Babylon Berlin: Book 1 of the Gereon Rath Mystery Series (The Gereon Rath Mysteries)

"The press would have their fodder. Shoot-out in criminal underworld, was an everyday occurrence in the East. Readers in the more sheltered Western districts, meanwhile, loved stories which got them all shivery in the safety of their drawing rooms, while at the same time confirming what they had always suspected: that Berlin was a match for Chicago in every way."1929. Former homicide detective Gareon Rath has been reassigned to the Berlin vice squad in the wake of a fatal shooting that ignited a firestorm in the press.When the body of a Russian immigrant is fished out of the Landwehr Canal one night, Rath begins an off-the-books investigation, hoping to solve the case on his own, restore his reputation, and get his old job back. But he will have to avoid both Communist activists and mobsters. The victim may have been smuggling a cache of gold into Germany on behalf of Trotskyists disillusioned with Stalin's regime.The case gets complicated when Rath, full of cocaine and liquor, kills a man in self-defense but is then put in charge of investigating the murder…This German police procedural works on two levels. First, it is a neo-noir mystery in the classic vein. This is a story of cops willing to bend rules and manipulate evidence to suit personal agendas and political affiliations. It is set in a time when forensic science is new, creating tension between old-school police tactics and newfangled rules of investigation ("Pointless trying to teach these idiots in uniform about modern-day police work. They still thought that restoring order to a crime scene was more important that securing evidence from it.")What really sets the book apart is that it also works as a historical novel. It explores the "Golden Twenties" of the Weimer Republic, that brief interlude of democracy between the fall of the Prussian Empire and the rise of Nazism. This is a gilded age in which there is a great divide between public ethics and private behavior.Organized crime syndicates run Berlin. Illegal strip clubs and drag queen bars attract thrill-seeking wealthy citizens. Cocaine is the party drug of the masses.This is also a politically-charged Germany awash in a flood of Russian immigration as Tsarists are fleeing the Bolshevik regime. In fact, much of the action takes place against the backdrop of the bloody May Day protests, in which a conservative "law and order" government is accused of overreaching brutality against populist movements. ("Let me put it this way. Obviously there were way too many police bullets fired during the skirmishes. And too few communist bullets.")Anti-semitic Nazi brown shirts are still primarily just an annoyance to the more powerful and visible political parties.For all that this book does well--an intricate plot and interesting historical milieu--I never developed much affinity for its characters. I suspect some of the reason might be cultural or lost in translation. Rath conforms to some of the German stereotypes--efficient, clinical, and distant. Another reason is the book has far too many minor characters with barely distinguishable personalities. While this may indeed reflect the reality of a bureaucratic police department, it bogs down the momentum of the narrative.3 stars.

This is the first installment of a murder mystery series set in Weimar Berlin in 1929, sandwiched between the end of the First War and the rise of the Nazis. The series has proven to be a knockout in Germany, and increasingly is picking up steam here even though we have access to only the first two volumes. The thing that is so appealing to me is that the author, who is from Cologne and was born in 1962, is accurately able to reconstruct the Berlin of 1929. A recent New York Times article explained how the author buries himself in old newspapers and other material from the Weimar period, and this allows him to create an accurate picture of Berlin even though many of the buildings of this period were destroyed during World War II. As his central character, a police inspector Gereon Rath by name, zips around the city, he traverses areas that come alive from 90 years ago. I have visited and studied the city, and the author is dead-on accurate in describing streets, neighborhoods and buildings from so long ago.Armed with this background, the author recreates the tensions and politics of 1929 Berlin. The story is set against the constant and often bloody warfare between Communists, Nazis and police. Fears of a Communist putsch are pronounced; the Social Democratic Weimar government is condemned on all sides for ineptitude. Police violence leads to a loss of control; 22 fatalities in one clash alone. The author also paints a Berlin with nightlife right out of "Cabaret" which adds further richness to the story's background. Increasingly, the young Nazi party is making itself felt in street battles and other disruptive behavior--a foretaste of what is to come.The story itself is well told, although the author tends to run two or three story lines at once and it can become, at times, confusing to keep all the characters straight. But they are all integrated at the end. Inspector Rath is an interesting fellow to be sure. Transferring from Cologne, he finds Berlin a "cold, alien city." Gradually throughout the book we learn bit by bit about his troubled background and the unfortunate shooting event that necessitated him leaving Cologne. So he has some major demons which he attacks through self-medication, especially booze. In short, while a fine detective, he is also like the real people we all know with their unique problems.The translation is excellent, but don't expect unfamiliar historical individuals or events to be explained. There are no annotations to explain key elements of the historical background; but there is nothing here which impairs the story, while it does add to the reader's knowledge about this most interesting period in German history. I believe there are six more volumes to come and I look forward to reading them and learning more about this perplexing Inspector and the Berlin of the 1920's and 1930's.

Disclaimer: this book was a class assignment for a college level history course. I have read the English translation. Slight spoilers ahead!!!Historically speaking, the book is accurate. It is a proper portrayal of history in the place and time, and adds up well with what was really going on at the time. However, the lead detective is the worst kind of morally grey. He does terrible things, and really just gets away with them. He also never actually figures out anything interesting and the books plot isnt really that clever. I hardly knew what the big mystery we were solving was to be honest. There was only two plot points that really surprised me and even then only one of those was REALLY a shock. I just don’t think the book is very interesting, and is much too long for an American reader that has never been to Berlin, and therefore does not understand the pages of describing each individual neighborhood that Rath enters in detail.

Pretty good mystery that provides some insight as to what Germany, and more specifically Berlin might have been like during the 1920s. It begins with the Detective Inspector Rath being transferred to the vice section of the Berlin police. He's come from being investigating murders in Cologne to investigating porn rings and he wants back into the murder squad even it means attempting to investigate a murder with an unknown victim on his own time. The story lags at times but is generally an entertaining read.

Berlin during the 1920s, aka The Roaring Twenties, an atmosphere brought vividly to life by Kutscher. Think crowded seedy dance bars, a criminal underworld of drugs, prostitution, pornography, political upheaval and riots. And among the crooked police more determined to control riots than crime, a lone wolf, detective Gereon Rath, remains determined to solve the murder of a man whose mutilated body is dragged from a canal, and a larger mystery. This was made into a series on Netflix, which I saw before I read the book.

This is one of those rare books where the movie or television version is better than the novel. "Babylon Berlin" as featured in 16 parts on Netflix does not have quite the same plot as the two novels published in English so far but it was much more exciting and intriguing than this slow-paced detective story.What the book does have going for it is its setting: Berlin in 1929, the decadent Weimar Republic under stress from the extremes of Communism and fascism. Gereon Rath is a detective transferred to the Berlin police to avoid the consequences of a scandal in Cologne (the supposed differences in accents and customs between the two cities must surely come off better in the original German). He is smart and tenacious but is incapable of following orders or getting along with his superiors: to some readers he may appear a dashing rebel, but to me he comes across as wilfully stupid.The series is quite popular in Germany but if more novels are published in English I am unlikely to be among their readers.

If you've enjoyed the program, and avoided the terrible English dubbing, you'll love the book.

Significant plot and characterization differences from German tv series. Nevertheless, watch tv first for the sights and sounds and especially to get the look and essence of the main characters. I have read the three translated novels in Gereon Rath detective series and look forward to remaining translations. The historical details make the setting vivid. The characters are memorable, unlike Grisham where I can’t remember who is who. One example: a police superintendent nicknamed Buddha who weighs 300 lbs and is addicted to gooseberry tarts. Both Gereon and the Berlin police service are ethically ambiguous, but support the Weimer Republic against the rising tide of dissolution spread by communists, nazis and royalists. Ever wonder how Hitler rose to power? These books vividly illustrate the whole milieu and they entertain. P.S. Scotland's First Minister is a great fan.