Berlin 1931: The economic crisis is worsening, the conflict between Nazis and communists is turning violent, a turf war has broken out among the city’s wrestling clubs, and Gereon Rath has been hired to shadow the US gangster Abraham Goldstein as a favour for the FBI. He has taken up position in the Hotel Excelsior, in which Goldstein has ensconced himself. The gangster seems to have resigned himself to the fact that he is under police surveillance, but this hasn’t stopped him from moving freely around the city and securing a revolver. Underworld boss Johann Marlow forces Rath to do some private investigating for him at the Berolina wrestling club. As he picks up the trail, Rath soon finds himself caught between the battle lines of an all-out gang war.
Charly Ritter, Gereon Rath’s eternal would-be fiancé, has now been appointed as an assistant magistrate at the Lichtenberg district court. When a young homeless woman caught riding the tram without ticket manages to flee as Charly is interviewing her, her investigations clash with those of Gereon – provoking a huge argument between the two.
Kutscher sets his thriller against the backdrop of a conflict-torn city hurtling towards fascism, and draws a cast of vivid, astonishingly modern and sympathetic characters. At the same time, he weaves a plot of breathtaking pace – pure suspense!
