The Pale Criminal
Encyclopedia
The Pale Criminal is a detective novel and the second in the Berlin Noir trilogy of Bernhard Gunther novels written by Philip Kerr
.
Bernhard (Bernie) Gunther has taken Bruno Stahlecker, another ex-police officer, as his partner. The two have been working on a straightforward homosexual blackmail case when Stahlecker is killed on a stakeout and Bernie is tapped for a much bigger job. Obergruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich
forces Gunther to look for a serial sex murderer who is killing blonde Aryan teenage girls in Berlin and making fools of the police. Gunther has no choice but to accept the temporary post of Kriminalkommissar in Heydrich's state Security Service, with a team of men underneath him that he's not sure he can trust any more than his superiors. Gunther finds himself wading through the filthy underbelly of the Nazi hierarchy in search of the man or men who are not only killing young girls but also killed his partner.
Philip Kerr
Philip Kerr is a British author of both adult fiction and non-fiction, most notably the Bernie Gunther series of thrillers, and of children's books, particularly the Children of the Lamp series....
.
Plot overview
Set in 1938, two years after the events of March VioletsMarch Violets
March Violets is a detective novel and the first written by Philip Kerr featuring detective Bernhard Gunther. Gunther investigates the murder of the daughter of a wealthy industrialist in Berlin as the 1936 Summer Olympics play out in the city...
Bernhard (Bernie) Gunther has taken Bruno Stahlecker, another ex-police officer, as his partner. The two have been working on a straightforward homosexual blackmail case when Stahlecker is killed on a stakeout and Bernie is tapped for a much bigger job. Obergruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...
forces Gunther to look for a serial sex murderer who is killing blonde Aryan teenage girls in Berlin and making fools of the police. Gunther has no choice but to accept the temporary post of Kriminalkommissar in Heydrich's state Security Service, with a team of men underneath him that he's not sure he can trust any more than his superiors. Gunther finds himself wading through the filthy underbelly of the Nazi hierarchy in search of the man or men who are not only killing young girls but also killed his partner.
Characters
- Bernhard Gunther
- Bruno Stahlecker
- Otto RahnOtto RahnOtto Wilhelm Rahn was a German medievalist and a Obersturmführer of the SS, born in Michelstadt, Germany....
- Reinhard Lange
- Rolf Vogelmann
- Klaus Hering
- Josef Kahn
- Irma Hanke
- Gottfried Bautz
- Hildegard Steininger
- Julius StreicherJulius StreicherJulius Streicher was a prominent Nazi prior to World War II. He was the founder and publisher of Der Stürmer newspaper, which became a central element of the Nazi propaganda machine...
- Emmeline Steininger
- Reinhard HeydrichReinhard HeydrichReinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...
- Artur Nebe
- Karl Maria Weisthor
Publication history
- 1990, London, United Kingdom, Viking Press, ISBN 067082433X, Hardback