Bernie Gunther is the ideal narrator for Philip Kerr` bleak tale of the dirty deals made by victors and vanquished alike in post-war Germany. Having learned that there`s no way to distinguish `the one from the other`, the cynical has the moral clarity to see through the deceit and hypocrisy of both friend and is Munich, in the year 1949. Amid the chaos of defeat, it`s home to all the backstabbing intrigue that prospers in the aftermath of war. A place where a private eye can find a lot of not-quite-reputable work: cleaning up the Nazi past of well-to-do locals, abetting fugitives in the flight abroad, and sorting out rival claims to stolen goods. It`s work that fills Bernie with disgust - but it also fills his sorely depleted wallet. Then a woman seeks him out. Her husband has disappeared. She`s not looking to get him back - he`s a wanted man who ran one of the most vicious concentration camps in Poland. She just wants confirmation that he`s dead. It`s a simple enough job. But in post-war Germany, nothing is