Father Brennan Burke is coming off a rough stint in Belfast and he's been trying to obliterate those memories with drink ever since. His troubles intensify when the body of one of his parishioners washes up on the beach in Halifax.
Meika Keller came to Canada after escaping through the Berlin Wall. Now a Canadian military officer is charged with her murder. Defence lawyer Monty Collins argues that her death was suicide. That's the last thing Father Burke wants to hear. Guilty of neglecting his duties as a priest when Meika needed him most, Brennan feels compelled to uncover whatever prompted her cry for help and led to her death.
The story takes us from the historic Navy town of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to the history-laden city of Berlin, as Brennan and his brother Terry head to Germany in search of answers. And while Brennan is determined to find out what accounted for Meika's death, nothing could have prepared him for the events that unfold.
And in the midst of all this, Brennan and Monty must deal with conflicts between the two of them, which arose out of their time in Belfast and have yet to be resolved.
Postmark Berlin is the 11th in the Burke series and one of the best, a quite brilliant whodunit/whydunit.
Nick Martin, Winnipeg Free Press
The rollercoaster ride to learn who Meika was and what led to her death will keep the reader guessing along with Burke and Collins. Fans of analytic detective stories will be pleased.
Publishers Weekly
Readers who have not yet sampled her tough-edged crime fiction are advised to rectify that immediately. A fine entry in a consistently strong series.
David Pitt, Booklist
As in the earlier novels, this one relies on two particular strengths - immaculate research and moral worthiness - and along the way, it slides expertly around a whole slew of narrative conundrums.
Jack Batten, The Toronto Star
Postmark Berlin is a fine addition to an already very strong series of novels by multiple award-winning author Anne Emery. Featuring a gripping plot supported by nuanced and believable characters, and informed by the author's firm knowledge of history and the community of Halifax, the layered story of a complex woman and her equally convoluted past carries the reader along effortlessly to its satisfying conclusion. Coming on the heels of Though the Heavens Fall, her previous and award-winning novel in the Collins-Burke series, Postmark Berlin cements Anne Emery's position among the top half-dozen crime writers in Canada.
Jim Napier, The Ottawa Review of Books