking similarities to another disappearance that Bernie investigated (but never solved) in Berlin in 1932. Could a German serial killer have landed in Argentina and resumed his favorite pastime? The story jumps between flashbacks to the earlier case the milieu of March Violets (1989), the first and best of the earlier Gunther novels and the present in Buenos Aires. Kerr makes the best of both locales, bringing both Juan and Eva Péron into the Argentina segments, but it's in the flashbacks, returning to the sublimely decadent Weimar era, that the idea of a German Philip Marlowe really fits best, and Kerr works it masterfully. But the climax in Argentina is a doozy, too, drawing on historical data about what the Nazi sympathizers there may have been up to and finishing with a rhetorical flourish that evokes both Casablanca and Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach. A bit bifurcated, maybe, but a treat through either lens.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2009 Booklist

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Philip Kerr was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on February 22, 1956. He received a master's degree in law from the University of Birmingham in 1980. Before becoming a full-time author, he worked as an advertising copywriter. His first novel, March Violets, was published in 1989 and became the first book in the Bernie Gunther series. His other fiction works for adults include A Philosophical Investigation, Esau, A Five-Year Plan, Gridiron, and Hitler's Peace. He won several Shamus Awards and the British Crime Writers' Association Ellis Peters Award for Historical Crime Fiction.

His non-fiction works include The Penguin Book of Lies and The Penguin Book of Fights, Feuds and Heartfelt Hatreds: An Anthology of Antipathy. He also wrote young adult books under the name P. B. Kerr, including the Children of the Lamp series and One Small Step. He died of cancer on March 23, 2018 at the age of 62.

(Bowker Author Biography)