Hitler's Peace: gripping alternative history thriller from a global bestseller

Author of the rightly celebrated Bernie Gunther World War II and Cold War novels, Philip Kerr turns to a stand-alone story on the possibility of what might have happened at the conference of "The Big 3" - Stalin, Roosevelt and the junior partner, Church - in 1943 in Teheran. Roosevelt has invited the book's "hero", philosophy professor Willard Mayer to travel to the conference as an interpreter, after having him compile a report on the (then) alleged Soviet massacre of 5,000 Polish soldiers, now buried in Katyn Forest. Along the way, Willard meets various "real" people participating in actual historical events and uncovers what he believes is a conspiracy to assassinate Stalin.The truth, in this tale, is far more explosive. A twist in the book's final chapters will take the thriller reader's breath away.As always, Philip Kerr is spot on with his historical & political background while obviously enjoying a few thoughts of his own.Ultimately, he has produced a fine historical "faction" novel. The turn of events which occurs would stand history on its' head. But what if it really did happen?Some critics have said that the character Willard is difficult to warm to - and thereby miss the whole point of the story.It's not JUST a thriller. It's a mix of historical fact with some philosophising on the nature of how wars are conducted and the lengths to which politicians will go to produce the outcome which is best for their - and one would hope their country's - interests.

A truly magnificent read. As usual set in an intricate historically correct background, which only adds further richness to the plot. The characters are excellent and very real in some cases. The book has many twists and turns, and to be honest I couldn't put it down. The biggest twist comes towards the end. The plot is both realistic and plausible. This man can write and he doesn't always need Bernie Gunther to do it well. There is still the dry humour and subtle prods at various countries. I would always read another of his books.

This book not as fine as the rest of Philip Kerr's. I think the panorama which author tried to effect was too difficult and verisimilitude was lost just a bit. I cannot really say as I was born in 1938 in USA and did not get to Germany until the year before it was reunited and the wall had come down ...but I had a bit of trouble suspending disbelief, as they say today. ALL the rest of Kerr's books are more than terrific, some are masterworks. I would offer this: if you are a writer, read this and learn from a great writer's mistaken plot structure herein. A great writer can teach us something about literature even if he sags just a bit. GK

Many thanksDidn't arrive when it was promised but hey small beer! It arrived and that's the main thing.In good nick too.I adore being able to share previously loved books.

A very good novel from a wonderful author, now sadly departed (R.I.P). Great plot and brilliantly told.

A very good read. There's something in this book for all historical fiction buffs - both naval and aerial technology, references to real events, walk-on parts for real characters and a surprising twist in the tail. If the concluding events seem to accelerate the counterfactual story at the expense of recorded history, this can be excused by the completion of a satisfactory yarn with a proper beginning, middle and end. Highly recommended.

Great book with a very poor ending

I didn't see the main scene coming.

No one gets inside the Nazi regime better than Philip Kerr. No one imagines better the ruthless savagery of a regime dedicated to the war of all against all. In this stand alone tale, outside the Bernie Gunther series, the plot focuses on preparations for the Tehran Conference of 1943, when Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill began the discussions about how the world would look after the war. I will not reveal the essential surprise in the plot because that might diminish the reader's pleasure to know it in advance. I can only recommend Philip Kerr to you as the best fictional account of the inside machinations of the Third Reich and, in this book, the making of Allied policy toward that regime. Well researched, well written, just plausible, and highly entertaining. I enjoyed it.

I must admit being a huge fan of the Bernie Gunther stories. I was hoping with Kerr's excellent ability to bring alive Nazi Germany that this book would be a welcome addition my collection. Unfortunately the story in many ways falls flat. The story lacks Kerr's normally deft handling of facts and fiction, and becomes rather predictable. I cant help but give this book an average grade, especially since Kerr has done so much better in other novels.

Delivered as advised,and product was as advertised

Philip Kerr is a master of "What If?" history based fiction, and this was another excellent tour de force of the second world war. Intricately plotted, well-developed if not always likeable characters. A great read.

very good book, fiction with history fatcs

Very well researched, twisty and cynical plot, not that far-fetched ending but not that good either. A must read for all readers with an interest for contemporary history.

excellent du point de vue historique. Excellente intrigue policière. Le livre tient en haleine. Les considérations philosophiques sont les bienvenues. Style (en anglais) très original et très bon

First, Amazon should be ashamed of itself for false advertising; Bernie Gunther is not a part of this book. Second, although starting out in a somewhat dull manner, the plot proceeds and gets more interesting, page by page, that is until its ultra stupid, ludicrous, ridiculous denouement which I won't reveal for the masochists out there who will enjoy torturing themselves by reading this book.This is not the first book of Kerr's with what some might consider a questionable ending. A Man Without Breath also had a doubtful but still somewhat believable conclusion. Plus, any good work of fiction does require some suspension of belief. But here you about have to cease all normal brain function or know nothing about history, or both. In addition, the book is an insult to any intelligent and educated person, most certainly to the allied leadership of World War II, excluding Winston Churchill (who is not insulted!), and unreservedly to the men and women who fought to end the evil begun by Hitler, to say nothing about his victims.Kerr, in my opinion, has done himself a disservice with this book. His others, and I have read them all except for A Quiet Flame (which I intend to read along with his newest novel when it's available), are all winners, made all the better by Bernie Gunther's senses of humor and pathos, some of the same of which showed up in this novel through protagonist Willard Mayer. But, like the proverbial "Attaboy Award," they are not enough to overcome the obvious flaws and fantasies upon which Hitler's Peace is based.

"Hitler's Peace" revolves around what might really have transpired at the Teheran "Big Three" conference of 1943 among Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. Much of what took place is still unknown, and there are tantalizing suggestions of plotting and intrigue in the actual historical record.Germany was seeking a separate peace with one or another of its enemies. Each meanwhile worried about Germany's successfully doing so with someone else. And top Nazis clashed with each other over whether to make peace, as they also jockeyed for present or postwar position. Hovering over all of this is emerging knowledge about atrocities including the Holocaust, the Katyn massacre in Poland and Soviet treatment of German POWs after Stalingrad. This makes great fictional fodder, and Philip Kerr delivers with a maelstrom of intrigue.Kerr, author of the very fine "Berlin Noir" trilogy of detective stories set in Nazi and postwar Germany, centers the action here on Willard Mayer, an American professor now with the OSS and detailed first to do some research on Katyn for Roosevelt, and later to accompany him to the conference. Mayer discovers their entourage has been penetrated by a German agent.Mayer has a politically checkered past. Descended from German society on one side, he moves easily into high Nazi circles and works with the German Abwehr in the late 1930s, but only after his philosophical leanings have already brought him into Communist circles in the early 1930s in Vienna, leading him to the Soviet NKVD. And then he chucks it all in short order to move back to the States and, within a few years, get spotted by the OSS.Is that all clear? It seems unlikely that an American would so effortlessly rise up into a sensitive Nazi position. And in the real world, the NKVD, having enlisted him, would never let him quit so blithely; Stalin's spies would have hunted him down. And the OSS, meanwhile, sends him to the Oval Office with no idea of any of this?Kerr, with his detective story background, writes Mayer in a first-person private-eye mold, sometimes Philip Marlowe, sometimes Nick and Nora Charles, all wisecracks and martinis. But he's not consistent with it. Meanwhile much of the story is related through other characters' eyes, without the "lishen-shweetheart" style at all, and it's jarring to go back and forth. Nor does it seem to go with the more fateful World War II subject matter. Kerr casts Mayer variously as an elbow-patched philosophy professor, the author of a musty and difficult book; as a swinging sophisticate, as a jilted lover, as a conscience-driven man of action, as an intelligence agent who successfully turns the Abwehr-NKVD-OSS trifecta, none of them the wiser. There are too many ingredients in this cocktail and Kerr never really gets them all to blend.He's better in his personalization of American leaders like Roosevelt and Harry Hopkins. And best of all is his treatment of Axis bigwigs like Schellenberg, Canaris, Hitler, von Ribbentrop and particularly Himmler. No one writes Nazis in English like Kerr does.His plot, whirling to a startling climax in Teheran, keeps you guessing until the last page. And he admirably includes - I wish more intrigue writers did this - an afterword noting the many unexplained anomalies of the Teheran conference that might open the door to Kerr's tantalizing scenario. I'm docking him a star for his problems writing Mayer, but the history he brings to bear and the plot he synthesizes out of it are otherwise great reading for the World War II fiction buff.

I have been enthralled by Phillip Kerr’s wonderful literature since his first novels about the horrors of the Nazi realm! If only the younger generations could read these novels and let the terrible events of this era and understand how destroying ignorance can be. Too many people are unable to look at history and apply those lessons to our lives and opinions today.

Neither Kerr's best nor does it have anything to do with Bernie Gunther. Kerr re-imagines what would happen if there was a plot to kill one or all of the Big Three at the Teheran conference during WWII. Since in real life everyone lived, the whole excercise was pointless. It was well written as I have come to expect from Kerr, but his hard boiled German noir detective Gunther is still a better source of material.

Philip Kerr returns to war-torn Germany in HITLER'S PEACE, but sadly he doesn't bring Bernie Gunther with him. Without Gunther, Kerr turns to Willard Mayer, a very unsympathetic American diplomat, and his German counterpart, Walter Schellenberg, to carry the story.Neither suffice. Adding to the difficulties is that Kerr becomes a little too cute with his fictionalizing of the thoughts of real-life WWII characters FDR, Will Bill Donavan, Himmler, and Hitler himself. The plot revolves around an assassination attempt on FDR, Stalin, and Churchill in late 1943. Readable, but hardly BERLIN NOIR.

Somewhat interesting and the history is useful, especially if you nave some background. The Katyn Forest massacre information is pretty accurate. The meeting of the big 4 (minus Churchill) borders on ridiculous in that is highly unlikely they would meet and greet each other as if they were at an English gentlemen's club. However, the idea of an attempt to reach an early settlement of the war was probably 0on a lot of important minds at that time

Kerr puts into play some great alt-history theories in this novel built around a series of curious events from the middle of WWII. I found myself eager to finish the book because I wanted to know how the story ended.But while curious to see how the story came out, I have to say that the reading itself was a bit of a chore at times. The characters were generally well developed and interesting, but their actions too often seemed totally out of character, overly contrived, or simply not believable. Dialog seemed forced and flat. As a reader I kept waiting for the author to hit his stride, but he never did. He just wobbled and faltered until finally stumbling across the finish line. Fans of spy novels and WWII-based fiction will enjoy, despite writing which is more mechanical than artistic.

This is an excellent read with a complicated and fascinating series of plots and counter plots around efforts by elements in the Nazi government to negotiate an early end to World War II and drive a wedge between the US and its Russian ally. As with all of Philip Kerr's books, it is built on superb research and insight into the internal conflicts of all the governments involved. However, it is not, as advertised, a Bernie Gunter novel. Although it has much in common with the Bernie Gunter series, the German detective is nowhere to be found in this story.