Volker Kutscher

Læste bogen efter at have set de første sæsoner af Babylon Berlin. Serien er faktisk bedre!
“Den våde fisk” er ikke dårlig, dog. Vi er tilbage i tiden, 1929, i Berlin. Uroen ulmer op til 1. maj, forskellige kommunistiske grupperinger rumler, politiets mange afdelinger rumler, byen rumler, og personerne, vi introduceres for, rumler. Politiassistenten fra Köln, Gereon Rath, hovedpersonen, prøver at finde tilbage i karrieren i den nye by. Vi ser ham bo på pensionsat, på hotel, hos kollega, mens han virvles ind i mord (ental og snart flertal) blandt folk, der har med byens russiske befolkning, og kriminelle underverden, at gøre.
Der er kokain, porno, fattigdom, high life, korruption og gangstere i én berlinsk sauerkraut. Og det er mere underholdende og stemningsskabende, end det er spændende. Plottet, hvem der skød og hvorfor, et vognlæs guld, betyder mindre for mig, nu hvor bogen er læst.… (mais)

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.… (mais)

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.… (mais)

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.

… (mais)