ABOUT
THE BOOK

Those who have read Philip Kerr’s series know that, Gunther’s adventures serve as a vivid and engaging tour guide to life in Germany during the years that the Nazi party was in power.

1956, the French Riviera. Bernie Gunther is working as concierge at the Grand Hotel, St. Jean Cap Ferrat, when his past walks through the door in the shape of former SS captain Harold Hennig – a man responsible for the deaths of thousands, among them a woman Bernie loved.

Hennig plans to blackmail the famous writer Somerset Maugham. On a visit to Maugham’s magnificent villa, Bernie learns of a compromising photograph that reveals far more about Maugham’s life than his notorious sexuality. It shows a group of naked men beside a swimming pool – one of whom is the infamous spy Guy Burgess, who, with Donald Maclean, has defected to Moscow. Hennig has the photograph and is demanding €50,000 for its release.

Bernie is reluctant to become Maugham’s agent but his former life has made him as vulnerable to blackmail as Maugham himself. And he can’t pass up this chance to revenge himself on Hennig.