The Silent Death

Gereon Rath, Book 2

De: Volker Kutscher

Narrado por: Mark Meadows

Berlin, 1930. Sound film is conquering the big screen, leaving many by the wayside: producers, cinema owners - and silent film stars. Investigating the violent on-set death of actress Betty Winter, Inspector Gereon Rath encounters the dark side of glamour and an industry in turmoil.

When his father requests that he help his friend, the mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer, and his ex-girlfriend, Charly, makes a renewed attempt at rapprochement, things start to get out of hand. Trapped in the machinations of rival film producers, he roams Berlin's Chinese quarter and the city's underworld as he works ever closer to the edge of legality. Meanwhile the funeral of the murdered Horst Wessel leads to clashes between Nazis and Communists.

©2017 Volker Kutscher (P)2017 Audible, Ltd

A lot of fun but not the best writer

The author can plot well and the characters are interesting in so far as he fleshes them out, which usually isn’t a lot, even the main characters. I don’t know if the less-than-stellar style is in the original German or a problem with the translation.

Superb entertainment.

Mark Meadows was exceptionally brilliant and versatile in voicing the many unforgettable characters in Kutscher’s highly enjoyable crime novel set in in Berlin Europe nearly a century ago. It is so titillating to glimpse into a world without smart phones and everyone seems to be addicted to smoking. I appreciate the research behind the historical backdrop of this story. For one who don’t know German, I thank Niall Sellar for his expert translation giving me many hours of enjoyment and a good insight and impression of the intriguing city of Berlin that has remained so through the ages.

Great detective story, great narration!

I watched the TV series and it was excellent. But I love the books! It’s hard to find good old fashioned detective stories; the Gereon Rath series fits the bill! I highly recommend these books by Volker Kutscher.

Silent Death: complex and intriguing

As with Babylon Berlin by the same author, there are many threads to this story and some patience is required before the various components come together in an intriguing whole. The narrator does well with the German terms. I read part of the book in German first but prefer to listen. If one likes the novels of Robert Harris and Philip Kerr this one too will surely please.

Great Mystery Though Volume Issues

This is a very good mystery, and the reader is quite good with voices and inflections. The pronounciation is reasonably correct. The one problem is that there is whispering (stage whispering) in the text where the volume becomes difficult to calibrate to hear those parts. There is also major inconsistent volume changes between takes that were not carefully edited. Mark Meadows does a stageworthy read, but the editor/audioengineer could use some work with consistency.

Left a Little to Be Desired

Appreciated the more humorous elements this time around and expansion on certain characters but the plot itself (and explanations at the end) definitely needed some work.

Good concept for a short story

Bought this series because I really enjoy the TV show. The first book was solid, but this one just drags on an on. A lot of the same back and forth between characters and no character growth. Plot barely moves forward. Just seems like a lot of padding as if there was a word count minimum.