Philip Kerr

Philip Kerr was synonymous with his series of novels featuring fictional detective Bernie Gunther. Over fourteen stories – beginning with his classic Berlin Noir trilogy – Kerr brilliantly evokes a murky world of secrets, corruption and lies, taking Gunther through time from Nazi-era Berlin to a nascent post-war Europe.

Along the way, he won many plaudits, not least being a select member of the now-legendary 1993 Granta list of Best Young British Novelists, and built a devoted fanbase. Aside from the Gunther sequence, Kerr wrote a number of standalone novels and ventured into children’s literature, but his stories featuring the dark underbelly of Europe reigned supreme. Completed shortly before his death, Greeks Bearing Gifts – the thirteenth Bernie Gunther mystery – was published in 2018, with another novel in the series, Metropolis arriving in April 2019.