3.5
The Other Side of Silence
ByPublisher Description
When Bernie Gunther takes on a blackmail case and gets involved in the affairs of British spies, the former detective risks exposing his own dark past in this thrilling novel hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “one of Kerr’s best.”
Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, 1956. Having gone into hiding in the French Riviera, Bernie Gunther is working as a concierge at the Grand-Hôtel under a false name. His days and nights consist of maneuvering drunks to their rooms, shooing away prostitutes in search of trade, and answering the mindless questions posed by the absurdly rich guests—needless to say, he’s miserable. Now, the man who was once a homicide detective and unwilling SS officer in Hitler’s Third Reich is simply the person you turn to for touring tips or if you need a bridge partner.
As it just so happens, a rich and famous writer needs someone to fill the fourth seat in a regular game at the Villa Mauresque. But Somerset Maugham wants Bernie to help him get out of a game far more dangerous than bridge. Maugham is being blackmailed—perhaps because of his unorthodox lifestyle, or perhaps because, once upon a time, Maugham worked for the British Secret Service...
Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, 1956. Having gone into hiding in the French Riviera, Bernie Gunther is working as a concierge at the Grand-Hôtel under a false name. His days and nights consist of maneuvering drunks to their rooms, shooing away prostitutes in search of trade, and answering the mindless questions posed by the absurdly rich guests—needless to say, he’s miserable. Now, the man who was once a homicide detective and unwilling SS officer in Hitler’s Third Reich is simply the person you turn to for touring tips or if you need a bridge partner.
As it just so happens, a rich and famous writer needs someone to fill the fourth seat in a regular game at the Villa Mauresque. But Somerset Maugham wants Bernie to help him get out of a game far more dangerous than bridge. Maugham is being blackmailed—perhaps because of his unorthodox lifestyle, or perhaps because, once upon a time, Maugham worked for the British Secret Service...
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities23 Reviews
3.5
Janner16
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““The Other Side of Silence” is a thriller. It is number eleven in a fourteen book series about Bernie Gunther. Gunther is now working as a concierge in a hotel on the Riviera. He has had an interesting life. He has been a Berlin policeman, a private detective, and worked for senior Nazis (I sensed under duress – Bernie’s moral compass seems to work pretty well). Gunther is invited to help the author, Somerset Maugham, who is being blackmailed with a photograph of himself and a number of other men lying naked by a swimming pool. Maugham is worried that the photograph could harm his book sales and lead to the cancellation of lucrative film contracts. Homosexuality was illegal in the UK and US at that time. As well as being a famous writer, Maugham had also worked for the British secret service. And two of the people in the photograph are Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess. The plot soon develops into an espionage story. Anthony Blunt and Guy Burgess make cameo appearances, as does Sir John Sinclair – the head of MI6. We are also treated to flashbacks into Gunther’s past that helps to explain why he was called in to help Maugham in the first place.
I probably have not done his plot justice with my description. But it is a convincing, exciting and suspenseful page turner. His writing is not the best, some of his similes are a bit convoluted and pretentious. But I really recommend this book, and I will be going back to the first in the series to read more about Bernie Gunther.”
Meagan
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Nathan White
Created 8 months agoShare
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Ted Hekman
Created 9 months agoShare
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Zion
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About Philip Kerr
Philip Kerr was the New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Bernie Gunther novels, three of which—Field Gray, The Lady from Zagreb, and Prussian Blue—were finalists for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. Kerr also won several Shamus Awards and the British Crime Writers’ Association Ellis Peters Award for Historical Crime Fiction. Just before his death in 2018, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. As P.B. Kerr, he was the author of the much-loved young adult fantasy series Children of the Lamp.
Other books by Philip Kerr
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