[1] At university, Kutscher studied German, philosophy and history, and later worked as a newspaper editor prior to beginning his career as a novelist.

[2] In 1996, Kutscher published his first crime novel Bullenmord, set in his native region Bergisches Land.

[1] The series was an instant hit in Germany and was awarded the Berlin Krimi-Fuchs Crime Writers Prize in 2011 and has sold over one million copies worldwide.

In the mid-2010s, a writer-director team of Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries and Hendrik Handloegten used Kutscher's novels as the basis for the show Babylon Berlin.

Season 3 draws material from Book 2, notably the plot line of an actress killed by a falling light, but has many other differences.