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Field Gray: A Bernie Gunther Novel Audiobook
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(3.99) - 1,078 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Philip Kerr crafts a thrilling chapter from his critically acclaimed Bernie Gunther series. In Field Gray, Bernie finds himself imprisoned in 1954-and told he can either work for French intelligence or he can hang. Accepting his new job, Bernie begins interviewing POWs returning from Germany. And things get interesting when he meets a French war criminal and member of the French SS who has been posing as a German Wehrmacht officer.
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"There's nothing quite like the Nazis and those Commie Ruskies, not to mention the duplicitous Americans getting the bitter end of Bernie Gunther's tongue (again). Kerr's hero's cynical attitude and politically incorrect banter (from our perspective - although most of his attitudes are what we might arrogantly call modern) make you wonder why he doesn't get beaten up more often (as if that were possible). Kerr's historical research is always impeccable and his plot has Gunther on rollicking flight from post-war pre-revolution Cuba to Nazi occupied France to the Russian Gulags. Who killed whom is obvious (certainly when Gunther explains it) but the question is why Bernie is sent to Vichy France to investigate the case and to arrest the suspect in the first place..."
— Phillip (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“Just as youth is wasted on the young, history is wasted on historians. It ought to be the exclusive property of novelists—but only if they are as clever and knowledgeable as Philip Kerr. Only if, like Kerr, they can take historical epochs—a threadbare Germany in the wake of World War I, the ominous rise of the Nazis, the bleak aftermath of World War II in a stunned and fractured Europe—and use them as color and music for a series of tart, intelligent thrillers.”
— Chicago Tribune -
“Kerr crafts some of the finest mystery novels in contemporary fiction, noir classics set against the multiple backdrops of WWII's far-reaching stages…Painstakingly researched and beautifully written, as always, this is a fine addition to a fine series.”
— BookPage -
“Kerr’s ability to blend the elements of mystery and spy thriller into one satisfying package means Field Gray [is] the best in a long line of great entries in the series, one that should lift its author to new levels of popular and critical acclaim even as it ushers its flawed knight-errant into the Cold War.”
— Los Angeles Times -
“An accomplished thriller.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
“The plotting is twisty, the writing crisp, the atmosphere indisputably noir…They don’t come any better.”
— Library Journal (starred review) -
“Outstanding…Series aficionados and new readers alike will take comfort knowing that Kerr is hard at work on the next installment.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review) -
“The great strength of the novel is Kerr’s overpowering portrait of the war’s horrors…Sometimes I tire of novels about the Nazis. For lazy writers, Hitler and his minions are an easy symbol of evil, one they find more useful than jihadist terrorists, drug lords, and serial killers. But Kerr resurrects the past to remind us that the fascist mentality endures, all over the world, even though swastikas and jackboots are no longer its outward trappings.”
— Washington Post -
“The darkest and most disturbing of Philip Kerr’s novels featuring Bernie Gunther, the former German police officer and wise-guy private eye.”
— New York Times
Awards
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Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award
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A 2011 Washington Post Notable Book for Fiction
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One of 2011 Publishers Weekly’s Best Mystery Books
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A 2012 Edgar Allan Poe Award Nominee for Best Novel
Field Gray Listener Reviews
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" I'd been delaying reading this for some reason - maybe because I wasn't as interested in Bernie's experiences in Argentina and Cuba - but after the first hundred pages or so, I'm gripped, as it recounts events of 1941 and later 1931. although I must admit, for the first time when reading a Bernie Gunther book, I find myself wondering just how reliable a narrator Bernie is, especially in respect of what happened in the war. A good addition to the series, though, with enough plot twists to keep lovers of complex thrillers amused. "
— Trish, 2/2/2014 -
" Gotta love Bernie Gunther and the history dripping from Kerr's novels. "
— John, 2/2/2014 -
" this novel deals mostly in 1954 germany with many flashbacks to bernie gunther's wwii service. more spy than detective novel, but still amazingly smooth prose that is packed with facts, some of note are the french concentration camps of Gurs and Le Vernet, cold war Berlin, the trials and subsequent paroles of nazi killers (some killed as many as 54,000 people "single handedly") some only serving a few years in prison, the french SS, battle of Konigsberg, soviet pow camps, and well LOTS of other facts and fictions. "
— Tuck, 2/2/2014 -
" I give it 4 stars because anything in the Bernie Gunther series is superior, but this one takes a long time to get going and doesn't have the same storytelling sensibility as some of the other book in the series. However, after the story does get going its another good yarn with one of the great characters in novels today. "
— Mark, 2/1/2014 -
" One of the best in the series. Although I have to admit it has been awhile since I read the early books. Fascinating mix of fiction and reality. Kerr isn't trying too hard to write a pulp and seems to flow better. "
— Leo, 1/12/2014 -
" Absolutely great. Bernie is a great human being. "
— Robert, 1/11/2014 -
" I like the character Bernie Gunther. Like the writing. Like the audio book reader. But had trouble keeping up with the story bouncing around. "
— Jayne, 11/26/2013 -
" If you like the Bernie Gunther Novels, than you don't even have to ask, best wwII and afterwards detective/espionage fiction out there presently. Kerr never dissapoints. "
— Aaron, 9/26/2013 -
" I want to give this 3 1/2 stars, not my favourite of his novels but I still enjoyed it. It seemed to take an awfully long time to get to the real gist of the plot in this book so I did lose interest for some time, unlike the other books in this series which I haven't been able to put down. "
— Lois, 8/21/2013 -
" i was going to Berlin and wanted a book about more than the nazi era. this fit the biil. i'm looking forward to reading more bernie gunther mysteries. "
— Robert, 7/20/2013 -
" A good way to end this series. I loved the excellent writing and the meticulous research, that wasn't rammed down our throats, but gunther still too much of a Chandleresque character, which I have never liked. "
— Carey, 7/20/2013 -
" Just couldn't make it through another end of WWII novel right now so I quit reading this. I was enjoying the beginning in Cuba, however. "
— Cheryl, 6/25/2013 -
" I love all the Bernie Gunther books I've read. This is probably the weakest of the bunch, owing mostly to the jumping back and forth in time and place. "
— spencer, 6/20/2013 -
" I thought this book would be quite good and started off well but ultimately I found it rather dull and gave up after around 150 pages. "
— Simon, 3/6/2013 -
" Arrested in Cuban waters, Gunther is moved from Guantanamo to a Berlin prison where American, Russian, French and British intelligence all want him to help capture a former Stasi chief. "
— Vickie, 7/31/2012 -
" Philip Kerr and Bernie Gunther have yet to disappoint me. Field Gray covers plenty of questionable moral ground and twists and kept me entertained to the end. "
— Kathleen, 6/8/2012 -
" I am really liking the gritty "Bernie Gunther" series. Great writing and historical detail, with more than a touch of humour. "
— Claudia, 3/26/2012 -
" This was my least favorite of all the Gunther books, one gets a sense of the long slog of Soviet Work camps and of the cold war. "
— Charlotte, 3/22/2012 -
" My first Bernie Gunther and my last. 0 of 10 stars "
— Tim, 3/1/2012 -
" If you like the Bernie Gunther Novels, than you don't even have to ask, best wwII and afterwards detective/espionage fiction out there presently. Kerr never dissapoints. "
— Aaron, 4/28/2011 -
" This was my first Bernie Gunther novel so I was a little lost by all of the "alphbet" military and intelligence agency references but was surprising pleased by the unexpected ending - there is some justice in life, at least in fiction. "
— Tasker, 4/25/2011 -
" I was a little hesitant about reading this book-seemed more like a 'guys' book, however, I really enjoyed it-Bernie Gunther is a fascinating character. He really grows on you-his biting humor is spot-on. This is just the first of the Bernie Gunther novels I will be reading. "
— Janet, 4/6/2011
About Philip Kerr
Philip Kerr (1956–2018) 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. In 2009, If the Dead Rise Not won the world’s most lucrative crime fiction award, the RBA International Prize for Crime Writing worth €125,000. The book also won the 2009 British Crime Writers’ Association’s Ellis Peters Historic Crime Award. In 2018, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Writing as P. B. Kerr, he was the author of the much-loved young-adult fantasy series Children of the Lamp.
About Paul Hecht
Paul Hecht’s long career in audiobooks spans dozens of titles and authors as varied as Ray Bradbury and Gore Vidal, Jack Finney and Thomas Mann. He has recorded such books as Bob Dole’s One Soldier’s Story and Alexander McCall Smith’s Portuguese Irregular Verbs and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances. Hecht’s theater career in New York includes many Broadway and television credits. He has won nine AudioFile Earphones Awards for his audiobook narrations.