2 crime stories by Volker Kutscher evoke Berlin on the eve of the Nazi ascent.  In “Babylon Berlin”, police discover a body with no identity who had clearly been tortured.  Investigator Gereon Rath discovers a connection with a circle of exiled Russian communists who are smuggling gold out of their homeland to purchase arms. But there are other people trying to get hold of the gold and the guns.  In “The Silent Death”, Roth investigates a suspicious death on a movie set.   These are “excellent police procedurals that cleverly captures the dark and dangerous period of the Weimar Republic before it slides into Nazism” (Kirkus Reviews).