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Babylon Berlin

Gereon Rath, Book 1

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About this listen

Berlin, 1929. Detective Inspector Rath was a successful career officer in the Cologne Homicide Division before a shooting incident in which he inadvertently killed a man. He has been transferred to the vice squad in Berlin, a job he detests even though he finds a new friend in his boss, Chief Inspector Wolter.

There is seething unrest in the city, and the Commissioner of Police has ordered the vice squad to ruthlessly enforce the ban on May Day demonstrations. The result is catastrophic, with many dead and injured, and a state of emergency is declared in the Communist strongholds of the city.

When a car is hauled out of Berlin's Landwehr Canal with a mutilated corpse inside, the Commissioner decides to use this mystery to divert the attention of press and public from the casualties of the demonstrations. The biggest problem is that the corpse cannot be identified.

Volker Kutscher was born in 1962 in Lindlar, West Germany. He is the author of the enormously successful Gereon Rath crime series which, in addition to compelling narrative, is notable for its scrupulous accuracy about Germany in the years between its beginning in 1927 and the approach to the Second World War.

©2016 Volker Kutscher (P)2016 Audible, Ltd Fiction Hard-Boiled Historical International Mystery & Crime Mystery Police Procedural Crime
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Well researched, much like the Gunther series by Kerr, which English audiences would be more familiar with. I do wonder if the book stumbles a bit due to the challenge of putting out a translation? Much of the witty banter I am used to in such a genre is not really present. Still, quite entertaining and enjoyable, particularly if you are curious about Wiemar Germany, and Berlin life before WWII. Much of what I have found 'out there' on Germany primarily focuses on WWII, for very obvious reasons, so I am always curious when pre-war fiction and historical writings pop-up.

Worth it.

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