Death in Berlin by M.M. Kaye

Death in BerlinDeath in Berlin
by M.M. Kaye
Publication Date: June 8, 1955
Genre: mystery, romance
Pages: 273

Miranda Brand is visiting Germany for what is supposed to be a month's vacation. But from the moment that Brigadier Brindley relates the story about a fortune in lost diamonds--a story in which Miranda herself figures in an unusual way--the vacation atmosphere becomes transformed into something more ominous. And when murder strikes on the night train to Berlin, Miranda finds herself unwillingly involved in a complex chain of events that will soon throw her own life into peril. Set against a background of war-scarred Berlin in the early 1950s, M. M. Kaye's Death in Berlin is a consummate mystery from one of the finest storytellers of our time.


I liked this installment, but I didn’t love it. It started strong, with a murder on a train that was reminiscent of The Murder on the Orient Express – mysteries set on trains are an especial weakness of mine. However, once we arrived in Berlin, I just wasn’t feeling the love for the setting. Post-war Berlin was grim, and although the discussion of the different sections of a divided city was interesting, I prefer the more exotic settings in her other books.

This particular book contained a lot of regressive themes and tropes. Older women are haggard, aging, rapidly losing their appeal. Young women are blooming and fresh. The male characters, especially Richard – the main character’s cousin – have important work to do with the British government, while the women have servants and seem to do very little at all. While I expect to get those kinds of elements in a book that was published in 1955, it was even more obvious in this book than it often is.

A few other things that bothered me with this book included the primary love interest/main investigator Simon Lang. In the other M.M. Kaye mysteries I’ve read, there is more of an equality of investigation between the heroine & hero. In this one, Lang does all of the work, and pretty much excludes Miranda from the process of figuring out whodunit. In addition, he literally uses her as bait to trap the murderer, and then his proposal of marriage is presumptuous and arrogant, telling Miranda that he will be her husband, not asking her to marry him.

So, this is the least favorite of the M.M. Kaye’s mysteries so far. It is well-written and the plot is interesting, but I didn’t engage with the characters, and found the setting to be humdrum.

6 comments

  1. I’ve read 3 books by Kaye and agree that I liked her more exotic settings better. Don’t remember clicking with this book either. Though I think I’ve often found the mystery element less than ideal in Kaye’s works.

    1. Kaye is definitely a romance first, mystery second writer – sort of like Georgette Heyer, and as opposed to Christie, who is a mystery first, romance second writer. Have you read any of Kaye’s non-mystery books? The Far Pavilions is one of my favorite books of all times.

        1. Her three non-mysteries are of the “sweeping epic” style popular in the 1970’s, along the lines of The Thorn Birds, Roots, and James Michener. I loved all three of them, although The Far Pavilions is the best, IMO. It’s a true doorstopper of a book – 900+ pages!

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