The second book in the extraordinary detective series, which was the basis for the successful Babylon Berlin series
Berlin 1930. The death of the adored actress Betty Winter brings Gereon Rath to the Berlin film studios. A young Cologne police commissioner working in the Berlin homicide department soon learns the downside of stardom and witnesses a turning point in the film industry.
Sound film is taking the world by storm and many of the less successful are missing the train in this transition: producers, cinema owners - and silent film stars. During the investigation, Rath finds himself between the battle lines of rival film producers, in Berlin's Chinatown, in the underworld and on the very edge of the law.
While a street battle breaks out between Nazis and Communists at Horst Wessel's funeral, Rath has to get out of the way of his superior Böhm, who wants him off the case.
