Dohany Street

Budapest’s dark history finally catches up with Detective Balthazar Kovacs in the final instalment 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 building: 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.