On the Coffee Table: Volker Kutscher

Title: Babylon Berlin

Author: Volker Kutscher

via Amazon

Detective Gereon Rath is trying to establish himself in the Berlin police department after leaving Cologne in disgrace.  The year is 1929 and political tensions playing out on the street foreshadow difficult times ahead for the Weimar Republic, not to mention the rest of Europe and beyond.  An unidentified murder victim is discovered, leading to further adventures.  Rath's partner is effective but awfully rough around the edges - and not exactly by the book.  Rath also falls in love, proving more a complication than a relief from the job.  Through it all, we get a colorful tour of the seedier side of Berlin's underground world of sex and drugs.

The book - a blockbuster in Germany - inspired a television series.  We watched the first several episodes a few years back.  While the basics are the same, the screenwriters took many liberties, including dramatic changes to both plot and characters.  The book is more gruesome, though not as smutty.  Having read the book, I think I need to watch the series again, and even finish it this time.

Getting back to the book, it's more straight-up hard-boiled detective story than the series.  There are a couple of marvelous mid-plot twists, though not much to surprise at the end.  The denouement comes a little too easily.  Even so, the characters are engaging.  Rath is good at the job but not without clumsiness which also spills over to his love life.  I'm definitely up for more of the series.  There are seven more books plus a prequel, though not all of them yet translated.  I currently have two on my TBR shelves.

Berlin between the wars is obviously rich with narrative possibilities.  This book would bundle well with Jason Lutes's Berlin series, David Downing's Zoo Station and a screening of Cabaret.