The Other Side of Silence by Philip Kerr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the eleventh book in the Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr. It’s not my favorite in the series but it is a good read and I enjoyed it. Briefly the action begins in 1956 on the French Riviera, much as it did in the previous novel “The Lady from Zagreb.” Bernie is a concierge at a hotel and spends some of his time playing bridge. This leads to a meeting with W. Somerset Maugham and Bernie becomes involved with a blackmail attempt which may have implications for the British Secret Service.

There may be a few very mild spoilers below, so turn back now if you must.

The blackmailer, or at least the contact for the blackmailer, is well-known to Bernie and we learn about their relationship in flashbacks to 1938 and the winter of 1944-45. The 1938 episode relates to the scandal involving Werner von Fritsch who was then the Commander-in-Chief of the German Army. The later flashback places Bernie in Koenigsberg before the Russian winter offensive of January 1945. This touches on the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff and also the mystery of the Amber Room which disappeared in 1945 and has not been recovered.

Overall, a solid outing for Bernie, but it’s just not as good as some of the previous novels. The blackmail plot is good and I was a bit surprised at how it was resolved.

As always, there seems to be a minor historical nit to pick. In this case it concerns an East Prussian lodge that supposedly was built for Frederick III of Prussia in 1690, the son of Frederick the Great. First, Frederick the Great died in the 1780s, and second, he had no children. The real Frederick III reigned for a few months in 1888 after the death of his father and before his own death from cancer. He was succeeded by his son Wilhelm II.