Philip Kerr

This article is about the writer. For politicians, journalists and diplomats, see Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian .

Philip Kerr (2014)

Philip Kerr [ ˈkeər , ˈkɜː ] (born February 22, 1956 in Edinburgh , Scotland , † March 23, 2018 in London ) was a British crime , thriller and fantasy author. He received the German Crime Prize for his novel The Wittgenstein Program and his high-tech thriller Game Over .

Life

Kerr studied law and legal philosophy at the University of Birmingham and then worked in an advertising agency. In 1989 his first novel March Violets (German fire in Berlin ) was published, which is set in Berlin in the 1930s, a mixture of historical novel and thriller, which received international recognition and in France with the Prix ​​du Roman d'Aventures and Prix ​​Mystère de la critique was awarded. From the debut, the crime trilogy Berlin Noir developed around the private detective and former chief detective Bernhard Gunther.

Kerr continued this series with the novels The One from the Other (German The Janus Project ), A Quiet Flame (German The Last Experiment ) and If The Dead Rise Not (German The Adlon Conspiracy ), published between 2006 and 2009 . With the prehistory built into these novels, they tell the life of Bernhard Gunther from 1932 when he was with the Berlin criminal police before the Nazis came to power, about his escape on the rat lines to Buenos Aires (1952) until his arrival in Cuba in 1954 . In 2010 another volume was published with the English title Field Gray (Eng. Mission Walhalla ), in which the protagonist from Cuba ends up in the Friedland transit camp . The eighth book in the series, which was published in 2011 under the original title Prague Fatale (German Bohemian Blood ), deals primarily with the events surrounding the Prague assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich and is set between 1941 and 1942. A Man Without Breath was released in 2013 . Events in the context of the investigation into the mass graves in the Katyn forest in 1943 are described here. In The Lady From Zagreb (2015), Bernie Gunther lives on the Côte d'Azur and recalls an actress and related commissions from Goebbels and Schellenberg in Croatia and Switzerland. The Other Side Of Silence was published in 2016 , and the twelfth novel Prussian Blue was published in 2017 and the thirteenth novel in 2018 was Greeks Bearing Gifts . In 2019, the fourteenth volume in the series, Metropolis , will appear posthumously , which the author was able to complete before his death in early 2018.

Several of the people who appear as secondary characters in the acts of the novels about Bernhard Gunther are not fictional, such as Ernst Gennat and Bernhard Weiß as well as Adolf Eichmann , Horst Carlos Fuldner or Josef Mengele .

Since 2004 he has been writing as PB Kerr on the fantasy children 's book series Children of the Lamp about the magical twins John and Philippa Gaunt from New York, who were twelve years old at the beginning and who, through all sorts of strange events, realize that they are by no means normal children, but rather descendants of the Djinn, "children of the lamp", like the ghosts from the Arabian Nights. In 2009 the book Secret Mission Moon came out on the market.

Kerr lived with his wife, the writer Jane Thynne , and their three children in London , where he died of bladder cancer on March 23, 2018 at the age of 62 .

Awards

• 1993: Prix ​​du Roman d'Aventures for L'été de cristal (German fire in Berlin )
• 1994: Prix ​​Mystère de la critique in the International category for L'été de cristal (German fire in Berlin )
• 1995: German Crime Prize in the International category for The Wittgenstein Program
• 1995: Bad Sex in Fiction Award for Gridiron (German Game Over )
• 1997: German Crime Prize in the International category for Game Over
• 2009: Prix ​​du polar européen for La mort, entre autres (German: The Janus Project )
• 2009: Premio Internacional de Novela Negra RBA for If the Dead Rise Not (Eng. The Adlon Conspiracy )
• 2009: Dagger Award in the category of best historical detective novel for If the Dead Rise Not (Eng. The Adlon Conspiracy )
• 2010: Barry Award in the category Best British Detective Novel for If the Dead Rise Not (Eng. The Adlon Conspiracy )
• 2014: Palle Rosenkrantz Prize for En mand uden åndedræt (German wolf hunger )

Works (selection)

As Philip Kerr

Bernhard Gunther series

• Berlin Noir . Penguin Books, London 1993, ISBN 0-14-023170-6 (Contents: March Violet , The pale criminal and A German Requiem ).
  • The Berlin trilogy . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2007, ISBN 978-3-499-24465-0 (Contents: Fire in Berlin , In the wake of the dark forces and old friends, new enemies ).
• Vol. 1 - March Violets . Penguin Books, London 1989, ISBN 0-14-011466-1 .
  • Fire in Berlin. A case for Bernhard Gunther . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1995, ISBN 3-499-22827-0 .
• Vol. 2 - The Pale Criminal . Penguin Books, London 1990, ISBN 0-14-011467-X .
  • In the wake of the dark forces. A case for Bernhard Gunther . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1995, ISBN 3-499-22828-9 .
• Vol. 3 - A German Requiem . Penguin Books, London 1991, ISBN 0-14-200402-2 .
  • Old friends, new enemies. A case for Bernhard Gunther . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1996, ISBN 3-499-22829-7 .
• Vol. 4 - The One from the Other . Quercus Press, London 2006, ISBN 978-1-84724-292-1 .
  • The Janus project . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2007, ISBN 978-3-499-24607-4 .
• Vol. 5 - A Quiet Flame . Quercus Press, London 2009, ISBN 978-1-84724-558-8 .
  • The last experiment . Wunderlich, Reinbek 2009, ISBN 978-3-8052-0869-7 .
• Vol. 6 - If The Dead Rise Not . Quercus Press, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-84916-193-0 .
  • The Adlon conspiracy . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2011, ISBN 978-3-499-25378-2 .
• Vol. 7 - Field Gray . Quercus Press, London 2011, ISBN 978-0-85738-407-2 .
  • Mission Valhalla . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2011, ISBN 978-3-499-25702-5 .
• Vol. 8 - Prague Fatale . Quercus Press, London 2011, ISBN 978-1-84916-416-0 .
  • Bohemian blood . Wunderlich 2014, ISBN 978-3-8052-5042-9 .
• Vol. 9 - A Man without Breath . Quercus Press, London 2013, ISBN 978-1-78087-624-5 .
  • Wolf hunger . Wunderlich 2014, ISBN 978-3-644-21471-2 .
• Vol. 10 - The Lady From Zagreb . Quercus Press, London 2015. ISBN 978-1-78206-582-1 .
  • Operation Zagreb . Wunderlich 2017, ISBN 978-3-8052-5103-7 .
• Vol. 11 - The Other Side of Silence . Quercus Press, London 2016.
  • Cold peace . Wunderlich 2018, ISBN 978-3-8052-0330-2 .
• Vol. 12 - Prussian Blue. Quercus Press, London 2017, ISBN 978-1-78429-648-3 .
  • Berliner Blau , Wunderlich 2019, ISBN 978-3-8052-0329-6
• Volume 13 - Greeks Bearing Gifts . Quercus Press, London 2018. ISBN 978-1-78429-652-0 .
  • Trojan horses , Wunderlich 2020, ISBN 978-3-8052-0046-2
• Vol. 14 - Metropolis . Quercus Press, London 2019.

Scott Manson series

• Vol. 1 - January Window . Head of Zeus Ltd., London 2014, ISBN 1-78408-154-X .
  • The winter transfer . Tropics, 2015, ISBN 978-3-608-50138-4 .
• Vol. 2 - Hand of God . Head of Zeus Ltd., London 2015.
  • The hand of God . Tropen, 2016, ISBN 978-3-608-50139-1 .
• Vol. 3 - The False Nine . Head of Zeus Ltd., London 2015.
  • The wrong nine . Tropics, 2016, ISBN 978-3-608-50219-0 .

more books

• A Philosophical Investigation . Random House, London 1992, ISBN 0-09-917821-4 .
  • The Wittgenstein program . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1994, ISBN 978-3-499-25312-6 .
• Dead Meat . Vintage Press, London 1993, ISBN 0-09-977271-X .
  • Laws of greed . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1994, ISBN 3-499-23145-X .
• Gridiron . Vintage Press, London 1995, ISBN 0-09-959431-5 .
  • Game over . Wunderlich, Reinbek 1996, ISBN 3-499-26439-0 .
• Esau . Vintage Press, London 1997, ISBN 0-09-975601-3 .
  • Esau . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1997, ISBN 3-499-26379-3 .
  • Esau. Radio play . The Hörverlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-89584-870-0 . (2 CDs, read by Nina Petri , Elmar Wepper and others)
• A five year plan . Arrow Books, London 1998, ISBN 0-09-925718-1 .
  • The plan , Rowohlt, Reinbek 1998, ISBN 3-499-26440-4 .
• The Second Angel . Orion Publ., London 1998, ISBN 0-7528-2622-0 .
  • The second angel . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2003, ISBN 3-499-26420-X .
• The shot . Orion Publ., London 2000, ISBN 0-7528-3386-3 .
  • The D-Day . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2000, ISBN 3-499-26441-2 .
• Dark matter. The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton . Crown Publ., London 2002, ISBN 0-609-60981-5 .
  • Newton's shadow . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2004, ISBN 3-499-23732-6 .
• Leverage . London 2004.
  • The coup . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2008, ISBN 978-3-499-23642-6 (EA Reinbek 2004)
  • The coup. Radio play . Christoph-Merian-Verlag, Basel 2008, ISBN 978-3-85616-391-4 (2 CDs).
• Hitler's Peace. A novel of the Second World War . Putnam, London 2005, ISBN 0-399-15269-5 .
  • The pact . Wunderlich, Reinbek 2008, ISBN 978-3-499-24206-9 (EA Reinbek 2006).
• Prayer . Quercus Publishing, London 2013, ISBN 1-78206-573-3 .
• The Winter Horses . 2014.
  • Winter horses . rororo rotfuchs, Reinbek 2015, ISBN 978-3-499-21715-9 .
• The Most Frightening Story Ever Told . Alfred A. Knopf 2016, ISBN 978-0-553-52209-9 .
  • The scariest story in the world . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2016, ISBN 978-3-499-21765-4 .
• Frederick the Great Detective . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2017, ISBN 978-3-499-21791-3 .

As PB Kerr

Children of the Lamp - Cycle ( The Children of the Djinn )

• Vol. 1 - The Akhenaten Adventure . Scholastic Press, London 2005, ISBN 0-439-95951-9 .
  • The Akhenaten Adventure . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2006, ISBN 3-499-21301-X (EA Reinbek 2004).
• Vol. 2 - The Blue Djinn of Babylon . Scholastic Press, London 2005, ISBN 0-439-95950-0 .
  • Trapped in the palace of Babylon . Translator: Ulli and Herbert Günther , 4th edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2011, ISBN 978-3-499-21302-1 .
• Vol. 3 - The Cobra King of Kathmandu . Scholastic Press, London 2006, ISBN 0-439-95958-6 .
  • The riddle of the ninth cobra . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2008, ISBN 978-3-499-21300-7 (EA Reinbek 2006).
• Vol. 4 - Day of the Djinn Warriors . Scholastic Press, London 2007, ISBN 978-1-4071-0476-8 .
  • Kidnapped into the kingdom of the Dongxi . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2009, ISBN 978-3-499-21451-6 (EA Reinbek 2007).
• Vol. 5 - The Eye of the Forest . Scholastic Press, London 2009, ISBN 978-1-4071-0387-7 .
  • The Inca's dark heritage . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2010, ISBN 978-3-499-21450-9 .
• Vol. 6 - The Five Fakirs of Faizabad . Scholastic Press, London 2011, ISBN 978-1-4071-0506-2 .
  • The spy in the Himalayas . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2012, ISBN 978-3-499-21591-9 (EA Reinbek 2010).
• Vol. 7 - Grave robbers of Genghis Khan . Scholastic Press, London 2012, ISBN 978-1-4071-1764-5 .
  • The crystals of Khan . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2013, ISBN 978-3-499-21634-3 .

Other works

• One small step . Simon & Schuster, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-84738-300-6 .
  • Secret mission moon . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2011, ISBN 978-3-499-21501-8 (EA Reinbek 2009).

Film with Philip Kerr

• 2017: Thrillers and the Third Reich, Director: Christoph Rüter, * Synopsis by Christoph Rüter Filmproduktion

Web links

Commons : Philip Kerr  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Philip Kerr in the catalog of the German National Library
• Philip Kerr in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Philip Kerr in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Richard Sandomir: Philip Kerr, 62, Author of 'Gunther' Crime Novels, Is Dead . In: New York Times of March 27, 2018, accessed March 30, 2018.
2. ↑ Hannah Summers: Philip Kerr, author of Bernie Gunther novels, dies aged 62 . In: The Guardian March 24, 2018, accessed March 24, 2018.
3. ↑ Danuta Kean: "Philip Kerr obituary" from March 25, 2018