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JAMESBJOHNSON
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THE PALE CRIMINAL by Philip Kerr.
Its the 2nd volume of Kerr's BERLIN NOIR TRILOGY.
Private detective Bernie Gunther is hired by a wealthy publisher to find the man blackmailing her homosexual son. In 1938 Nazi Germany homosexuality gets you 5 years of hard labor in a concentration camp. Ma doesn't want that for Sonny. Gunther finds the blackmailer, and as he's about to take care of business Gunther is summoned to Gestapo headquarters where Heydrich twists his arm to find a serial killer who murders German school girls.
I almost guessed the identity of the serial killer but missed the mark by inches.
Its all very violent and gruesome, and the seamless plot weaves plenty of historical factoids into the story. It's also homophobic in a raw and disturbing way. The Gestapo arrests a homosexual, forces him to dress as a female, helps him with his make-up, and tosses him in a cell-block reserved for its most sadistic criminals. Its a queer sorta feeding frenzy. I loved it. 5 stars.
Its the 2nd volume of Kerr's BERLIN NOIR TRILOGY.
Private detective Bernie Gunther is hired by a wealthy publisher to find the man blackmailing her homosexual son. In 1938 Nazi Germany homosexuality gets you 5 years of hard labor in a concentration camp. Ma doesn't want that for Sonny. Gunther finds the blackmailer, and as he's about to take care of business Gunther is summoned to Gestapo headquarters where Heydrich twists his arm to find a serial killer who murders German school girls.
I almost guessed the identity of the serial killer but missed the mark by inches.
Its all very violent and gruesome, and the seamless plot weaves plenty of historical factoids into the story. It's also homophobic in a raw and disturbing way. The Gestapo arrests a homosexual, forces him to dress as a female, helps him with his make-up, and tosses him in a cell-block reserved for its most sadistic criminals. Its a queer sorta feeding frenzy. I loved it. 5 stars.
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