Description
Book SynopsisMEET 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.
Trade Review‘Set in atmospheric 1930s Berlin where a maverick detective is hunting a serial killer The Silent Death, like its predecessor, Babylon Berlin, owes much to its author’s commitment to historical accuracy and the cynical feel of the times.’
-- Peter James
‘Wonderfully atmospheric... a novel that offers vivid insights into the cultural upheavals of the late Weimar republic.’
* The Sunday Times *
‘A particularly atmospheric and immersive thriller.’
* The Herald *
‘Accessible, exciting, and bloody hard to put down.’
* The AU Review *
‘A tale from the origins of the European darkness.’
-- Kati Hiekkapelto
‘This second outing for Inspector Gereon Rath of the Berlin police is an even faster paced and gripping story... Well paced and superbly written. ’
* Journal of the Law Society of Scotland *
