Kutscher's crime novels adapted for TV

The Gereon Rath crime series by German author Volker Kutscher is to be adapted for television in a €40m (£30.9m) series jointly produced by Sky and German public broadcaster ARD.

The detective drama series centres on Cologne police commissioner Gereon Rath in 1920s Berlin.

The German language series will be directed by Tom Tykwer who is known for "Run Lola Run", "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer", and "Cloud Atlas" in collobaration with filmmaking team The Wachowskis.

Rath will be played by German actor Volker Bruch and Rath’s girlfriend, Charlotte, will be played by Liv Lisa Fries.

The first book in the series, Babylon Berlin, will be published in English by Sandstone Press in May. It will be translated by Niall Sellar.

Sandstone acquired world English-language rights to Babylon Berlin from Tanja Howarth at the Tanja Howarth Literary Agency London, on behalf of Verlag Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne which published the five-book series in Germany.

Sandstone Press m.d. Robert Davidson said: “This is thrilling news. The Gereon Rath mysteries has already captured a huge German-language readership and we are very proud to be bring the first of them, Babylon Berlin, to the entire English-speaking world. Scrupulous with historical detail and atmosphere, with two utterly engaging central characters in Gereon Rath and Charlotte Ritter, and tightly plotted and exciting, I knew I wanted to publish this series as soon as I learned it existed. It has all the material not only for great reading but also for great television and I do believe its impact is going to be huge.”

The series will air internationally on Sky in 2017, and on German TV in 2018.