In his final book, New York Times bestselling author Philip Kerr
treats readers to his beloved hero's origins, exploring Bernie Gunther's
first weeks on Berlin's Murder Squad.
Summer, 1928. Berlin, a city where nothing is verboten. In the night
streets, political gangs wander, looking for fights. Daylight reveals a
beleaguered populace barely recovering from the postwar inflation, often
jobless, reeling from the reparations imposed by the victors. At central
police HQ, the Murder Commission has its hands full. A killer is on the
loose, and though he scatters many clues, each is a dead end. It's
almost as if he is taunting the cops. Meanwhile, the press is having a
field day.
This is what Bernie Gunther finds on his first day with the Murder
Commisson. He's been taken on beacuse the people at the top have noticed
him--they think he has the makings of a first-rate detective. But not
just yet. Right now, he has to listen and learn.
Metropolis is a tour of a city in chaos: of its seedy sideshows and
sex clubs, of the underground gangs that run its rackets, and its
bewildered citizens--the lost, the homeless, the abandoned. It is Berlin
as it edges toward the new world order that Hitler will soo usher in.
And Bernie? He's a quick study and he's learning a lot. Including, to
his chagrin, that when push comes to shove, he isn't much better than
the gangsters in doing whatever her must to get what he wants.
