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Content snapshot
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Violence
Very heavy
A mass grave investigation; the Eastern Front setting involves extreme violence; the Katyn massacre
Language
Some
Some strong language
Sexual Content
Barely any
Mild content
Substance Use
Some
Heavy drinking; the war's particular mechanisms for drinking
Emotional Intensity
Very heavy
The specific moral weight of being asked to investigate a crime by people who are themselves committing crimes on a larger scale; Bernie's exhausted pragmatism in the face of wholesale atrocity
What this book is about
Bernie Gunther is sent to Smolensk in 1943 to investigate a mass grave found by German forces in the Katyn Forest — thousands of Polish officers murdered by the Soviets in 1940. The Germans want to use the massacre as propaganda; Bernie's job is to make sure the investigation holds up. Philip Kerr's eighth Bernie Gunther novel is the most historically weighty of the series — the Katyn massacre was a genuine crime that the Soviets denied for decades — and using it as a crime scene gives Bernie a case where both sides are guilty and the concept of justice is essentially meaningless.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
eighth Bernie Gunther novel by Philip Kerr; Katyn massacre investigation
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