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    A Man Without Breath
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    A Man Without Breath
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    A Man Without Breath
    Audiobook16 hours

    A Man Without Breath

    Written by Philip Kerr

    Narrated by Paul Hecht

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From the national bestselling author of Prague Fatale , a powerful new thriller that returns Bernie Gunther, our sardonic Berlin cop, to the Eastern Front.


    Berlin, March, 1943. A month has passed since the stunning defeat at Stalingrad. Though Hitler insists Germany is winning the war, commanders on the ground know better. Morale is low, discipline at risk. Now word has reached Berlin of a Red massacre of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk. If true, the message it would send to the troops is clear: Fight on or risk certain death. For once, both the Wehrmacht and Propaganda Minister Goebbels want the same thing: irrefutable evidence of this Russian atrocity. To the Wehrmacht, such proof will soften the reality of its own war crimes in the eyes of the victors. For Goebbels, such proof could turn the tide of war by destroying the Alliance, cutting Russia off from its western supply lines.


    Both parties agree that the ensuing investigation must be overseen by a professional trained in sifting evidence and interrogating witnesses. Anything that smells of incompetence or tampering will defeat their purposes. And so Bernie Gunther is dispatched to Smolensk, where truth is as much a victim of war as those poor dead Polish officers.


    Smolensk, March, 1943. Army Group Center is an enclave of Prussian aristocrats who have owned the Wehrmacht almost as long as they' ve owned their baronial estates, an officer class whose families have been intermarrying for generations. The wisecracking, rough-edged Gunther is not a good fit. He is, after all, a Berlin bull. But he has a far bigger concern than sharp elbows and supercilious stares, for somewhere in this mix is a cunning and savage killer who has left a trail of bloody victims.


    This is no psycho case. This is a man with motive enough to kill and skills enough to leave no trace of himself. Bad luck that in this war zone, such skills are two-a-penny. Somehow Bernie must put a face to this killer before he puts an end to Bernie.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books Audio
    Release dateJan 1, 2013
    ISBN9781470347239
    Unavailable
    A Man Without Breath
    Author

    Philip Kerr

    Philip Kerr is the bestselling author of the Bernie Gunther thrillers, for which he received a CWA Dagger Award. Born in Edinburgh, he now lives in London. He is a life-long supporter of Arsenal. Follow @theScottManson on Twitter.

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    Reviews for A Man Without Breath

    4/5

    173 ratings33 reviews

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    • 4/5
      >Putting a smart talking, wise-ass detective, Bernie Gunther, to lead a criminal investigation for the Nazis seems like a non-starter, but Kerr continues on his quest of a dozen books to convince us it was possible. Even probable, because the typical Berliner in Kerr's world fits this Raymond Chandler image. Disgruntled Germans and educated Slavs gave Gunther operating room. His skills as a cop gave him a license to kill when the Nazis really wanted to know who did it.

      I am still not convinced.

      >Kerr crafts an oppressive, sinking, stinking work: armies giving no quarter, civilians shot routinely in slaughter-house numbers, bones rising from the ground with the spring thaw, and Prussian officers taking their schnapps as though nothing had happened.

      >The book is not fun. This competition between the NKVD and Gestapo for most evil group-villain has a winner: The NKVD by the skin of someone's teeth, someone buried a two years ago with a bullet hole in his head. The action is messy and gory; even the love interest is contaminated with the flesh of the recently disinterred dead.

      >I do not know why I enjoyed it. Probably because it made history feel real--History that I knew but never tried to feel. Probably never should try to feel.

    • 4/5
      It amazes me that Phillip Kerr can produce this series in an apparently random order from Bernie Gunther's casebook without this becoming a problem to those of us who like linear progression in our series. This time he is back in the War investigating the Katyn Massacre on behalf of Goebbels; whilst working with Wehrmacht officers, some of whom are involved in plots against Hitler; others being enmeshed in corruption.
      As always excellent writing, plotting and characterisation, whilst being consistently entertaining and thought provoking
    • 3/5
      I discovered this series featuring Bernie Gunther by accident after receiving a prior novel from Library Thing. Bernie is a police detective during in Berlin during WW2. In this novel he is sent by Goebbels to Smolensk to investigate the bodies found near the Katyn forest. Goebbels want them to be evidence of Russian atrocities. Other muders occur and Bernie fears for his life. The novel is too long and I don't think it compares all with some of his earlier novels
    • 4/5
      After the return to form in Prague Fatale, this was slightly dissapointing. Bernie Gunther's involvement in the Katyn Wood investigation has been referred to in many of the previous books so it was clear that we would get a story out of it at some time. In the end though it feels like Kerr has had to come up with a storyline which is set at the this time and place. To make it more interesting in involves the plotters against Hitler but it all feels a bit contrived. The ending is even worse and feels like he'd lost interest in the plot himself and just comes up with a very silly made for TV ending.Against that it's still well written and fast paced and will no doubt please most fans of the series.
    • 4/5
      Disclosure: I was selected as a First Reads winner but never received my copy. I borrowed the book from my public library in order to write my review.

      ----
      Having never read any books in the Bernard Gunther series -- indeed, I had not heard of it before seeing mentions on Goodreads -- I was not sure if I would be able to get into or follow "A Man Without Breath." I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be one of my more enjoyable reads of the year.

      Philip Kerr writes noir beautifully; at times, it felt like I could see the thriller unfolding on a perfectly-lit Louis Malle set. His talent for setting the tone and place puts him in the top tier of fiction writers working today. Even with no background on the characters or series, I had no difficulty at all immersing myself in this dark, rewarding universe.

      As a historian, I was especially impressed by the accuracy of period details and the inventiveness of the plot. There have been so many Eastern Front novelizations over time, yet Kerr is able to provide a unique, exciting take on the times.

      I will absolutely seek out the previous books in the series to enjoy more of this high-quality storytelling.
    • 3/5
      Following a close encounter with Heydrich in "Prague Fatale" Bernie Gunther now finds himself closer to Josef Goebbels than he likes. He is dispatched to Smolensk to investigate a case close to Katyn forest where human remains have been found, ordered to report his findings directly to Goebbels Many more bodies are found, and they turn out to be those of Polish soldiers, more than 14,000 in all. Bernie is soon embroiled in a complex case involving the Russian NKVD, Gestapo and Wermacht. A series of murders further complicates the issues and Gunther himself soon finds his life to be in danger.Kerr has created a rich gallery of characters, many of them based on actual historical figures and develops an intriguing tale which seems quite plausible without being in any way disrespectful to the actual massacre that is still a painful memory for Poland.I thought that "Prague Fatale" was a rather bloated entry in this series and it was good to see that this new book was back to the high standard of earlier volumes. Gunther's cynicism, wit and humanity is allied to a darker side which finds expression in a violent incident. He is no Nazi but he knows that he is implicated in the loss of morality that is an inescapable part of War.
    • 3/5
      Overall, a solid effort and the historical background was interesting. However Bernie's hard-boiled tough guy mannerisms seemed jarringly out of place and the deus ex machina ending was disappointing. Bloating is a problem with many novels in the thriller/suspense/mystery genre with 400-500+ page books now being the norm. Graham Greene and Eric Ambler ,among others, could build and sustain character and tension in novels of no more than 250 pages. Why the elephantiasis of current authors?
    • 5/5
      this was an awesome book. i really enjoyed the writing and easy of reading. it flew by. you think you have the ending figured out and you don't. well, not exactly anyway. it takes a different approach compared to most war/spy stories. it takes place during world war 2 but the character is actually a german soldier/cop. i'm a big fan of w.e.b. and he does the non-fiction fiction and i love it. i'll have to look at more stuff by this author. good read, loved it.
    • 4/5
      Bernie Gunther is sent by little Joey(Himmler) to Smolensk to establish the identity of bodies in the Kaytin Forest mass graves.. Himmler, as Germany recovers from the Stalingrad defeat, seeks evidence that will identify Russia as the perpetrator. As Bernie works with the pathologists exhuming the bodies German soldiers are murdered providing him with current mysteries to be resolved as well. Bernie, a true Berliner and Nazi hater puts himself in serious danger as he seeks the truth.
    • 3/5
      A good Bernie Gunther yarn, blending historical figures and events from WWII German perspective with a detective thriller. Gunter is dispatched to explore the suspicion that the Soviets were responsible for the mass murder of thousands of Polish officers and soldiers in the Katyn Wood near Smolensk. Gunther is not an admirerer of the Nazi regime and he encounters Wehrmacht officers who are conspiring to assassinate Hitler. While engaged in investigating the massacre, he also looks into the circumstances of several murders and follows a number of possible leads to suspects among the German contingent there. There's a strand of espionage that also crops up in the story. The plot lines are woven together cleverly toward a dramatic and believable climax.
    • 4/5
      Excellent read. Highly recommended for those interested in historical fiction, particularly for a perspective on competing factions within German leadership during WWII. The "detective" story is almost secondary to the great characterizations.
    • 4/5
      I know only slightly more about WWII than the average guy, I suppose, and I think that little bit of knowledge may be the reason I enjoy this series. The historical background makes an interesting read, but Bernie Gunther's solutions to all these mysteries always seem to me to drop right out of the sky. They frustrate me because I've detected nothing of the solution until Bernie reveals it in the end. I guess I keep reading, hoping to do better!
    • 5/5
      "A Man Without Breath", the latest Bernie Gunther novel, was my first exposure to the writing of Philip Kerr. Shame on me for not finding his works sooner. The book was a sterling example of the current state of crime noir. The protagonist was tough, smart-mouthed, good - and quick - with his fists and with the ladies. I'm fond of historical novels that are heavy on the history (e.g., Flashman) and this fit that like a glove.Overall, it was a fast-paced, thoroughly enjoyable ride, and I've already finished 4 other books in the series, and have another on order. I've enjoyed those as well.My Early Reviewer copy was "Pre-Release" and warned me not to quote the book because some of the language might have changed before publication. Having said that, I have to admit one of my few quibbles is Bernie's use of Englishisms like "Bloody" as an expletive. I just found it a little jarring that a tough Berlin private eye would come off like a Brit.Overall, I highly recommend this book.
    • 5/5
      this was an awesome book. i really enjoyed the writing and easy of reading. it flew by. you think you have the ending figured out and you don't. well, not exactly anyway. it takes a different approach compared to most war/spy stories. it takes place during world war 2 but the character is actually a german soldier/cop. i'm a big fan of w.e.b. and he does the non-fiction fiction and i love it. i'll have to look at more stuff by this author. good read, loved it.
    • 4/5
      Mr Kerr is not tired of his character and neither am I!
    • 5/5
      Best Bernie yet.
    • 3/5
      A good historical mystery set in Smolensk,Russia in the 1940s. Another great story by Mr. Kerr how he manages to portray the era must have taken a lot of research. The only drawback with Mr. Kerr's work is it's a little dark, but I suppose those were dark times.
    • 4/5
      The Bernie Gunther crime novels by Philip Kerr are set in Nazi Germany during World War II. In ‘A Man Without Breath’ Gunther, now a member of the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, is sent to Smolensk in Russia to investigate a mass grave discovered in the Katyn Forest that is the site of a mass execution of Polish Army officers and NCO’s by the Russians. While managing this sensitive investigation he must work alongside a set of aristocratic Prussian officers involved in plots to assassinate Hitler and is dragged into solving a number of vicious murders of German soldiers and collaborators.The historical setting is accurate and well integrated with the fictional crime story. Kerr raises interesting questions about factional in-fighting within the German Army, Russian attitudes to occupying forces, collaboration and the Russian fears for the return of Stalin’s communist regime as the war swings against Germany after the devastating defeat at Stalingrad.Gunther is a pragmatist, trying to do his job and hoping to stay alive and out of trouble as the war drags on. His complex and often conflicted political views reflect a more nuanced approach to how one feels during a war - pride in one’s own country and people, hatred of the enemy, but also ambivalence towards one’s own leadership. This is an interesting read with a twisting plot that pulls you along and where the good and the bad often merge together and where the characters you root for are not all from the same side of the argument.
    • 5/5
      It's 1943, and Bernie Gunther, former Berlin homicide cop, is now an investigator for the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau. Yep, you read those last four words right. During World War II, there actually was a German organization for investigating war crimes. Bernie, however, with all the cynicism and black humor of a Berliner, is keenly aware of the absurdity of the Bureau's practice of turning a blind eye to the systematic torture and murder of Jews, Gypsies, communists, Slavs, homosexuals and other designated enemies of the Reich. Instead, the Bureau focuses on investigating war crimes by the Allies and, occasionally, one-off criminal acts by German soldiers--like rape, murder and torture committed without benefit of an officer's order.Bernie is sent to Smolensk, precariously held by the Germans, when corpses are discovered buried in the nearby Katyń Forest. Those bodies turn out to be Polish army officers, executed by a shot to the back of the head, and the more the German troops dig in the forest, the more bodies they find.Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels (whom Bernie likes to call "Mahatma Propagandhi") spots a potential publicity coup: show the world that this massacre was perpetrated by the Soviets and drive a wedge between the democratic Allies and the USSR. Goebbels orders Bernie to coordinate an international commission's visit to Smolensk to witness the digging and autopsies and, of course, to help the publicity along.Bernie's workload becomes heavier when two German soldiers are brutally murdered late one night after a visit to the local brothel in Smolensk, and other murders follow. Bernie's various investigations force him into contact with a number of Wehrmacht officers, nearly all of whom are aristocrats and seem to be related by blood, marriage or social connection. This is a double whammy for Bernie, who dislikes both military authority and class superiority. Naturally, he refuses to show any deference to the officers, even including those whom he figures out are part of the various plots to assassinate Hitler.Bernie's insubordination and wisecracks have a tendency to make the local command less than cooperative with his investigations; not that this is a new phenomenon for Bernie. After knowing him only a couple of days, one member of the visiting committee says: "Trouble is what defines you, Gunther. Without trouble you have no meaning." True, but I like Gunther's own view of himself: "[F]or the last ten years[,] [t]here's hardly been a day when I haven't asked myself if I could live under a regime I neither understood nor desired. . . . For now, being a policeman seems like the only right thing I can do."This is what the Bernie Gunther series is all about. Philip Kerr is a master at portraying the flawed hero doing the best he can in a corrupt and perverted time and place. As Bernie recognizes, you sure can't get much more corrupt and perverted than Nazi Germany and World War II. The only hope is, as Bernie tells himself, as long as you can draw breath, you have a chance of turning around whatever nastiness you've been involved in. So who is the Man Without Breath; the man who has lost that chance?During this now nine-volume series, Kerr puts Bernie at ground zero at some of the notorious landmarks of the time. In this book, there are several, including the discovery of the Katyń Forest Massacre, a real event in which the Soviet NKVD killed over 14,000 Polish military officers as part of its "decapitation" policy, which systematically obliterated those who might lead resistance against them, including aristocrats, intellectuals and military elites. Kerr also includes references to the Gleiwitz Incident, the faked Polish attack on a German radio station, which the Nazis devised to justify their 1939 invasion of Poland; the Rosenstrasse protest, which I describe in a historical note below; some of the previously-mentioned officer class's attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler; and the horrific medical experiments on communists carried out by fascist doctors in Civil War-era Spain.I read a lot of World War II fiction, and a common mistake is for the author to put every bit of his or her research on the page, which often kills the pace and flavor of the story. Having read all of the Bernie Gunther series, I can say that Philip Kerr never makes that mistake. His knowledge of World War II history is prodigious, and he works it seamlessly into his compelling fictional stories. Just read the Author's Note at the end of the book and marvel at all the real events and characters he's blended into this story without the least scent of a musty textbook creeping in.I recommend A Man Without Breath to anyone who enjoys World War II fiction or books about characters trapped in morally compromising circumstances. I'd give it 4.5 stars; there is some very occasional clunky writing.Historical Note: An intriguing event Kerr describes is the Rosenstrasse protest. In March, 1943, the Nazis rounded up the last 10,000 Jews left in Berlin (at least those not in hiding), with the intent to transport them and declare Berlin judenfrei. About 1700 of these, the ones who were married to Aryans, were separated and placed in temporary holding in the Jewish community center building on Rosenstrasse. For a week, the wives and families of the Rosenstrasse prisoners demonstrated outside, loudly demanding the release of their loved ones, despite SS soldiers' threats to arrest and even shoot the demonstrators. Amazingly, at the end of the week, the prisoners were released, by Goebbels' order, and nearly all of them survived the war.This event shows the sensitivity of the regime to bad publicity and forces us to ask what horrors might have been avoided if only the German people had risen up against Nazi actions earlier. For a thorough and fascinating history of the Rosenstrasse protest, I recommend Nathan Stoltzfus's Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany.
    • 4/5
      Awesome, as usual!This is a grimmer story than the previous ones (I'm referring to the chronological order and not the publication one) and is hopeless like A Quiet Flame. The harshness is due both to the setting (Katyn, Belarus, and Russia, some of the darkest places of World War II) and to the mordant irony of the plot: the investigation of a Russian massacre and of few murders during (or a little after) the Einsatzgruppen actions. Kerr draws a subtle parallel between the Bernie's choices - to reveal the real stating event of the war or to collaborate with Propaganda Ministry and give justice to the Polish officers - and the Wehrmacht ones - to fight the Russians or to kill Hitler. The military resistance is depicted in an unsympathetic way as a bunch of old-fashioned, dithering, clumsy and unlucky men; I can't agree more, after the reading of To the Bitter End.Even if I love Bernie, I can detect few flaws: the abrupt and deus ex machina end is the biggest one; I fervidly hope is only a way to introduce a new story about Canaris; another one is the solution of the doctor's murder that is quite contrived and looks like almost an afterthought. The part about the Spanish human experiments makes sense as a further sign of an inhuman age, but still I wonder what was known about them at this time. I didn't discover any historical error (I suppose some reviews are referring to the Einsatzgruppen and I'd like to know how much are biased); even if the Rosenstrasse episode is based on Resistance of the Heart, Bernie offers a truer interpretation: ‘there’s a strong rumour that most of the prisoners will probably be released in a few days'. It would have been nice and human if the the women' s protests had freed the men, but instead they were rounded up a released as a part of police Aktion, like the investigation on the Katyn massacre was a Propaganda plan, and not an act of justice.
    • 3/5
      World War II is entering its final stage, the German army having suffered defeat at Stalingrad and Germany poised for a Russian offensive. In Poland, former Berlin policeman Bernie Gunther has been ordered to oversee an exhumation of a gravesite containing the remains of thousands of Polish officers purportedly killed by the Russians, in an effort to extract propaganda value from Russian atrocities. With this grim background, Gunther finds a more immediate peril, a serial killer who is ruthlessly eliminating local civilians and soldiers, not randomly, but with a purpose. As Gunther tries to identify the murderer and uncover his motive, the killer seems always one step ahead, eliminating witnesses.Author Philip Kerr has interwoven real people and his fictional plot skillfully. While one may wonder whether historical figures really would have behaved the way Kerr has them act in this book, it rarely makes a difference in the plot progression. Only one character, Colonel Rudolf von Gersdorff, seemed to me to be a paradox, a subtle conspirator against Hitler on one hand and a naïve, loose-lipped amateur on the other.The setting of A Man Without Breath is incredibly grim and the characters exhibit little humanity. It’s not just the killer who is ruthless. Few of the cast would hesitate to murder in order to advance their own aims. Most of them do just that. It’s an amoral world where life is cheap. I found it to be unrelentingly depressing, and while it’s a tale well told, I found in the end that I’d rather not have read it.
    • 5/5
      A great read with few anachronistic slips; best historical fiction writer out there today.
    • 4/5
      Once again Philip Kerr has written a World War II novel set from a non-Nazi perspective which is a page-turner. Bernie Gunther, an ex-Krip detective and no lover of the Nazi regime, is sent to Russia to manipulate the Katyn Forest massacre into a positive press release for the fascist government in Berlin. Finding thousands of rotting Polish officer corpses in mass graves shot by the Russians brings out many different reactions from the German Abwehr based in Slomensk, much of which is dangerous...more
    • 4/5
      Better than the prior volume. Held my interest all the way. Minus one star for endless small avoidable historic and geographic howlers plus an ending so contrived as to be sadly laughable.
    • 5/5
      This is the ninth book in Kerr's Bernie Gunther series, and it does not disappoint. For those of you not familiar with these books, they are mystery/thrillers written in the noir style and set in WWII Germany. We first meet Bernie in March Violets which takes place in the 1930s as the Nazi Regime is coming to power but prior to the outbreak of war. The first three books in the series have been grouped into the omnibus edition entitled Berlin Noir, and through them we get to see Bernie at three different stages during this era - pre WWII, during WWII, and after WWII. The other books in the series go back and fill in the gaps. Bernie Gunther makes an interesting hero because like all of us, he is flawed. He wants to play by the rules but understands that doing so will get him killed. There is also the fascinating dilemma of whose rules to play by - he is not a member of the Nazi party and yet he finds himself constantly drawn into the fray. Why? Because Bernie used to be a cop, a very good cop who chose to retire and pursue the life of private detective when he saw what was happening to the police force under the current regime. He loves his country, but he does not love the Nazi party, so it is a slippery slope that he must traverse.In the latest book, A Man Without Breath, we find Bernie in Berlin in March of 1943; he now works for the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, but he won't be there (in Berlin) for long. He is dispatched to Smolensk, Russia by non other than Propaganda Minister Chief Goebbels to investigate a mass grave that has been found in the Katyn Forest. Seem suspicious? Goebbels is hoping that this mass grave will be found to be full of Polish officers that were mass murdered by the Russian secret police (the NKVD). Goebbels wants to use the information to sever ties between Russia and the Allied forces. Oh the irony! Bernie finds himself in the unenviable position of procuring and presenting the evidence without disturbing any other...um...similar sites that were not created by Mother Russia. And in the meantime, there are other bodies piling up. German and Russian bodies. Seems like Bernie will also have to deal with a murderer on the loose, but how and why are the victims connected?I really liked the latest entry in this series. It was fast paced and interesting, and the plot twists just kept coming. I also think that Kerr does an excellent job of placing these fictional stories within the historical framework. I would love to add a few quotes to this review, but I received this book as an Early Reviewer book, and the publisher has asked that the proof not be directly quoted in case of any changes to the writing before publication. That's too bad because there is some delicious stuff here. And Bernie! Oh, Bernie, if we ever meet up, I hope that you are on my side! Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Opening Philip Kerr's ninth Bernie Gunther historical mystery, 'A Man without Breath' is like stepping into the Berlin of 1943. The German Army's defeat at Stalingrad has sent an unavoidable message to the German populace - the war may not be winnable. The mood in Berlin is necessarily grim. Add to that the guilt that some Germans are beginning to feel about the treatment of the Jews and the way the war has been fought and it's a heavy load to bear. Then there are those pesky British planes dropping bombs....When word reaches Berlin that it is possible that the Red Army massacred Polish officers it's viewed by Propaganda Minister Goebbels as a way of demonstrating to the faltering German troops that they might as well fight to the death since the Soviets don't hesitate to massacre prisoners of war. The Wehrmacht sees it as a defense of Germany's war atrocities - 'but Ma, all the other kids did it too.'Former Berlin detective Bernie Gunther is sent to establish that the massacre actually took place and that evidence remains. Bernie, however, as usual, follows his own path. He is intrigued by the unexplained deaths of two German soldiers outside a brothel. And this leads him, as usual, into trouble.Kerr's Gunther books are so successful in large measure because he has such a firm grip on wartime Berlin. The time and place are credible; the characters are real. Kerr is not relating what life was like in 1943 Germany; the reader is there. Bernie is a complex character - he is witty and sardonic, he's a survivor in a world that seems to have no rules other than every man for himself.Authors of well written series are unsung heroes. Like the man on the flying trapeze, the performance has to be so much more difficult than it appears. Kerr does well with Bernie and his cohorts, but the ending of this one strained credibility.
    • 5/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a great read!The story takes place during World War II. The character Bernie Gunther, is an ex-policeman from Berlin and currently working for the war crimes department when he is sent to Smolensk Russia to check into a report of the remains of 4000 Polish officers being found. Bernie isn't pro Nazi and will express his views to those around him, but Bernie is pro Germany and one of the few remaining Germans that portrays a conscience.This is Bernie's story of his two months in Smolensk and the events that take place. A good tale that will surprise you in the end.
    • 5/5
      This is an Early Reviewer copy. Thank you.If Bernie Gunther was a circus performer he would be juggling flaming torches while riding a unicycle on a tightrope across the Grand Canyon. That is the image I keep getting when I think of everything that is going on in this book. And Kerr manages to tie the plot strands together, leaving an intriguing few for later use.This novel covers a bare two months, March 1 to May 3 1943. Bernie is now opted to the War Crimes Bureau where he can do what he does best, investigate crime. The WCB is a curious institution. It is famously apolitical in Nazi Germany and composed mainly of Prussian judges who focus on the trees, not the forest, and have managed to maintain a degree of integrity, at least in their own eyes. It is a tolerable niche for Bernie who loathes the Nazis and loathes himself even more when he is conpelled to use his talents in the party service.On March 8 he is given his new assignment. Near Smolensk, a mass grave of possible Polish soldiers has been discovered in the Katyn Forest. The WCB wants Bernie to investigate the crime scene and determine if these are indeed Polish soldiers and who murdered them. The WCB believes the victims were slaughtered by the Russian NKVD after the Russians occupied half of Poland and at the time Stalin was still allied with Hitler. It would be just much easier for the Soviet Union if there was no Polish opposition when the occupation became permanent after the war. And, the WCB hoped, the world would view Germany as not the only brutal force in Central Europe. Judge Johannes Goldsche, Bernie's boss, does caution him to tread carefully. If he should come across mass graves NOT filled with Polish bodies, it would be best to not mention this. No use upsetting the Gestapo.Bernie is not thrilled with going to Smolensk, especially when he is "asked" by Joseph Goebbels to slant his investigation so that the Nazi can use the results for propaganda purposes: the godless communists murder innocent Polish prisoners and the truth is revealed to the world by the vigilant German investigators. In fact, the proceedings should be witnessed by an impartial group of outsiders, possibly the Polish Red Cross and forensic experts from neutral countries. And do wind up the investigation as soon as possible since there may be a chance that the 6th Army may have to leave Smolensk to regroup after the defeat at Stalingrad . If the Russians return before the investigation is satisfactorily completed, all evidence of their crime would be lost.A straightforward assignment for Bernie, even if he has to be careful not to "discover"' anything embarrassing for the present Germany regime. But nothing is ever simple in Bernie's life anymore. As soon as he arrives in Smolensk he gets involved with the murder of two Russian soldiers and the torture murders of a Russian doctor and his family, a plot to assassinate Hitler who will be visiting in a few days, the disappearance of a key witness to the mass murders, a prostitution ring, and various attempts on his life. All in Smolensk in two months. And there is the smell and the mosquitoes and the soul-searching and even a little love....Bernie Gunther remains one of the best characters in modern detective and historical fiction. He is a decent man in an impossible society trying to do a policeman's job because he still believes murderers should be made to pay for their actions. Bernie has to make tough choices in order to avoid the mantraps of Nazi authority and sometimes he has to do bad things for what he believes may be a greater good. He is still clinging to self-preservation, but is almost to the point where he just doesn't give a damn and almost welcomes a bullet. What a fascinating man.
    • 4/5
      This was my introduction to the Bernie Gunther series, and after reading this (ninth) novel, I'm likely to go back and start reading the series from the beginning (though maybe not right away).A Man Without Breath isn't a typical police procedural, where the one thing that really matters to the reader and the author and the detective is "Whodunnit?" Any "mystery" is almost beside the point in this murder-filled nightmare world where the detective is a Nazi-hating German former homicide cop in the midst of World War II. In many ways, this is crime fiction at its best. It constantly makes the reader think, not about a fictional puzzle, but about real evil.The book seemed a little too long, but every time my interest started to flag, something else exciting occurred. The characters were sometimes difficult to keep sorted out, and some of them were almost cartoonishly good or villainous. But what Kerr does so well is use history and all those true murders to create compelling noir crime fiction. When Bernie Gunther laments "thousands" of Jews killed by the Nazis, or does whatever it takes to protect those plotting to kill Hitler, we know what he doesn't: things in his world are even worse than he thinks.
    • 5/5
      It's 1943, and Bernie Gunther, former Berlin homicide cop, is now an investigator for the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau. Yep, you read those last four words right. During World War II, there actually was a German organization for investigating war crimes. Bernie, however, with all the cynicism and black humor of a Berliner, is keenly aware of the absurdity of the Bureau's practice of turning a blind eye to the systematic torture and murder of Jews, Gypsies, communists, Slavs, homosexuals and other designated enemies of the Reich. Instead, the Bureau focuses on investigating war crimes by the Allies and, occasionally, one-off criminal acts by German soldiers--like rape, murder and torture committed without benefit of an officer's order.Bernie is sent to Smolensk, precariously held by the Germans, when corpses are discovered buried in the nearby Katyń Forest. Those bodies turn out to be Polish army officers, executed by a shot to the back of the head, and the more the German troops dig in the forest, the more bodies they find.Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels (whom Bernie likes to call "Mahatma Propagandhi") spots a potential publicity coup: show the world that this massacre was perpetrated by the Soviets and drive a wedge between the democratic Allies and the USSR. Goebbels orders Bernie to coordinate an international commission's visit to Smolensk to witness the digging and autopsies and, of course, to help the publicity along.Bernie's workload becomes heavier when two German soldiers are brutally murdered late one night after a visit to the local brothel in Smolensk, and other murders follow. Bernie's various investigations force him into contact with a number of Wehrmacht officers, nearly all of whom are aristocrats and seem to be related by blood, marriage or social connection. This is a double whammy for Bernie, who dislikes both military authority and class superiority. Naturally, he refuses to show any deference to the officers, even including those whom he figures out are part of the various plots to assassinate Hitler.Bernie's insubordination and wisecracks have a tendency to make the local command less than cooperative with his investigations; not that this is a new phenomenon for Bernie. After knowing him only a couple of days, one member of the visiting committee says: "Trouble is what defines you, Gunther. Without trouble you have no meaning." True, but I like Gunther's own view of himself: "[F]or the last ten years[,] [t]here's hardly been a day when I haven't asked myself if I could live under a regime I neither understood nor desired. . . . For now, being a policeman seems like the only right thing I can do."This is what the Bernie Gunther series is all about. Philip Kerr is a master at portraying the flawed hero doing the best he can in a corrupt and perverted time and place. As Bernie recognizes, you sure can't get much more corrupt and perverted than Nazi Germany and World War II. The only hope is, as Bernie tells himself, as long as you can draw breath, you have a chance of turning around whatever nastiness you've been involved in. So who is the Man Without Breath; the man who has lost that chance?During this now nine-volume series, Kerr puts Bernie at ground zero at some of the notorious landmarks of the time. In this book, there are several, including the discovery of the Katyń Forest Massacre, a real event in which the Soviet NKVD killed over 14,000 Polish military officers as part of its "decapitation" policy, which systematically obliterated those who might lead resistance against them, including aristocrats, intellectuals and military elites. Kerr also includes references to the Gleiwitz Incident, the faked Polish attack on a German radio station, which the Nazis devised to justify their 1939 invasion of Poland; the Rosenstrasse protest, which I describe in a historical note below; some of the previously-mentioned officer class's attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler; and the horrific medical experiments on communists carried out by fascist doctors in Civil War-era Spain.I read a lot of World War II fiction, and a common mistake is for the author to put every bit of his or her research on the page, which often kills the pace and flavor of the story. Having read all of the Bernie Gunther series, I can say that Philip Kerr never makes that mistake. His knowledge of World War II history is prodigious, and he works it seamlessly into his compelling fictional stories. Just read the Author's Note at the end of the book and marvel at all the real events and characters he's blended into this story without the least scent of a musty textbook creeping in.I recommend A Man Without Breath to anyone who enjoys World War II fiction or books about characters trapped in morally compromising circumstances. I'd give it 4.5 stars; there is some very occasional clunky writing.Historical Note: An intriguing event Kerr describes is the Rosenstrasse protest. In March, 1943, the Nazis rounded up the last 10,000 Jews left in Berlin (at least those not in hiding), with the intent to transport them and declare Berlin judenfrei. About 1700 of these, the ones who were married to Aryans, were separated and placed in temporary holding in the Jewish community center building on Rosenstrasse. For a week, the wives and families of the Rosenstrasse prisoners demonstrated outside, loudly demanding the release of their loved ones, despite SS soldiers' threats to arrest and even shoot the demonstrators. Amazingly, at the end of the week, the prisoners were released, by Goebbels' order, and nearly all of them survived the war.This event shows the sensitivity of the regime to bad publicity and forces us to ask what horrors might have been avoided if only the German people had risen up against Nazi actions earlier. For a thorough and fascinating history of the Rosenstrasse protest, I recommend Nathan Stoltzfus's Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany.