Kossuth Square

Detective Balthazar Kovacs Danube Blues #2

by Adam LeBor

THE TIMES Best 100 Books of the Summer.

When Detective Balthazar Kovacs is called out before dawn to a brothel owned by his brother, he knows it can only be bad news. A customer has died in the brothel's VIP room. Worse still, he's an Arab financier, a guest of government, connected to a massive investment programme that could transform Hungary. It looks like a heart attack – but why has the brothel's CCTV footage been erased?

Kovacs knows only too well the treacherous undercurrents that permeate life in Hungary's capital the deadly intersection between the criminal underworld, the corridors of power and the ghosts of history. He knows that his investigation is more than likely to lead back to the seat of power, the Országház, in Kossuth Square... but he does not expect to be swept into his own family's dark past too.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Mystery

346 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 4, 2019

About the author

Adam LeBor was born in London and read Arabic, international history and politics at Leeds University, graduating in 1983, and also studied Arabic at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He worked for several British newspapers before becoming a foreign correspondent in 1991. He has reported from thirty countries, including Israel and Palestine, and covered the Yugoslav wars for The Times of London and The Independent. Currently Central Europe correspondent for The Times of London, he also writes for the Sunday Times, The Econdomist, Literary Review, Condé Nast Traveller, the Jewish Chronicle, New Statesman and Harry's Place in Britain, and contributes to The Nation and the New York Times in the States. He is the author of seven books, including the best-selling Hitler's Secret Bankers, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. His books have been published in nine languages.

Reviews

[Gunnar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ungarn im Herbst 2015: Der ungarische Ministerpräsident Pálkovics ist im Zuge einer Korruptionsaffäre um die Ausstellung ungarischer Pässe an Personen mit islamistischem Hintergrund zurückgetreten. Mittendrin in den Ereignissen war der Roma-Kommissar Baltházar Kosics, der nun einige Tage später einen heiklen Fall hat. In einem Luxus-Bordell seines Bruders ist ein Investor aus den Golf-Staaten beim Akt verstorben. Baltházar vermutet, dass da jemand nachgeholfen hat, der weitere Gespräche zwischen dem Toten und der neuen Ministerpräsidentin Bárdossy verhindern wollte. Und schon bald wird deutlich, dass der alte Ministerpräsident alles unternimmt, um sein Amt wiederzubekommen.

„Zwischen den Korridoren“ ist der zweite Band um den Budapester Kommissar Baltházar Kosics, der als Teil einer Roma-Familie ein Grenzgänger zwischen seiner Familie und der ungarischen Mehrheitsgesellschaft ist. Der Roman schließt zeitlich quasi nahtlos an den Vorgänger an, sodass es Sinn macht, diesen zuerst zu lesen, da die Ereignisse aufeinander aufbauen.

Wie schon der Vorgänger überzeugt der Roman bei den komplexen Figuren, der Schilderung der ungarischen Gesellschaft und politischen Verhältnisse und bei der intensiven Beschreibung von Budapest. Der Hintergrund Baltázars als Roma spielt allerdings eine etwas geringere Rolle als in Band 1 zugunsten eines nochmal erhöhten Politthrillerformats mit zahlreichen Actionszenen, das fand ich im ersten Teil etwas stimmiger und ausgewogener. Das Ausmaß der politischen Verschwörung in einem EU-Land, dass der Autor hier entwirft, überrascht den Leser ein wenig, wirkt aber nicht unplausibel und sorgt für einen hohen Spannungsbogen. Insofern eine gelungene Fortsetzung der Reihe.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kossuth Square is the follow up book in Adam Lebor’s Danube Blues series, set in the heart of Budapest at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015. The book is set in the week immediately following the first book District VIII, and continues in a similar vein. The book centres around Balthazar Kovacs, a Gypsy policeman and Lebor does an amazing job of highlighting the prejudices, inequities and generations of disadvantage experienced by the Roma race. Lebor also continues to elucidate the political tensions in Hungary and the impact of the post-communist era. The clarity with which he describes Budapest in terms of its layout and history makes the reading experience so much more enjoyable for me. I love nothing more than interspersing my reading with immersing myself in the city map, and checking out bits and pieces about architecture, history, landmarks etc online while I read.

Speaking of landmarks, the book is named for Kossuth Square, reported as the symbolic centre of the Hungarian state. Housing the Hungarian parliament building and other notable and historical landmarks, Kossuth Square seems to be symbolic of Hungarian nationalism. A quick google search reveals the square has a rich tapestry of political demonstration and people power.

Lebor’s Kossuth Square lives up to the reputation of the real Kossuth Square as the book centres around political unrest following the deposing of the previous prime minister at the end of the last book. The square is the scene of mass demonstration and almost mass destruction as the story unfolds.

I would highly recommend the series and I’m looking forward to what Lebor has in store for a third instalment.

[Hermien · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great continuation of the story in District VIII.

[gofri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Szerintem a második kötetre kifulladt ez a könyv.
Lehet, hogy az teszi, hogy naponta ebben élünk és már megvastagodott a bőr a képünkön, de nekem ebben (a narratíva szintjén sem!) semmi meglepő, döbbenetes, meghökkentő vagy odab@aszós nincs. A történet is kissé lapos (főleg, ha valaki olvasott Dan Brownt pl.), a karakterfejlődésnek pedig nyoma sincs, pedig számomra izgalmas lenne, mi történik Baltazárra, hogyan küzd tovább a származásával és a jelenlegi helyzetével, hogy alakulnak a kapcsolatai, stb. (Ennek hiánya főleg a végén zavart, ami szerintem nagyon slendrián lett…)
Míg az első kötetnél azt éreztem, hogy a szerző tényleg beleásta magát egy posztkommunista ország helyzetébe, viszonyaiba, ezt a folytatást elég felületesnek tartom, hiányolom az erős átpolitizáltságot. Kb. olyan, mintha egy C-kategóriás „kommunistás” akciófilmet néznénk valamelyik minor mozicsatornán.

[Humphrey Hawksley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kossuth Square is slick East European Noir. altazar Kovacs is an investigator of modern Europe, as if plucked from an Alan Furst story and dropped into today’s tidal confluences that rip around Hungary, a country riddled with corruption, violent ambition and the remnants of hope. Kossuth Square whose title is drawn from the Budapest area outside the Hungarian Parliament building, begins with a murder in an expensive brothel against a backdrop of the Middle East migrant crisis and big money. From there, Adam LeBor draws us into the underbelly of the fragmenting European dream. His style, pace and ramping up of tension are second to none and Baltazar Kovac’s himself is a brave choice of hero in that he is Roma, mostly outcast by mainstream Hungarian society, yet fighting the system, good at his job and lending a firm noir-esque moral compass to a wayward society. Lebor knows his stuff. An excellent thriller.

[Patti K · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 2019 mystery that takes place in Buda and Pest on either
side of the Danube in Hungary. Balthazar Kovacs, a Roma whose
father disowned him for becoming a police officer. He went to the
enemy's side. A tangled political thriller with the subplot of his brother
Gaspar's involvement in the underworld. The country is being seiged by
the xenophobic, racist Hungarian National Front. Who will be the new
Prime Minister between two dominant rivals is a toss-up. Very well-done
and rich with detail.

[Lidia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kovacs is the most not cop who I have read of. I wasn't sure after reading the first book of the series but I'm now. Most of the time he doesn't search proofs, others do for him and to the end him is the hero that puts down the culprit... physically naturally. But I like him however. And I like how the author writes about Budapest. Remain the fact also of the length of many descriptions about the past, the houses, the people. Overall I appreciated the intrigues .

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I totally loved District VIII, thought it was revelatory, written by a foreign correspondent so it was as much a fun history book as a thriller...but Kossuth Square felt more formulaic and less exciting. Of course I will read the third one when it comes out and watch the tv series allegedly in development

[Mark Latchford · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting political murder mystery set in modern Budapest which also dives deeply into to Roma culture and Hungary’s communist past. Perhaps padded with too many verbois descriptions of various districts and streets in the capital but entertaining characters, some tension especially in the second half and a segue into more books about the same detective

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Steve Sidders · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book although for my money it would have been better without the inclusion of every street in the Budapest A to Z, which in my opinion added nothing to the story only the word count.