Volker Kutscher

The second Gereon Rath novel, set in the early 1930s, sees Berling detectives engaged in a high-profile serial murder case in Dusseldorf. As punishment for his perceived insubordination, Rath is denied the chance to take part and given boring duties like observing the funeral of somebody called Horst Wessel, and attending a fatal industrial accident on a film set, where an actress has had a light fitting fall on her.

Rath doesn't think that this was an accident and gathers proof to suggest otherwise. Then a second actress is found dead in a cinema, perfectly posed, but with her vocal cords cut out. The police are desperate to avoid the sensationalism abroad in Dusseldofr and so refuse to link these cases. Rath decides to defy them and pursue his own inquiries.

Gereon Rath remains a splendid character: ruthlessly ambitious, hated by his colleagues, the bane of his superiors, heedless of other people, and willing to do whatever is necessary to prove his case. Kutscher includes allusions to the political environment of the times, suggesting where Rath's anti-authoritarian streak may find him in future. Hopefully more of these novels make it into English translation soon.… (lisätietoja)

This novel starts off with a couple of street kids being discovered robbing Berlin's largest department store. They make a bid to escape, but one falls to his death in the attempt. Lange, one of Rath's junior colleagues, is put in charge of taking the statements and closing the case. Meanwhile, Rath himself is put in charge of keeping tabs on Abraham Goldstein, a professional killer who has come to Berlin from the USA, a situation the Prussian police are most unhappy about.

At one point Goldstein gives Rath the slip and gets involved in a fracas between an old Jewish man and some brownshirt toughs. This incident has a fatal outcome, which puts Goldstein in the frame for murder, and Rath in the bad books once again. Meanwhile Lange is uncovering some very disturbing evidence that shows that the street kid's death is a far more serious incident than first thought.

Once again Kutscher gives us a clever plot with a convincing feel for his setting: the Berlin of the early 30s, when the Nazis were on the rise and the Weimar Republic was entering its final decline. There is a fourth novel in the series coming soon; I've already ordered my copy.… (lisätietoja)

DI Gereon Rath is parachuted from Cologne to Berlin in the wake of a scandal in his home city. He lands at Vice, where he starts working for Bruno Wolter. Their first case is a raid on a porn film ring, which soon explodes into a violent morass involving organised crime, Russian emigres and the emerging Nazi movement.

This is a splendid evocation of the seamy side of Berlin during the Wiemar Republic. Rath is a complex character; sometimes full of self-doubt but at other times repellently ambitious. Kutshcer's plot barrels along and includes some major twists leading up to a tense and gripping finale.

… (lisätietoja)

Corre el año 1929 y Berlín es una metrópoli rutilante, llena de bares y burdeles, en cuyos barrios obreros se urden revueltas y donde están a punto de ocurrir eventos que cambiarán la historia. Las cosas más extrañas tienen lugar aquí y la brigada de Costumbres ha de vérselas con algunos incidentes tan delirantes como absurdos. Gereon Rath es nuevo. Trabajaba con la policía de Colonia hasta que fue desterrado a Berlín, al servicio del departamento de Delitos Sexuales.
Pero Rath echa de menos la investigación criminal, y no está dispuesto a dejarla de lado. Afortunadamente para él, un caso especial cae en sus manos por azar: una espantosa muerte por tortura hace que se inmiscuya en la investigación y comprenda, casi demasiado tarde, que se ha involucrado en la caza de una gran cantidad de oro que un noble ruso ha introducido de contrabando en Berlín. ¿Con qué fin ha llegado ese oro a la ciudad? La situación se complica hasta el punto de que Rath deseará no haber comenzado a indagar...… (lisätietoja)