When a car is hauled out of the Landwehr Canal with a mutilated corpse inside, Detective Inspector Gereon Rath claims the case. Soon his inquiries drag him ever deeper into the morass of Weimar Berlin's 'Roaring Twenties' underworld (Goodreads).
For a moment, let's ignore the wholly unremarkable depictions of physical relationships that often blur the line between appropriate, historically accurate grunge and just plain discomfort; the underwhelming and often dry phrasing and sentence structure (perhaps the fault of the translator rather than the author), the result of which is a story that seems to drag on a little too much; and a protagonist who does not do a whole lot to endear himself to the reader. Instead, let's focus on the unique and captivating setting of 1920s Berlin, an area where the author's creativity flourishes. The mystery that unfolds in this setting is captivating (when not broken up by the aforementioned negatives), and Kutscher unveils several brilliant and engaging twists. After a few, the plot (and eventual climax) is slightly convoluted, but for the most part, as a political/noir/cop/detective novel, this book does quite well. That being said, of course, there are several glaring detractors that lower the quality of what would otherwise be an extremely enjoyable story. 6.7/10
