The Fatherland Files

Historical Thriller Set at the Birth of the Third Reich

The Fatherland Files by Volker Kutscher is the fourth book in his Gereon Rath series.

A clever and stimulating read with a myriad of storylines. There is never a dull moment as Rath chases down a serial killer with a bizarre M.O.

To add to the crime drama, the story chronicles the death throes of German democracy.

‘Perhaps it’s time Herr Hitler headed back to Austria. Half a year ago he didn’t have citizenship, now he’s telling us what it means to be German?’

Synopsis

In July 1932, the body of a spirits distributor, Herr Lamkau, is found in the service lift of a vast entertainment complex on Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz. Events take a surreal turn when the pathologist claims that the victim drowned. It is hard to drown in a service lift, particularly one that is stuck on the fourth floor.

When Inspector Gereon Rath searches the dead man’s house, he uncovers the death notice of a miner from Dortmund. What had the two men got in common?

A visit to East Prussia — modern-day Poland — an altercation with the emerging Nazi party, a brush with death in open marshland, and a tip-off from the Berlin underworld help Rath assemble the pieces.

Review

In The Fatherland Files, Volker Kutscher drags us back to the end of the Weimar Republic and the birth of the Third Reich. He tells an archetypal detective story laden with betrayal, racism, murder and greed. It is a runaway tale, weaving together the Berlin underworld, a smuggling ring, a jealous lover and —somewhat surprisingly — the German infatuation with Red Indians.

Whilst the political situation is only a backdrop to the crime story, Kutscher instils a subtle understanding of some of the social and economic circumstances that gave rise to the Third Reich. At the same time, it alludes to many people’s antipathy to politics and their under-estimation of the Nazi party.

‘I’m not interested in politics … I fight crime.’

Kutscher will draw you into a world of small-town politics, mistrust and bigotry. All wrapped up in a gripping historical thriller.

Excerpt

The corpse still wore the same horrified expression as yesterday morning, but it was paler now, the area around the mouth a deeper shade of blue. The doctor gripped the ashen face and turned it to one side. Using his index finger, he gestured towards a point on the neck around which is small, blueish dot had formed.

‘See?’ Karthaus asked. Ralph nodded, tempted for an instant to lean over the man’s neck to get a better view, only to listen to his stomach’s advice and trust in the doctor’s words. ‘A puncture site,’ Karthaus continued. ‘The injection was administered intravenously.’

‘What kind of injection?’

’He didn’t get it from a doctor, anyway. I’ve already checked. Perhaps he was a morphine addict.’ The doctor drew on his cigarette. ‘Though it’s hardly common from morphine addicts to inject through the jugular vein. You’d need a mirror, for starters. Besides… if our man here was a morphine addict there’d have to be additional puncture sites. But this is the only one.’

‘Are you saying that someone administered the injection for him?’

‘Everything points that way. Which means we have evidence of external violence after all.’

‘A lethal injection?’

‘Hopefully a blood analysis will reveal all.’

‘So the man didn’t drown!’ Rath didn’t always need to be right, but he savoured it here.

The Fatherland Files by Volker Kutscher