Babylon Berlin, Kutscher - B+

           Newly arrived in 1929 from Koln, Inspector Gereon Rath is assigned to the Vice Squad. The capital is a city of decadence and violence, as the communists battle various right wing groups. As he was previously in Homicide and has little interst in porn raids, he decides to check out a murder in his free time. And he can't quite get his mind off the cute brunette stenographer in Homicide, Charlotte Ritter. While looking into the death of a Russian, he learns that there is allegedly a trove of Tsarist gold in the city. Rath makes enough of an impression in Vice that he is assigned to the short-handed Homicide division. Homicide is busy, hounded daily by the press, and a web of intrigue and internicene politics, all compounded by the murder of a young detective who likely was murdered by a colleague who is attempting to frame Gereon. Rath methodically works his way through clues and lies to confront and bring to justice those behind the murder of the Russian and his young colleague. Along the way though, all of the feuding at work appears to cost him a woman the he has fallen head over heels for, Charlotte Ritter. This is an excellent crime thriller, but an extraordinary historical novel. It brings to life the maddening complexities of Weimar Berlin.