The Pale Criminal

The Pale Criminal

First edition
Author Philip Kerr
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Berlin Noir
Genre Crime, Detective, Historical mystery
Publisher Viking Press, London
Publication date
 1990
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 274 pp (Hardback edition)
ISBN ISBN 0-670-82433-X
OCLC 21653181
823/.914 20
LC Class PR6061.E784 P3 1990
Preceded by March Violets
Followed by A German Requiem

The Pale Criminal is a historical detective novel and the second in the Berlin Noir trilogy of Bernhard Gunther novels written by Philip Kerr.

Plot overview

Set in 1938, two years after the events of March Violets Bernhard (Bernie) Gunther has taken Bruno Stahlecker, another ex-police officer, as his partner. The two have been working on a straightforward homosexual blackmail case when Stahlecker is killed on a stakeout and Bernie is tapped for a much bigger job. Obergruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich forces Gunther to look for a serial sex murderer who is killing blonde Aryan teenage girls in Berlin and making fools of the police. Gunther has no choice but to accept the temporary post of Kriminalkommissar in Heydrich's state Security Service, with a team of men underneath him that he's not sure he can trust any more than his superiors. Gunther finds himself wading through the filthy underbelly of the Nazi hierarchy in search of the man or men who are not only killing young girls but also killed his partner.

Characters

Publication history