March, 1943. A month after the stunning defeat at Stalingrad, morale is low, discipline is at risk. Now word reaches Berlin of a Red massacre of Polish officers near Smolensk. If true, the message to the troops is clear: Fight on or risk certain death. For once, the Wehrmacht and Goebbels agree: they want irrefutable evidence of this Russian atrocity, and the investigation must be overseen by a professional. And so Bernie Gunther is dispatched to Smolensk, where truth is as much a victim as those poor dead officers.
Philip Kerr is a British author. After gaining a master's degree in law and philosophy, Kerr worked as an advertising copywriter for Saatchi and Saatchi before becoming a full-time writer in 1989. A writer of both adult fiction and non-fiction, he is known for the Bernie Gunther series of historical thrillers set in Germany and elsewhere during the 1930s, the Second World War and the Cold War. He has also written children's books under the name P.B. Kerr, including the Children of the Lamp series.
Kerr has written for The Sunday Times, the Evening Standard and the New Statesman. He is married to fellow novelist Jane Thynne.
Source: wikipedia
