The Lady From Zagreb, Kerr - B -

                                               As mentioned previously,  the Bernie Gunther series is about a Berlin cop who somehow keeps his job through the Weimar years and, although virulently anti-Nazi, stays on at the Alexanderplatz HQ of the Criminal Police. After the war begins, he is assigned to the SD and winds up doing occasional odd jobs out-of-town for various big wigs.  I was very disappointed in the last book because Bernie  was interacting with too many real characters and was involved in investigating real wartime occurrences. It felt uncomfortable.  Here he again is involved with actual people (he is asked to go to Yugoslavia by Goebbels), but it's more of a historical novel like most of the books in the series.  And in this book, the author accomplishes what a good historical novelist should - he sheds light on topics I was only slightly familiar with and follows up with historical postscripts. He tells of the extreme hatred and violence between the Croats and Serbs and of the killing camps set up by the Ustase. He also sets part of the novel  in Switzerland, which the Nazis apparently gave consideration to invading, particularly after Italy switched sides. Interestingly, the Swiss were ready with plans to blow up the valley passes that the Wehrmacht needed to attack. The wise-cracking Kripo cop wears thin after thirteen (ten if you count the Berlin Noir trilogy as one) novels, but  I'll likely give the next one a try.