FIELD GRAY: PHILIP KERR

This is the seventh in the series of Bernie Gunther novels by British writer Kerr, all set in Germany, from the Pre Nazi period to the aftermath of WW II, into the 1950's, at least that's as far as I have gotten at the moment.  And this is my favorite so far, though I went back and looked at a couple of reviews of his previous novels and I also mentioned that they were my favorites so far, so he seems to be getting better and better.

Bernie begins the novel in Cuban where he has been working for a wealthy casino owner.  He gets in trouble, is forced to flee from the island, along with a young woman who has murdered a corrupt police office.  Unfortunately, their boat gets stopped by the US Coast Guard and both are detained by the government.  Bernie gets locked up, not for the first time, nor the last, as the US wants to understand Bernie's role in Nazi Germany.

Like his previous novels, this book blends Bernie's past, as a detective in Kripo, a house dick at the Adlon hotel, and the wearing of 'field gray' as an SS officer, albeit against his will.  In previous books he has railed against the Nazis, the Russians, in this book, we find that the Americans, their methods are not far behind.  He is at first whisked off to Gitmo for interrogation, he assumes about his connection with Meyer Lansky, the gangster who runs the Cuban casinos.  But he is then flown to Castle Williams, a military prison on Governor's Island.  There, the Americans casual brutality, makes Bernie realize they aren't much different from any of the others.  He is then flown to Landsberg prison in Germany, where he is housed with other Nazis and interrogated by both the Americans, then French, until he realizes they are after an old acquaintance, now head of the Stasi in East Germany, Erich Mielke.  And we learn the back story of their relationship, how he saved Mielke from the SS after an assassination back in 1941.  Later, he is taken by the French to a camp after the war to identify a prisoner they think is Mielke, but once again, he says he does not recognize Mielke, saving his life.

Towards the end, he seems to collaborate with the Americans, setting up a trap for Mielke, a coup for the Americans because he is a powerful figure in East Germany.  But by now, Bernie is as disillusioned with the Amis as he was with the Nazis, and we get a surprise ending.  He sets up the Americans and work with Mielke, to reunite with his wife and disappear in Prague, the next book of the series.

The novel ends with the following quotation: "In some ways I admire them (the Americans), but I also dislike the way they don't ever live up to their own ideals.  I think I might like the Amis a lot more if they were like everyone else.  One might forgive them more.  But they preach about the magnificence of their democracy and the enduring power of their constitutional freedom, while at the same time they're trying to fuck your wife and steal your watch (figuratively)."