[sufue]

I like historical mysteries, but have never run into Philip Kerr, perhaps because I tend to like really old historicals, or perhaps because these look a teeny bit thriller-ish, but in any case, the first title in Kerr's much nominated/awarded Bernie Gunther series, March Violets, has dropped to £0.99, and it looks pretty interesting, so I'm going to give it a try.

link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/March-Viole...dp/B01CD2AN72/

Spoiler:

'One of the greatest anti-heroes ever written' LEE CHILD

Brutal ex-convicts or the Nazi elite - in Bernie Gunther's world it's hard to tell who are the real gangsters. Hard-boiled noir thriller for fans of Raymond Chandler and John le Carré

Ex-Berlin cop and private detective Bernie Gunther has seen his share of bad guys. But when the worst guys of all are the ones running the show, it's much harder to stay out of their reach.

Hired by a wealthy industrialist to investigate the murder of his daughter and her husband in an apparent botched robbery, Bernie soon finds himself drawn into the complex - not to mention lethal - internal politics and corruption of the Nazi party. When Hermann Goering himself calls Bernie in with a task for him that throws his existing case into a whole new light, he must weigh up his hatred of the Nazis against his desire to stay alive.

added: Just checking out the series a bit more, I note that most of the titles are brutally expensive in the US, like $10 and up, but the sixth title, If the Dead Rise Not, which, per SYKM, won the 2009 Historical Dagger Award, is only $1.99.
link: https://www.amazon.com/If-Dead-Rise-...dp/B0030CVRFM/

Spoiler:

Detective Bernie Gunther navigates two corrupt regimes in this “richly satisfying mystery...that evokes the noir sensibilities of Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald while breaking new ground of its own”(Los Angeles Times).

Berlin, 1934. Former policeman Bernie Gunther, now a hotel detective, finds himself caught between warring factions of the Nazi apparatus as Hitler and Avery Brundage, the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, connive to soft-pedal Nazi anti-Semitism before the 1936 Olympiad...

Havana, 1954. Batista, aided by the CIA, has just seized power; Castro is in prison; and the American Mafia is gaining a stranglehold on Cuba’s exploding gaming and prostitution industries. Bernie, after being kicked out of Buenos Aires, has resurfaced with a relatively peaceful new life. But he discovers that he cannot truly outrun his past when he collides with an old love and a vicious killer from his Berlin days...