Winner of the Historical Dagger and #6 in this series, this book never gets beyond tepid. The atmospheric pieces and characters are there but the plot is just not much. I like mysteries that are also thought provoking (e.g. Louise Penny's Three Pines series), but they still need to have a mystery at its heart. Unless you have already ready the previous entries in the series, I wouldn't start here. Some reviewers seem to have set themselves against this sixth Bernie Gunther detective yarn. All I can say is that it worked for me, both in the split locations - Berlin and Cuba - and the split time periods - 1934 and 1955. Unlike other readers too, I found both plot twists satisfyingly well-handled. Gunther is a mass of hard-boiled clichés: it is his situation that sets him up as something different. From being a Republic-sympathiser during the inexorable rise of the Nazis in the build up to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, to being cast as a Nazi war criminal rehabilitating himself in the glory days of rich and famous flooding casino money into Batista's Cuba, he cannot open his mouth without offending someone or putting his life in danger.
Do You like book Se Os Mortos Não Ressuscitam (2012)?
I just won a copy from Goodreads. Looking forward to reading it. Thank you.
—fatima
Not the best, but 4 stars for Bernie anyway!
—sharon
