Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the latest Bernie Guenther novel from Philip Kerr and it contains two parallel stories, one set in October 1956 and the other set in April 1939. The 1956 thread begins as a continuation of the story in the previous novel “The Other Side of Silence.” It’s hard to go into too much detail without generating spoilers for either of the novels, but in 1956 as the season on the Riviera comes to a close, Bernie is visited by some former acquaintances who now work for the East German Stasi. They request his assistance in wrapping up a few of the loose ends from “The Other Side of Silence.” One of the Stasi men worked with Bernie on an interesting case in 1939, involving a murder in Berchtesgaden shortly before the celebration of Hitler’s 50th birthday.

While investigating the murder in 1939 Bernie uncovers several rings of corruption centered around Martin Bormann and his operations in the area. Bormann has built the “Eagles Nest” (or the Kehlsteinhaus) as a present to Hitler for his birthday, but if there is a murderer on the loose, Hitler will not come to Berchtesgaden and Bormann’s power will be diminished. So the pressure is on Bernie to catch the killer and do it quickly.

The two threads converge in an interesting way. Both stories are well done and are quite interesting. I will say Bernie seems a bit tired in 1956 and makes some mistakes. It’s a very entertaining read and I recommend this book.