Review: Prague Fatale (Bernard Gunther #8)

Title: Prague Fatale (Bernard Gunther #8)
Author: Philip Kerr
Length: 416 pages
Publisher: A Marian Wood Book/Putnam
Genre: Historical fiction, Mystery, Political thriller
Source: ARC from Goodreads Giveaway
My Rating:
Synopsis (from Goodreads): September 1941: Reinhard Heydrich is hosting a gathering to celebrate his appointment as Reichsprotector of Czechoslovakia. He has chosen his guests with care. All are high-ranking Party members and each is a suspect in a crime as yet to be committed: the murder of Heydrich himself.
     Indeed, a murder does occur, but the victim is a young adjutant on Heydrich’s staff, found dead in his room, the door and windows bolted from the inside. Anticipating foul play, Heydrich had already ordered Bernie Gunther to Prague. After more than a decade in Berlin's Kripo, Bernie had jumped ship as the Nazis came to power, setting himself up as a private detective. But Heydrich, who managed to subsume Kripo into his own SS operations, has forced Bernie back to police work. Now, searching for the killer, Gunther must pick through the lives of some of the Reich’s most odious officials.
     A perfect locked-room mystery. But because Philip Kerr is a master of the sleight of hand, Prague Fatale is also a tense political thriller: a complex tale of spies, partisan terrorists, vicious infighting, and a turncoat traitor situated in the upper reaches of the Third Reich.

My Review: I'll start off by saying that I enjoyed this book. If possible I would actually give it 2.5 instead of 2. I have not read any previous Bernie Gunther novels but did not feel as if I had to to read this book. There was obviously some history I was missing between Heydrich and Gunther, but it did not really detract from the story. 

The mystery was an interesting one with some good twists and turns.  There is also a side romance involving Gunther and a woman named Arianne.  However that is all it was, a side story.  I didn't feel that it added much to the story though it did serve as a means to help tie up some loose ends.


This story kept me interested but not "on the edge of my chair" interested. I also felt that the story was a little uneven in it's pace. With that said I would definitely say that this book was worth my time and I would be willing to try reading something else by Philip Kerr.