The One from the Other

Praise for Philip Kerr's The One from the Other

'Philip Kerr is the contemporary master of the morally complex thriller. . . . [A German Requiem], set mainly in postwar Vienna, has an affinity with Graham Greene's The Third Man but--dare I say it?--equals or surpasses Greene (and the Carol Reed film featuring Orson Welles), because it doesn't shy away from the Nazi-saturated substratum of the Viennese milieu. And then I discovered--and devoured--Mr. Kerr's new noir, The One from the Other. It crystallized my dissatisfaction with recent le Carre novels (clumsily didactic) and made me rethink my addiction to Alan Furst's oeuvre (brilliant but a bit too thickly varnished with romantic glamour). . . . The achievement of Philip Kerr's novels is that he takes his Chandler/Hammett-style detective, that lone figure in the (largely ahistorical) mean streets of the urban jungle, into the midst of a far more highly charged historical backdrop, a different, more profoundly mean--indeed, evil--sort of mean-street neighborhood, the crossroads of history and tragedy. Mr. Kerr has set his detective on an Inferno-like trajectory that takes us deep into the heart of darkness.'

--Ron Rosenbaum, New York Observer

'Several elements account for the excellence of the Gunther books. First, Kerr is a fine novelist; in terms of narrative, plot, pace, and characterizations, he's in a league with John le Carre and Alan Furst. Moreover, he has done prodigious research into an era that ended well before he was born. The political, historical, military, and cultural details feel absolutely authentic. If you want a sense of what Nazi Germany was like, day to day, not many novels equal these. Finally, Kerr was truly inspired to place a detective-turned-private-eye at work in Nazi Germany. Private eyes investigate crimes, and where in human history can we find more cosmic crimes than those of the Hitler era? The question was whether Kerr would be equal to the challenge he set for himself. He has been. . . . One of the bright spots in this always readable, often troubling novel is the suggestion, near the end, that Kerr's good German will return again.'

--Patrick Anderson, The Washington Post

'Because he never had any illusions to begin with, Gunther is the ideal narrator for Kerr's bleak tale of the dirty deals made by victors and vanquished alike. Having learned that there's no way to distinguish 'the one from the other,' the cynical P.I. has the moral clarity to see through the deceit and hypocrisy of both friend and foe. He's the right kind of hero for his time--and ours.'

--Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

'It is to be sincerely hoped that a very large number of readers buy this book so that Mr. Kerr won't be tempted to abandon Bernie Gunther again, and that his adventures will continue for many years. Even if the author wants to torture his hero, he shouldn't do it to his readers.'

--Otto Penzler, The New York Sun

'No novelist 'gets' Germany and Europe before, during, and after World War II as well as Mr. Kerr, not even Alan Furst. . . . There seems to be little of which Mr. Kerr is not in command--noirish turns of phrase ('His teeth were big and yellow, as if he usually ate grass for dinner'), pacing, atmosphere, story, and historical facts and events.'

--Roger K. Miller, The Washington Times

'Kerr's book is his spectacular follow-up to his extraordinarily brilliant Berlin Noir trilogy. Kerr is the only bona fide heir to Raymond Chandler that I have ever come across; his German private detective Bernie Gunther would have been respected by Philip Marlowe and the two of them would have enjoyed sitting down at a bar and talking. One of the things that is so amazing about Kerr's four Bernie Gunther novels, to me, is that while the books are ostensibly hard-boiled mysteries, they gave me a glimpse into the incomprehensible horrors of the Second World War and the Holocaust in much the same way D. M. Thomas' The White Hotel and Spiegelman's Maus once did. For me they are all works of art that for a moment enabled me to grasp the unimaginable, before my mind clouded over and returned to the safety of the quotidian.'

--Jonathan Ames, Salon.com Book Awards

'Kerr's stylish noir writing makes every page a joy to read.'

--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

'Grim and gripping, with the author's customary sure-handedness in evidence.'--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

'Once more, Kerr demonstrates his mastery of a time well-mined in fiction but still rife for exploration.'

--Sarah Weinman, The Baltimore Sun

'Kerr's expertly plotted tale glistens with period detail and punchily cynical asides. A-.'-- Entertainment Weekly

'A welcome return [of Bernie Gunther] . . . A somber, melancholy, compelling work, The One from the Other stretches the notion of entertaining fiction to [the] breaking point. . . . Philip Kerr impressively sustains the novel's parched, opportunistic, bottomlessly compromised world. Where next for Bernie Gunther?'

--The Times Literary Supplement (London)

'It is a highly entertaining book, imaginatively conceived and smartly executed. Although it stands as a remarkable work of historical fiction, fans of hard-boiled detective stories will not be disappointed.'

--Historical Novels Review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip Kerr is the author of seventeen previous novels, but perhaps most importantly, the four featuring Bernie Gunther--The One from the Other and the Berlin Noir trilogy (March Violets, The Pale Criminal, and A German Requiem). He also wrote the cult classic A Philosophical Investigation and five bestselling children's books (as P. B. Kerr). Kerr was chosen early in his career as one of Granta magazine's Best Young British Novelists and was hailed by Salman Rushdie as 'a brilliantly innovative thriller-writer.' Born in Edinburgh, he now lives in London and Cornwall with his family.

Copyright (c) Philip Kerr, 2006

All rights reserved

FOR JANE