"The One From The Other", Philip Kerr

The one from the other
Philip Kerr, 2006
Quercus Prime Crime, e-book kindle

Germany, 1949. In a Germany in reconstruction -both moral and physical-, Bernie Gunther is running his father-in-law's hotel at the unfortunately well-known city of Dachau. Because of the almost absolute absence of guests, he decides to sell it and restart his career as a private investigator in Munich. Some weeks after his return to the city, her wife dies at the hospital, where she has passed some time due to her mental illness.

His career restarts quite successfully, until he meets a woman called Britta Warzok, who wants to know if her husband is dead or alive, in order to get marry again. After contacting some organizations that help former nazis to escape from allied justice, he is strongly beaten by a gang of former SS officers, and he gets so injured that he is about to die. However, he is taken to the hospital, where he manages to recover his health under the cares provided by doctor Henkell. Henkell, a former SS officer, as Gunther himself, offers him to spend some time in a house in Garmisch Partenkirchen, in the bavarian Alps.

There, Gunther meets Eric Gruen, another SS officer who was gravely injured during the war and who needs someone to talk to in order to fight his depression. After some time at the house, Gruen and Gunther became good companions. This friendship will take Gunther to visit Viena to accept the will of the mother of Eric Gruen. That's the beginning of a huge problem for Gunther, who will had to use all his skills as a private investigator to escape the city and save his life...