Dohany Street

Detective Balthazar Kovacs Danube Blues #3

by Adam LeBor

Budapest's dark history finally catches up with Detective Balthazar Kovacs in the final installment in Adam LeBor's Hungarian crime trilogy. Budapest, January 2016. The Danube is grey and half-frozen, covered with ice, and the city seems to have gone into hibernation. But not for Detective Balthazar Kovacs. Elad Harari, a young Israeli historian, has disappeared. There's no sign of violence but something feels very wrong. Harari was working in the archives of the city's Jewish Museum, investigating the fate of the assets of the Hungarian Jews murdered in the Holocaust. It's clear that his research is setting off alarm bells at one of the country's most powerful companies. The more Balthazar digs into the case, the more he is certain that shadowy forces are in play. Someone wants Harrari out of the picture. And the pressure is Budapest is preparing for a major diplomatic visit – if Harari is not found it will be cancelled. The threats against Balthazar soon turn to violence. It's clear that if he is to find the historian he will have to go face-to-face with some very dangerous people – and confront the darkest era in Hungary's past. 'Budapest is a versatile and exciting setting for Adam LeBor's superb thriller ... As well as being a police procedural, the book deals with politics and organised crime in Hungary. LeBor lives in Budapest and it shows in the vivid detail' The Times 'All the twists and turns of a high-concept Hollywood thriller ... But what makes it really stand out is the way LeBor intelligently grafts his novel's thriller elements on to Hungarian history and politics as well as current events, from the rise of populism to organised crime. Each facet has the ring of truth' Financial Times

Genres: Fiction

400 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2022

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

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The city could still take her breath away with its luminous beauty. The Danube shone black, it’s waters sleek and glistening. The neo- Gothic extravaganza of the parliament building loomed over the river, it’s sharp spires and domed roof glowing golden, like some fantastic castle in a fairy story. Across the water the lights of Buda were spread out like a carpet of jewels, reaching high into the hills, blinking and shimmering in the dark.” p270

I love books that transport me to other parts of the globe, immersing me deeply into culture, geography, history and atmosphere... where the setting is as important as the characters and exudes life of its own. Adam LeBor’s Danube Blues Trilogy does that exactly as it brings to life the city of Budapest, exquisite and haunting capital of a Hungary. In the author’s own acknowledgements at the end of the book he says, “A novelist’s primary aim must always be to site an enthralling story, but I hope these books will also make readers, whether locals or visitors, pause for a moment, think about and perhaps even explore Budapest’s hidden histories”.

Dohány Street is the final instalment in the trilogy featuring Gypsy policeman Balthazar Kovacs. Throughout the trio of books I’ve been taken on a journey through district VIII, Keleti station into the epicentre of Europe’s refugee crisis, Kossuth Square, in the shadow of Hungary’s parliament and now Dohány street in the Jewish quarter of district VII. Dohány street takes us to the Jewish Holocaust in Hungary in 1944, exposing this dark era in European history. LeBor takes us on a journey that uncovers the devastating loss of so many and the ill-gotten gain of the wealthy elite at Jewish expense.

Balthazar or more affectionately known as Tazi is a likeable character, albeit a little cliche. An excellent final instalment to what has been a great series to read and delve deeply into a city that I am even keener to visit now.

[Charlotte Eagar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nail biting and evocative

A great thriller by Budapest based journalist lebor. As well as being tightly plotted, it’s also moving and you can feel, smell and see Budapest. Dohany street is drenched with Lebor’s knowledge of Hungary and its poignant and conflicted history.

[Alison Budge · Rating 4 out of 5]

A crime thriller in a very different and unusual setting to my usual reads, in Hungary’s Budapest. As such, the unfamiliar names and places and norms made it a slower read for me than usual, requiring concentration. However, I was fascinated to learn about the Gypsy and a Jewish history there, which I knew almost nothing about, and I enjoyed the story very much. Coincidentally, 2 separate friend groups visited Budapest while I was reading the book and it was fantastic to see their photos on social media, showing many of the city spots mentioned in the book. It really made the story real for me.

[Geoffrey Charin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adam LeBor’s Dohany Street is a tautly written political thriller that takes place in Budapest. An Israeli historian, investigating Hungary’s murky past during WW2, disappears on the eve of a state visit by the Israeli prime minister, himself the child of Hungarian holocaust refugees. Conicidence?

That is for you, the reader, and for LeBor’s Hungarian gypsy copper, Balthazar Kovacs, the hero of his two previous thrillers, to find out and this novel won’t disappoint. Warning: If you’ve not already been to Budapest, you’ll want to go now and see the Danube surrounded by the Pre WW1 architecture of the Hapsberg imperial dynasty.

As the pieces of the puzzle come together the characters come together in a thrilling climax – make sure you put on your seat belts!

[Guy Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this espionage/police thriller, and was immersed in the world of Hungarian politics, Gypsies,Nazi atrocities (based on historical fact)It was well written and enjoyable and the author's love of the city shone through.

[Miklos · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a first generation Hungarian, whose parents lived through the dark days of 1944-5, I always wondered what really happened.

In addition to being a masterful thriller novel, that captures the beauty of Budapest with intricate detail,
This novel also encourage me to learn about the history of what happened in the final months of World War II in Budapest.

The answer is not pretty. While this novel is sold as fiction, there is enough truth, and slight name changing the reader can quickly figure out the dark history on his or her on. The factory complex on Csepel island is especially well documented.

Oh, and yes, there are plenty of car chases, Krav, Maga, Hungarian foods, and romance, that kept me up all night reading.

I loved this book.

[Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed in Dohany Street by Daniel Lebor. I felt like I was reading a love letter to Hungary and Budapest and not a noir crime novel. The plot, featuring a Gypsy detective (no one in the book called him Roma), Balthazar, who, with various twists and turns and the help of various characters helps to right a Holocaust-related expropriation of valuable Jewish property. Plenty of bad guys, some fights and car chases. The usual stuff, characters without much depth, revealed in a leisurely manner. But the book held my interest to the end, despite a few chapters settling the next steps in the main characters lives.

[Mark Frangia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall I found this an enticing read. The plot was convoluted enough to keep me interested while the descriptions of Budapest's recent history, its Jewish and Roma underpinnings provided a new outlook to what many of us now view as Orbán's fascist state.
What irked me were the numerous typos and double verbs the editor should have caught before the final galleys went to press. In short Adam Lebor has captured my interest to read more of his work. I only hope I can find some of it still in print!

Mark di Frangia, author of The Naked Butler

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the first 70 or so pages a bit confusing (I could have done with a breakdown of all the characters) but then all of a sudden I was completely hooked and intrigued by the story. The horrifying history of the persecution of gypsies in WW2 (and the ongoing racism nowadays) was fascinating and tragic.

[Susan Rothenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A multilayered mystery in Hungary which my father would have loved to have read!

[Janet B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detective thriller set in Budapest

[Katia Lauderdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible ending to the series - love!

[Katalin Kádár · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Must Read!

Riveting, well crafted and historically authentic. All three of these gritty Balthazar Kovacs novels by Adam LeBor are engrossing and impossible to put down.