{"id":2160,"date":"2019-06-13T10:51:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T00:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/?p=2160"},"modified":"2019-06-13T10:51:58","modified_gmt":"2019-06-13T00:51:58","slug":"the-silent-death-by-volker-kutscher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/2019\/the-silent-death-by-volker-kutscher\/","title":{"rendered":"The Silent Death by Volker Kutscher"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" data-attachment-id=\"2161\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/2019\/the-silent-death-by-volker-kutscher\/the-silent-death-cover\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/The-Silent-Death-Cover.jpg?fit=345%2C534&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"345,534\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"The Silent Death Cover\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/The-Silent-Death-Cover.jpg?fit=194%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/The-Silent-Death-Cover.jpg?fit=345%2C534&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/The-Silent-Death-Cover.jpg?resize=194%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"The Silent Death by Volker Kutscher\" class=\"wp-image-2161\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/The-Silent-Death-Cover.jpg?resize=194%2C300&amp;ssl=1 194w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/The-Silent-Death-Cover.jpg?resize=32%2C50&amp;ssl=1 32w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/The-Silent-Death-Cover.jpg?w=345&amp;ssl=1 345w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The Silent Death<\/em> is the second of the Gereon Rath books, police procedurals set in\n1930s Berlin, in translation. The first, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/2018\/babylon-berlin-by-volker-kutscher\/\">Babylon\nBerlin<\/a><\/em>, was made into a lavish German TV series that has been\ndiscovered globally thanks to Netflix. The next season of the TV series is set\nto tackle the plot of <em>The Silent Death,<\/em> although so many changes were\nmade to characters and plot points in the first that reading the book first may\nbe little guide to what might happen on screen. The irony of all this being\nthat the main investigation in <em>The Silent Death<\/em> revolves around the\ndeaths of actresses as silent movies were being superseded by &nbsp;\u201ctalkies\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book opens with Gereon Rath being\ncalled to the death of actress Betty Winter. Winter has been killed by a\nspotlight falling on her from the rig above the set. Soon Rath is enmeshed in a\ndispute between the owner of the studio and rival studio. At the same time his\nfather asks him to investigate a blackmail attempt on the Mayor of Cologne. And\nif that is not enough Rath beats up one of his fellow officers for impugning\nhis ex girlfriend Charly and then takes on a private role searching for another\nmissing actress. As readers of the first book will already know, despite his\nskills as an investigator Rath is not so good at keeping all of these balls in\nthe air and eventually he falls foul of his boss, his mentor and his\ncolleagues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Gereon Rath books are solid\nprocedurals. The solution is obvious from early on (some killer\u2019s point of view\nchapters help with this), but the interest with procedurals is always more in\nhow the crime is solved. While <em>The Silent Death<\/em> is a little longer than\na procedural can generally carry, what lifts this, and the series as a whole,\nabove the ordinary is the distinct feel and insight Kutscher gives of Berlin in\nthe 1930s. <em>The Silent Death<\/em> is not nearly as political as <em>Babylon\nBerlin<\/em> but the politics of the time are always in the background including\nthe rise of the Nazi party and their ongoing conflict with the communists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rath himself continues to be a mix of intuitive, self-destructive and obsessive but also loyal to his friends, a fact that he relies on without quite realising it. His muse and ex Charly, who played a major role in the first book plays only a small but significant role in this book, but looks like she will clearly be back in book 3. It is likely that the tv version of this book will give her more to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is the second Rath book in\ntranslation, and there are more to come. Six have been released in German and\nthree more are planned. While <em>The Silent\nDeath<\/em> could be read as a stand alone there are enough call backs to <em>Babylon\nBerlin<\/em>, both characters and situations, that it would be advisable to read\nit first. Either way, this is more crime fiction in translation (that isn\u2019t\nNordic), that is worth catching up with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pile by the Bed reviews The Silent Death by Volker Kutscher, the second of the 1930s Berlin set Gereon Rath books in translation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,113,12],"tags":[54,126,84,65,344],"class_list":["post-2160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-historical","category-review","tag-crime-fiction","tag-germany","tag-historical-fiction","tag-review","tag-volker-kutscher"],"wppr_data":{"cwp_meta_box_check":"Yes","cwp_rev_product_name":"The Silent Death by Volker Kutscher","_wppr_review_template":"default","cwp_rev_product_image":"http:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/The-Silent-Death-Cover.jpg","cwp_image_link":"link","wppr_links":{"Allen and Unwin":"https:\/\/www.allenandunwin.com\/browse\/books\/fiction\/crime-mystery\/The-Silent-Death-Volker-Kutscher-9781760527938"},"cwp_rev_price":"$22.99 AUD","wppr_pros":[""],"wppr_cons":[""],"wppr_rating":"0.00","wppr_options":[]},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/The-Silent-Death-Cover.jpg?fit=345%2C534&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6OvC3-yQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1362,"url":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/2018\/babylon-berlin-by-volker-kutscher\/","url_meta":{"origin":2160,"position":0},"title":"Babylon Berlin by Volker Kutscher","author":"robertgoodman","date":"23\/04\/2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Just in time for the release of the German-made Netflix series of the same name is the translation of the first of Volker Kutscher\u2019s crime fiction series set in Berlin in late 1920s on which the series is loosely based.\u00a0 Both series, are based around the exploits of homicide policeman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Crime&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Crime","link":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/category\/review\/crime\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Babylon Berlin by Volker Kutscher","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Babylon-Berlin-Cover-194x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6602,"url":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/2023\/this-wild-wild-country-by-inga-vesper\/","url_meta":{"origin":2160,"position":1},"title":"This Wild Wild Country by Inga Vesper","author":"robertgoodman","date":"16\/01\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Pile by the Bed reviews This Wild, Wild Country by Inga Vesper, a historical crime novel that explores a range of cultural issues from the 1970s that are still prevalent today.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Crime&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Crime","link":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/category\/review\/crime\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Buy from Booktopia","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/301066-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/301066-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/301066-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/301066-2.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":101,"url":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/2016\/the-silent-inheritance-by-joy-dettman\/","url_meta":{"origin":2160,"position":2},"title":"The Silent Inheritance by Joy Dettman","author":"robertgoodman","date":"14\/03\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Joy Dettman delves into a world of crime in her latest novel. Over a wide cast of characters she manages to fit in a whole spectrum of crime and general meanness into a small space: from a serial killer through to a hit and run, perjury and drug dealing. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Crime&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Crime","link":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/category\/review\/crime\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover of The Silent Inheritance by Joy Dettman","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Silen-Inheritance-Cover-199x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4326,"url":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/2021\/the-silent-listener-by-lyn-yeowart\/","url_meta":{"origin":2160,"position":3},"title":"The Silent Listener by Lyn Yeowart","author":"robertgoodman","date":"10\/03\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Pile by the Bed reviews The Silent Listener, the debut novel by Lyn Yeowart dealing with the dark side of living in rural Australia in the second half of the twentieth century.","rel":"","context":"In 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