The lady from Zagreb

Brilliant! A fantastic return to form for Bernie Gunther and Philip Kerr, after a few duds. I was glad to see Bernie working an interesting case, with interesting characters in interesting places. After the last few, I was afraid Kerr was just going through the motions, but he reached deep and created an touching, horrifying and ultimately satisfying book.

Bernie tells this in a flashback fashion, from about 10 years after the events in the book. He is in Cannes at a film festival and is watching some movies starring Dalia Dresner, a (fictional) star German actress. He thinks back to the days when he helped her out while falling in love.

In this one, Goebbels himself asks Bernie to give a talk at a crime conference in Germany. Here he meets a few Swiss officials and a rich novelist, while coming across a murder (natch). Although it doesn't involve him directly right off, you know it will eventually.

After his successful talk, Goebbels now asks him to help out Dalia Dresner, a protege of Goebbels whom he wants to star in his next movie. Dalia will only agree to starring in the movie if they find her father, last seen in Yugoslavia. Bernie meets with Dalia and is immediately smitten, not the least because she was nude sun bathing when he first came across her.

The relationship, not surprisingly deepens and they quickly, yet believably, end up in bed, despite her having a husband, and Goebbels warning against it. It's never really clear how much Dalia is acting and how much is heartfelt, but the scenes between the two play out with a sympathy and warmness rarely found in Bernie's life.

So Bernie heads off to Yugoslavia and things get real ugly there. The partisan battling there is brutal and savage, and he does well to avoid getting too involved in the imbroglio. He is guided by a couple of interesting characters, which make these scenes some of my favorite non-Berlin actions in all of Bernie's books.

When he comes back, he heads off to Switzerland to tell Dalia of his discoveries. He is forced into a marriage of "inconvenience" but that doesn't slow down the torrid affair when he meets Dalia again. There, another mystery is uncovered and he is forced to uncover and face up to some equally inconvenient truths.

The book wraps up with Bernie back in Cannes and meeting up with some other characters from the story. The mixture of pathos, world weariness and heartache continues to the very end.

Like I said, a tremendous addition to the Bernie Gunther saga. Usually, when he is abroad, the action feels forced, but this time, the trips to both Yugoslavia and Switzerland are full of interesting characters and dicey situations. The trip to Yugoslavia is especially grim, as the internecine warfare there is gruesome, bloody and savage.

And I really loved Bernie's relationship with Dalia. While, like I said, her motives remain somewhat murky, he goes into it with eyes wide open and falls into it with open arms. The chapter of her seducing him the first time is beautiful. Maybe it's a bit of male fantasy, I suppose, but it is told so honestly and deeply from Bernie's point of view, I couldn't help but smile and enjoy the ride.

Kerr's historical postscript is interesting in and of itself. He thanks his publisher for insisting on the 10th Gunther saga and he expressed some doubts of seeing Gunther again, but I'm so glad he did. This is probably my favorite since at least #6 ([b:If The Dead Rise Not|6421925|If The Dead Rise Not (Bernard Gunther, #6)|Philip Kerr|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1318241210s/6421925.jpg|6611144]), maybe even since the original classic trilogy. Go read it now!