The sixth book in the bestselling Gereon Rath detective series, which was the basis for the Babylon Berlin series
Berlin, end of May 1934. The enthusiasm for Hitler's rule wanes, the SA forces gain power and begin to behave unpredictably. Many people are afraid that the brownshirts will attack them or even capture them for no reason. And that is why the news of the murder of an SA member, whose corpse is found under a railway bridge with a communist slogan on the wall above it, causes quite a stir.
At the crime scene, Commissioner Gereon Rath meets his former colleague Reinhold Graf, who now works for the Secret State Police. While Graf considers the case to be a politically motivated murder, Rath's theories go in a completely different direction. The crime commissioner discovers a connection between the murdered SA-man and a notorious crime ring.
As the investigation continues, the political situation is escalating and the pressure on Commissioner Rath is growing. Eventually, the detective finds himself caught between the brownshirts and the Berlin underworld: while the SA seizes his wife, he himself is given a clear assignment - murder for hire.
