A mysterious series of murders takes Gereon Rath all the way to Masuria.
July 1932. The Berlin police are mystified: a man is found dead in the service elevator of the Haus Vaterland (“Fatherland House”), the legendary pleasure palace on the Potsdamer Platz, and all signs seem to indicate that he drowned there.
Inspector Gereon Rath isn’t exactly thrilled about this new case – he already has enough problems as it is. His investigations into the mysterious hit man who is keeping the entire city on edge have been stalled for weeks, and his great love, Charlotte “Charly” Ritter, just back from a year studying abroad in Paris, is about to start work as a commissioner-in-training at Alexanderplatz – in the homicide division, of all places, which doesn’t exactly make things easier.
The Potsdamer Platz homicide seems to be part of a series of murders with traces leading far to the east. While Charly goes undercover as a kitchen assistant in the Haus Vaterland, Rath’s investigations take him to a small city in Masuria near the Polish border. Finding himself in a foreign world, the investigator from Berlin makes the acquaintance of tightlipped East Prussians, moonshine and the perils of nature. When he threatens to uncover a long-guarded secret, the resistance against him intensifies.
Volker Kutscher composes another gripping and complex story against the backdrop of historical events. As street fights between Nazis and Communists lead to more and more deaths, Reich Chancellor von Papen carries out a coup against the Prussian democratic government, removing it from office – and, with it, the head of the Berlin police. That only complicates Gereon Rath’s position, since until now he had been able to count on the protection of Deputy Police Chief Bernhard Weiss…
