In one big paperback you get the complete berlin trilogy march violets the pale criminal and a german requiem this is noir at its best taking his cues from chandler but making them its own kerr takes us into berlin 1936. The pale criminal is a historical detective novel and the second in the berlin noir trilogy of bernhard gunther novels written by philip kerr. You cant blame a guy for having a bleak outlook on life in late 1930s berlin and the misogynistic attitude was what it was in round two of bernies adventures the pale criminal i found him much harder to stomach its not just the bedding of women during sex crimes investigations that got. The pale criminal it is 1938 and bernie gunther is back on the mean streets of berlin with his new partner bruno stahlecker another ex police officer but on a seemingly straightforward stakeout bruno is killed and bernie suddenly finds himself tapped for a much bigger job. Hard hitting fast paced and unfailingly witty the pale criminal is philip kerrs second novel it is a powerful exploration of the occult side of nazism and a skillful evocation of the social tensions that pervaded prewar berlin