A Gereon Rath Mystery
5 primary works
Book 1
Book 2
MEET DETECTIVE GEREON RATH IN THE BOOKS THAT INSPIRED THE HIT TV SERIES BABYLON BERLIN
‘[Kutscher's] trick is ingenious...He's created a portrait of an era through the lens of genre fiction.’ -The New York Times
Following international bestseller Babylon Berlin, Volker Kutscher takes us back to Berlin in the second Gereon Rath Mystery. In The Silent Death, Inspector Rath investigates crime and corruption in the shadow of the growing Nazi movement.
March 1930. The film industry is changing rapidly, with talking films taking over the silver screen.
Celebrated actress Betty Winter is killed when a spotlight falls on her during the filming of a new talkie.
It looks like an unfortunate accident at first, but Gereon Rath finds clues that other detectives miss, all suggesting it was murder.
The prime suspect is a runaway lighting technician, but the Rath’s investigation points to a different explanation. Soon he is out on his own as tensions rise between rival film studios, and violence breaks out between Communists and Nazis.
It’s no time for distractions, so naturally that’s when his father asks him for help with a case of blackmail, and ex-girlfriend Charly Ritter reaches out to talk about getting back together.
With personal and professional destruction on the line, Rath will find himself fighting for the truth and his own life as all around him political factions fight for the soul of Berlin.
About the Gereon Rath Mysteries
1930s Berlin is a hotbed of vice and organised crime. When Inspector Gereon Rath leaves Cologne to join Berlin’s murder squad, he cannot begin to imagine the brutality and complexity of the world he is stepping into as communists and Nazis struggle for power.
Book 3
Book 4
MEET DETECTIVE GEREON RATH IN THE BOOKS THAT INSPIRED THE HIT TV SERIES BABYLON BERLIN
‘A first-rate historical thriller and Gereon Rath is one of the most intriguing detectives in fiction.’ - Paul Burke, NB Magazine
Berlin, 1932: A drowned man is found in a freight elevator, miles from any standing water. How did he get there?
A series of murders by drowning has shocked Berlin. Inspector Gereon Rath’s hunt for the killer has stalled, and his personal life is as turbulent as ever.
His fiancée, Charly, has at last started her probationary year with Berlin CID, experiencing all the challenges of working in a male-dominated police force.
When Rath’s work on the case of the drowned man sweeps him away to a remote village on the Polish border, his investigation clashes with local myths and the growing power of the Nazi party.
As he puts the pieces of the puzzle together, Rath begins to wonder if he has a serial killer on his hands. Can he catch the killer before another victim is claimed?
About the Gereon Rath Mysteries
1930s Berlin is a hotbed of vice and organised crime. When Inspector Gereon Rath leaves Cologne to join Berlin’s murder squad, he cannot begin to imagine the brutality and complexity of the world he is stepping into as communists and Nazis struggle for power.
Book 5
MEET DETECTIVE GEREON RATH IN THE BOOKS THAT INSPIRED THE HIT TV SERIES BABYLON BERLIN
‘Kutscher captures the zeitgeist with chilling accuracy.’ -The Guardian
Longlisted for the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger 2021
Berlin, 1933: A homeless former solider is found stabbed under the railway arches.
Gereon Rath is on the case, but struggles to find clues. No one seems interested in solving the murder of a penniless veteran.
Meanwhile, Rath’s fiancée Charly has been assigned the case of fifteen-year-old Hannah Singer. Hannah killed her father and six others by starting a house fire but has now been declared mentally unfit to stand trial.
When a connection is discovered between Hannah and the dead ex-soldier, the two cases overlap.
It’s up to Rath and Charlotte to find justice for the dead man, and for Hannah even as the Nazis continue their rise to power and the Reichstag burns.
The new Germany is a frightening place, but policework must go on even through book-burning and marching, paranoia and fear.
About the Gereon Rath Mysteries
1930s Berlin is a hotbed of vice and organised crime. When Inspector Gereon Rath leaves Cologne to join Berlin’s murder squad, he cannot begin to imagine the brutality and complexity of the world he is stepping into as communists and Nazis struggle for power.