by Philip Kerr
Part of Bernie Gunther, book 13
First published 2018
Bernie Gunther travels to Greece in 1957 working as an insurance investigator for a Munich company. He must look into a suspicious ship collision in the Aegean Sea that resulted in a massive insurance claim. The case takes him from the ruins of ancient Athens to the modern corruption of the shipping industry. Bernie discovers the accident connects to wartime secrets and Nazi gold that powerful people want to keep buried. His investigation puts him against Greek criminals, German war profiteers, and international conspirators who will kill to protect their interests. As Bernie digs deeper into the maritime mystery, he confronts his own past as a former Berlin police detective who served under the Third Reich. The insurance case becomes a fight for survival in a country still recovering from occupation and civil war.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, adventure, mystery, crime, thriller
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Aegean Sea, Athens, Germany, Greece, Munich
Period: 1957, World War II
530 pages · Quercus