If the Dead Rise Not: An electrifying World War Two espionage thriller

Philip Kerr

Apr 2010 · Hachette UK

About this ebook

'One of the greatest anti-heroes ever written' LEE CHILD

As Berlin prepares for the 1936 Olympic Games, Bernie is caught between violently opposing factions in a story that comes full circle in 1950s' Cuba.

Berlin 1934. The Nazis have been in power for just eighteen months but already Germany has seen some frightening changes. As the city prepares to host the 1936 Olympics, Jews are being expelled from all German sporting organisations - a blatant example of discrimination.

Forced to resign as a homicide detective with Berlin's Criminal Police, Bernie is now house detective at the famous Adlon Hotel. Two bodies are found - one a businessman and the other a Jewish boxer. As Bernie digs to unearth the truth, he discovers a vast labour and construction racket designed to take advantage of the huge sums the Nazis are spending to showcase the new Germany to the world. It is a plot that finds its dramatic and violent conclusion twenty years later in pre-revolutionary Cuba.

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PRAISE FOR PHILIP KERR

'Kerr leads us through the facts of history and the vagaries of human nature' TOM HANKS

'One of the greatest master story-tellers in English' ALAN FURST

'One of the most memorable and original characters' THE SUNDAY TIMES

'Bitterly, darkly funny' SUNDAY HERALD

Ratings and reviews

Ofttimes, the plot seems to wander around aimlessly but it ties together nicely in the end. Another enjoyable outing for fans of Kerr's antihero.

About the author

Philip Kerr has written over thirty books of which the best-known are the internationally renowned and bestselling Bernie Gunther series. The sixth book in the series, If the Dead Rise Not, won the CWA Historical Dagger. His other works include several standalone thrillers, non-fiction and an acclaimed series for younger readers, The Children of the Lamp. Philip died in March 2018, days before the publication of his 13th Bernie Gunther thriller, Greeks Bearing Gifts. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature shortly before his death.