Berlin, 1928. Hyperinflation may be over but the effects from the First World War are still lingering in the broken people who live in Berlin and the fractured German psyche. The Weimar government clings tenuously to power, communists and the rising Nazi party clash daily in the streets for the future of the country, and decadence is everywhere. Amidst the chaos operates a serial killer who is murdering and scalping prostitutes - borderline alcoholic and newly-promoted homicide detective Bernie Gunther is on the case!
The premise of this novel really intrigued me - I love crime thrillers and history is a lifelong fascination, especially early 20th century European history, because of the two World Wars - so this one called to me, despite me not knowing anything about Philip Kerr’s writing or hearing anything about his books from anyone. And I’m so glad I gave Metropolis a chance because it turned out to be such a brilliant novel.
Metropolis is Kerr’s final book. It was published posthumously in 2019 after his death in 2018. And while it’s billed as “A Bernie Gunther Thriller”, with the inside cover showing 14 novels featuring Kerr’s German copper, Metropolis can easily be read as a standalone novel - I had no trouble getting into it without reading anything else beforehand.
Having glanced at the other titles in this series, Kerr seemed to have jumped around quite a bit in the chronology of this character, setting his stories between the 1920s and 1950s. Which explains why this was may be the 14th Bernie Gunther book but, chronologically, is set near the start of Bernie’s career.
Kerr does a few things simultaneously that are equally impressive. Firstly he’s an excellent storyteller, getting the gruesome tale of a brutal serial killer going immediately so that it’s exciting to read from the beginning. But he also places the reader in the era instantly, giving it life and vivacity with page after page of convincing detail, so that you feel you’re walking around 1928 Berlin with Bernie and get a sense of what it must have been like to live during this time. The sense of danger, aimlessness, flux, despair - he provides an arresting atmosphere and remarkable sense of place as only a master writer can.
I have studied Weimar Germany at school but didn’t realise how decadent it was. That Berlin had so many gay bars, that so many trans people were around - it feels like a very modern setting for being 100 years ago! And all the more troubling that a liberal society could become so suddenly fascistic so quickly, hopefully not serving as an indicator of where our supposedly progressive and modern culture could go if things got too bad.
This is a genre novel but it’s far too accomplished to be denigrated as such. It’s an inspired historical novel as well, but that label doesn’t quite fit either. Metropolis is as much literary fiction as anything that would get nominated for literary prizes, but it’s presented in the slick mainstream crime fiction way of so many other forgettable novels (a canny marketing trick I’m sure to boost sales) so that it doesn’t stand out as exceptional as it should.
One of the characters that Bernie encounters is Thea von Harbou, screenwriter and wife of Fritz Lang, the German director of the landmark film Metropolis, although this is only one nod to the title of the book as the novel is divided into three, each part introduced by a panel from Otto Dix’s triptych Metropolis. The movie angle is a cute subplot that sees von Harbou researching Bernie’s serial killer case for material for what will become Lang’s other major film, 1931’s M, about a child murderer.
But it’s more than just an idea of the times that Kerr produces - there’s a familiarity here that transcends nationality. The way that Kerr writes his various characters - from Bernie’s wonderful bosses at the Alexanderplatz (the German equivalent of Scotland Yard) to the working classes - makes them seem like they could fit easily into a London story from this era as well (just change the names). It shows the reader that the German people have more in common with the rest of us than one might suspect, and, had things gone differently in the First World War, there but for the grace of god goes Britain, France or even America.
I wouldn’t have loved this book as much though if the story hadn’t been great, and it is. A serial killer on the loose, a young murder detective with something to prove on the trail - it’s wonderfully entertaining stuff. As things start to feel like they’re slowing down, another killer emerges - this one of disabled veterans - to enliven the story some more.
For all that though, I did feel like parts of the novel were a bit slow. The parts where Bernie goes undercover as a disabled veteran or “klutz” (I finally understand the slang term now) weren’t as compelling, and his relationship with the theatre woman felt pointless. I also would’ve liked to have had a cameo from Fritz Lang too. But then the novel is also almost 400 pages long so to have a nearly consistently engaging story go for that long is pretty damn good going!
Metropolis is my first Philip Kerr novel but definitely won’t be my last - it is a fantastic read. It’s always a delight to discover a great writer who wrote as much as Kerr did as it means there’s so much to delve into and enjoy. If you’re a crime thriller fan or want to read an engrossing, albeit very dark, story set during this historical era, Metropolis is a must-read and Philip Kerr is a writer well worth exploring.
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