4 Stars
"Sometimes I have the impression that A Division devours CID officers like Cronos did his children."
As a new DCI for the Vice Division, Gereon Rath soon finds that his aspirations have landed him right smack in the middle of a knot of twisted connections and questionable allegiances. Babylon Berlin starts out with Gereon (and us) as the new guy in town. Quickly, things are happening and finding one's balance is soon a rollercoaster ride of pornography, nightclubs, drugs, and dead bodies.
In Homicide, he had known why he worked for the police. But Vice? Who cared about a bit of pornography every now and then? Self-proclaimed moral apostles perhaps, for they too had found their place in the Republic, but Rath didn't count himself amongst them.
I can see why this was made into a tv series; it has more happening in it than a lot of books get to in three. This is chockfull, well-plotted, and has enough intrigue to highlight just how political police work really is.The Interwar period is one of my favorites and definitely made this more interesting. The details of Berlin from the architecture, cars, new department stores to the more obvious communist and growing nazi elements in the city are so unobtrusively relayed that you feel enveloped as the reader rather than a distant observer. This is rather gritty and I really really liked it.
Stephan Jänicke sat on the rear seat with the type of frozen face only an East Prussian could achieve. There wasn't the slightest trace of emotion in it. Rath knew that the rookie hadn't exchanged a single word with the doorman in the last half hour. Not even the East Westphalians with whom Rath worked with in Cologne could manage that.
It will be interesting to see where the series goes from here. The english translation for the second in the series, The Silent Death, is due this winter and I am eager. Please note that it is British English not American English.
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