Cadix
Résumé:
The brutality and corruption of Nazi Germany serve as the
backdrop for this impressive debut mystery novel. Scottish-born
Kerr re-creates the period accurately and with verve; the novel
reeks of the sordid decade that saw Hitler's rise to power.
Bernhard Gunther is a hard-boiled Berlin detective who
specializes in tracking down missing persons--mostly Jews. He
is summoned by a wealthy industrialist to find the murderer of
his daughter and son-in-law, killed during the robbery of a
priceless diamond necklace. Gunther quickly is catapulted into
a major political scandal involving Hitler's two main henchmen,
Goering and Himmler. The search for clues takes Gunther to
morgues overflowing with Nazi victims; raucous nightclubs; the
Olympic games where Jesse Owens tramples the theory of Aryan
racial superiority; the boudoir of a famous actress; and
finally to the Dachau concentration camp. Fights with Gestapo
agents, shoot-outs with adulterers, run-ins with a variety of
criminals, and dead bodies in unexpected places keep readers
guessing to the very end. Narrator Gunther is a spirited guide
through the chaos of 1930s Berlin and, more important, a
detective cast in the classic mold. -- Publishers Weekly.