Publisher's Synopsis
MEET DETECTIVE GEREON RATH IN THE BOOKS THAT INSPIRED THE HIT TV SERIES BABYLON BERLIN 'A gripping evocative thriller set in Berlin's seedy underworld during the roaring Twenties.' -Mail on Sunday Babylon Berlin is the first book in the international-bestselling series from Volker Kutscher. Detective Inspector Gereon Rath is caught up in a web of drugs, sex, political intrigue, deception and murder as Germany teeters on the edge of Nazism. In 1929, Berlin is the vibrating metropolis of post-war Germany, full of bars, brothels and dissatisfied workers. Arriving in disgrace from Cologne, Gereon Rath is assigned to the Vice Squad. When a body bearing traces of torture turns up in the canal, Rath sees a chance to earn his way back into the homicide division. As he investigates, he discovers a gang of exiled Russians intent on purchasing arms with smuggled gold - but others are trying to get hold of the gold… and the guns. Finding himself up against both paramilitaries and organised criminals, Rath is so far in over his head that he misuses the insider knowledge of Charlotte, a typist in the homicide squad, to get ahead in his investigation. Even though he's falling in love with her. As Rath's mistakes and enemies pile up, he becomes the prime suspect in the murder - and he's running out of time to clear his name. 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.
