The Silent Death: A Gereon Rath Mystery (The Gereon Rath Mysteries Book 2)

This second Gereon Rath novel moves slower than the first, and neither crackles like the TV show. It took me a while to get through it. That said, I enjoyed it for its deliberateness and intricate plotting and, as before, the setting in Weimar Berlin.I found the first half confusing but the disparate elements - different investigations plus conflicting views on each one - gelled in the second half and it really become quite good and memorable. I see Kutscher has written 6 Gideon Rath stories in German, so here’s hoping numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6 get translated soon.It’s early 1930. Rath investigates the shocking death of a film star, burned and then electrocuted when a spotlight falls on her as she acts in front of a horrified cast and crew. Probing, Rath finds there’s more than meets the eye: it was probably sabotage, and by someone close to the production.Still a departmental black sheep, Rath is reassigned off the case as punishment by his temporary new boss Bohm, who resents his freewheeling ways. The head of homicide, who appreciates Rath's investigative brilliance, is on assignment out of town and not around to protect him. Meanwhile a second actress death suggests a serial killer may be at large, although the two deaths are quite different.Rath is pressured by his father, a police commissioner back in Cologne, to help the mayor there, a political ally. He needs Rath to nose around a Berlin Ford plant. It’s supposed to move to Cologne, bringing hundreds of jobs, but now seems stalled by blackmail.And Rath is inveigled by one of the film mogul’s involved in the Betty Winter case to privately investigate the disappearance of his flame Vivian Franck, another starlet.In the background are the Horst Wessel death, which the Nazis famously make propaganda from, and the upheaval in film from silent to talkies.Through it all Rath pines for Charlotte Ritter, the police steno - and now law student - who dumped him in the first story. There’s colorful brooding in his apartment while listening to Coleman Hawkins records. (This may be a slight anachronism. I can’t find reference to recordings featuring Hawkins as a soloist this early, but he played for major bands in the 1920s including Fletcher Henderson’s, so it’s possible.)Rath is tough to like. A lot of his problems are his own making - the lies he tells and manipulations he undertakes. We can see his motives - to hide his continuing work on the Betty Winter case from his boss Bohm, to hide as well his private sleuthing into Ford for his father and the starlet’s disappearance for producer Oppenberg; to hide his connection to underworld boss Marlow, to avoid the prying eyes of his secretary. Every deception, every omission, gives him more secrets to keep.But he’s unnecessarily nasty to people, including those well disposed toward him: colleagues, Ritter and even his parents. It’s a noir novel where heroic detectives usually act alone, but here would-be allies are driven off by Rath’s prickly manner.One thing I wonder about in this translated novel: how does the abrasive talk come across to German readers? The talk seems to me, like Rath does, unnecessarily nasty, rude to people who haven’t done anything to warrant it. But perhaps I don’t get the German or Berliner characters. This may be parallel how New Yorkers come across to other Americans: mouthy and obnoxious, while to each other they’re projecting lively, I’m-no-fool streets smarts.)The TV show succeeds because it touches on so many elements so powerfully: Communism, Nazism, sex, drugs, decadence, art, love, the legacy of World War I, Depression-era poverty and all behind an excellent detective story.This one is mostly a whodunit in the German film business as it transitions to talkies. But it hangs together very well. And it's got a slam-bang ending resolving most of the elements.

This is the second of seven mystery volumes set in Weimar Germany (this one in 1930) featuring Inspector Gereon Rath, a most interesting character. If you have not read the first volume, "Babylon Berlin," you should because the books are consecutive and don't always repeat prior developments in the continuing story; then read my Amazon review where I discuss the extraordinary historical research the author undertakes to reconstruct the Weimar Berlin setting of the books.The reader continues to learn a a bit more of Rath's background and the event that forced him to leave Cologne and transfer to the Berlin police. I find this gradual unfolding, some here some there, an effective technique. This installment is set in the Berlin film culture of 1930, when talkies are fighting to be accepted. Once again, the author's research is impeccable and recreates that lost world. And unlike the prior volume, there is really only one central plot rather than three or four--a big improvement, although with three murders the mass of details can still get problematic. Unlike the first volume, there is not much of an appearance by the Communists and Nazis whose street battles kept Berlin during this period quite lively, with the exception of a bit involving the Nazi staged funeral of Horst Wessel. Rath is not possessed of brilliant intuition in solving crimes; instead he relies upon proven techniques and much interviewing. But he gets the job done while ruffling the feathers of the police bureaucracy.The author injects some unique twists into the story. A key part is played by a rare Chinese fruit--Yangtao--in quite an innovative appearance. In the prior volume, a fascinating character who heads up the Berlin underworld, Dr. M (for Mabuse, a character in German impressionist movies of the period), once again assists Rath. And most surprisingly who should turn up but a young Konrad Adenauer who will later serve as the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany after World War II.While the translation continues to be excellent, it is once again just that--a translation that does not seek to educate the non-German reader about key individuals and places that arise in the story and that can confuse the reader if they are not familiar with Germany. Terms such as Ku'damm, KaDeWe, b.z.Am Mittag, Jannings, Wannsee, and Max Shreck appear without identification. But that is why we have Google, so this is not a real problem. I was, however, not happy with the ending of the story, it just struck me as too unrealistic even for crime fiction. However the last few pages of the book (pp. 520-522) deliver one of the most remarkable and surprising finishes I have ever seen in a mystery story. So all told, quite a satisfactory wrap to the story. Five more volumes to come.

An excellent read which totally captures the decadence and confusion of Weimar Germany . The atmosphere and mystery are very good as is the character development . Historically accurate with a little literary licence . As a result of reading this novel I immediately obtained the next two in the series and was not disappointed. I must admit to preferring the books to the TV series particularly with reference to the characters. The idea of Charly being a part time prostitute did not strike true whereas in the books she is a legal assistant.The translation from German is also top notch.

Silent Death is Gereon Rath's second outing in English (translated from the original German) in Silent Death Gereon Rath and the other members of A Division, Berlin Homicide are called in to investigate the deaths of several actresses who are transitioning from silent to talking movies.As with the first novel in the series, Babylon Berlin, the narrative twists and turns so that you are not sure who or why the murders have been committed right until the end of the novel. Volker Kutscher manages intertwine several interesting sub-plots which adds to the narrative.Silent Death is a great read, it's one of the few books I've read from cover in in sitting - truly excellent

I thoroughly enjoyed "Berlin Babylon" and was looking to reading the second Gereon Rath book, unfortunately I was a little disappointed with it. I found it overlong and struggled at times to keep going. The atmosphere of the first book was missing and the main character's habit of going it alone began migrate by the end.Having said that "Berlin Babylon" was so good that I will be reading the third instalment "Goldstein" on the chance that this was just not to my personal taste.

Berlin in the ‘30s, headstrong and wilfully disobedient detective Rath ferrets around for a serial killer of actresses working in the burgeoning world of talking pictures whilst messing up his personal and family life for no apparent reason. Atmospheric and involving but I wish there was a bit more description of the scenery rather than a succession of place and road names. The killer is OK but what he does and why is a bit far fetched- ignore this and it is very enjoyable.

.. verloren! i.e lost. an ok plot quite well told. but whoever turned it into english should out of ze translation biz - go!