Greeks Bearing Gifts by Philip Kerr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Greeks Bearing Gifts is the latest novel in the Bernie Gunther series. It begins in Munich in 1957 where Bernie has been living under another name and works at a hospital as an attendant in the morgue. And there the action might have ended, except Bernie’s job brings him into contact with a cop who remembers him, which eventually leads Bernie to a new job as a claims adjuster for a Munich insurance company.

In his new job, Bernie is sent to Greece to investigate a large claim involving the sinking of a yacht. The owner of the yacht is a former Wehrmacht officer who has been living in Greece and working as a film maker and diver. He is not particularly helpful to Bernie, and Bernie begins to suspect that because the yacht had been confiscated from a Jewish owner during the war, that it had been destroyed as an act of revenge, which would invalidate the claim. Before Bernie can act on his suspicion the owner is murdered.

This brings in the Greek police, and of course Bernie is a suspect in the murder. To avoid major spoilers, I won’t go into any details of the rest of the story. But the story reaches back to Munich and the lawyer who got Bernie the job at the insurance company, as well as the cop who recognized him. And the gold confiscated from the Jews of Salonika before they were deported to Auschwitz is an important element of the story.

I enjoyed this book, but it’s not one of the best ones of the series. There is a lot of exposition, but not a lot of action, particularly towards the end. Still it’s a good read and I recommend it.