METROPOLIS

by Philip Kerr (Quercus £20, 400 pp) SADly, this is the last of the 14 novels to feature the delightfully cynical German detective Bernie Gunther, as Kerr died last year, aged just 62 — but it is a magnificent tribute to both character and author.

It is 1928 and we are in Berlin in the dying days of the Weimar Republic, where Gunther is asked to investigate the killing of four prostitutes in as many weeks.

They have all been hit over the head and scalped with a sharp knife. Before long, the daughter of one of the city’s crime bosses joins them and the investigation ramps up.

Suddenly, a second series of murders begins, this time targeting crippled veterans of World War I who beg on the streets.

Is someone trying to ‘cleanse’ the city of its less-than-perfect examples of humanity as the voice of the burgeoning Nazi party echoes along the boulevards?

This enthralling portrait of the decadence of Weimar Berlin, seen through the eyes of a young Gunther, is quite wonderful.