Philip Kerr books

Complete list of all 49 books by Philip Kerr, including the Bernie Gunther detective series, the Children of the Lamp fantasy novels, and his standalone thrillers, listed in reading order.

Anthologies

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Penguin Book of Lies 1984 Buy

Bernie Gunther Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
March Violets 1989 Buy
1993 N/A
The Pale Criminal 1990 Buy
A German Requiem 1991 Buy
L’uno dall’altro 2006 N/A
The One from the Other 2006 Buy
A Quiet Flame 2008 Buy
Stille vlam 2008 N/A
If The Dead Rise Not 2009 Buy
Field Gray 2010 Buy
Prague Fatale 2011 Buy
A Man Without Breath 2013 Buy
De man zonder adem 2013 N/A
De vrouw van Zagreb 2015 N/A
The Lady from Zagreb 2015 Buy
The Other Side of Silence 2016 Buy
Prussian Blue 2017 Buy
Greeks Bearing Gifts 2018 Buy
Φοβού τους Δαναούς 2018 N/A
Metropolis 2019 Buy

Children Of The Lamp Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Akhenaten Adventure 2004 Buy
The Blue Djinn of Babylon 2005 Buy
The Cobra King of Kathmandu 2006 Buy
The Day of the Djinn Warriors 2007 Buy
The Eye of the Forest 2008 Buy
The Five Fakirs of Faizabad 2010 Buy
The Grave Robbers of Genghis Khan 2011 Buy

P.B. Kerr Short Stories/Novellas

Title Published Buy on Amazon
One Small Step 2008 Buy

Scott Manson Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
January Window 2014 Buy
Mercado de Inverno 2014 N/A
Hand of God 2015 Buy
Το χέρι του Θεού 2015 N/A
False Nine 2015 Buy

Short Stories/Novellas

Title Published Buy on Amazon
One Small Step 2008 Buy
The Pocket Handkerchief 2016 Buy

Standalone Novels

Title Published Buy on Amazon
A Philosophical Investigation 1992 Buy
Dead Meat 1993 Buy
Gridiron / The Grid 1995 Buy
Esau 1996 Buy
A Five-Year Plan 1998 Buy
The Second Angel 1999 Buy
The Shot 1999 Buy
Dark Matter 2002 Buy
Hitler’s Peace 2005 Buy
Prayer 2013 Buy
The Winter Horses 2014 Buy
Research 2014 Buy
The Most Frightening Story Ever Told 2016 Buy

Philip Kerr (1956-2018) was a Scottish-born British author who wrote across several genres over a career spanning more than three decades. He is best remembered for the Bernie Gunther series, a sequence of twenty historical crime novels set in and around Nazi Germany. Kerr brought a hardboiled detective voice to the Berlin of the 1930s and 1940s, and the books earned a devoted following for their sharp plotting and dark humor.

Under the pen name P.B. Kerr, he also wrote the Children of the Lamp series, a seven-book fantasy adventure for younger readers about twin siblings who discover they are descended from djinn. His standalone novels covered a wide range of subjects, from the near-future thriller A Philosophical Investigation to the World War II espionage novel Hitler’s Peace. Kerr also wrote the Scott Manson football mystery trilogy, featuring a fictional football manager caught up in criminal investigations.

Kerr studied law at the University of Birmingham and worked as an advertising copywriter before turning to fiction full time. His work appeared in more than thirty languages. He died in 2018, with his final Bernie Gunther novel, Metropolis, published the following year.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books has Philip Kerr written?

Philip Kerr has written 49 books across seven series.

What was Philip Kerr's first book?

Philip Kerr’s first book is The Penguin Book of Lies, published in 1984.

"What is Philip Kerr's most popular series?"

“Philip Kerr is best known for the Bernie Gunther series, which follows a Berlin detective across twenty books set before, during, and after World War II. The series began with March Violets in 1989 and continued until Metropolis, published posthumously in 2019.”

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