mystery series similar to Bernie Gunther

November 12, 2016 9:21 PM

I would like to know of any series that is similar to the Bernie Gunther series or the series by Hans Helmutt Kirst. Both of these series focus on an individual who served in the Germann Armes Forces during WWii. Both of these individuals were not very happy serving under Hitler and in their own ways tried to undermine the Nazi system.Any help in locating similar series would be highly appreciated.
posted by Thaiexpat to Human Relations (3 answers total)

Try Ben Pastor's Martin Bora books, beginning with Lumen.
posted by featherboa at 3:53 AM on November 13, 2016

Olen Steinhauer's "Yalta Boulevard" stories are a series of detective/spy novels set during the Cold War in a fictional Warsaw Pact country. The characters, who are mostly civilian police types, are not necessarily trying to undermine the state, but a lot of the conflict in the stories comes from their attempts to do their job, to trust colleagues, and/or protect their families as they operate within the system.
posted by AndrewInDC at 6:54 AM on November 13, 2016

There's David Downing's John Russell 'station' series concerning a British journalist living with his German wife; and Rebecca Cantrell's Hannah Vogel books. I've read the first two of the former, and they're good (but the Bernie Gunthers are better). My brother, with similar tastes to my own, recommends the latter but I couldn't get into the first one. She's a detective in Germany during the Nazi-time. And in a similar vein, Paul Grossman's Children of Wrath was great - features a Jewish detective in 1930 Berlin.
posted by Rash at 9:08 AM on November 13, 2016 [1 favorite]