In 1942, there are many worse places to be than Zurich, and detective Bernie Gunther has seen his fair share of them. So when a superior asks him to track down a glamorous German actress believed to be hiding there, he takes the job. Not that he has much choice: the superior is Goebbels himself. But soon Bernie finds himself involved in something much more sinister. The actress, it emerges, is the daughter of a fanatical Croatian fascist, the sadistic...

It's 1954 and Bernie has tired of his increasingly dangerous work spying on Meyer Lansky for Cuban Intelligence. He secretly buys a boat and sails to Florida, where he's arrested, sent back to Cuba and imprisoned in the Isle of Pines. There he meets Castro, a French intelligence officer who gives him an ultimatum.

Redolent with the atmosphere of 1950s Argentina and featuring portraits of real characters such as Eva and Juan Peron, Adolf Eichmann, and Otto Skorzeny, this novel ends up asking some highly provocative questions about the true extent of Argentina's Nazi collaboration and anti-Semitism under the Perons.

Bernie Gunther, forced to resign as a homicide detective with Berlin's Criminal Police, is now house detective at the famous Adlon Hotel. Two bodies are found - a businessman and a Jewish boxer, and Bernie is drawn into the lives of various hotel guests.