Budapest Noir: A Novel

Vilmos Kondor

Budapest Noir: A Novel
Format
Paperback
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Country
United States
Published
19 April 2012
Pages
304
ISBN
9780061859397

Budapest Noir: A Novel

Vilmos Kondor

Riveting, dark, and swift, Budapest Noir is a brilliant debut from a new international voice. Vilmos Kondor artfully captures pre-war Budapest, its social strata, politics, and bustling street life in this gripping and evocative thriller.

In October 1936, Hungary’s prime minister dies before his dream of building a fascist state can be realized. But on the streets of Budapest, it’s business as usual for crime reporter Zsigmond Gordon as he follows a tip to a crime scene where a beautiful woman lies dead with only a Jewish prayer book in her purse.

Disturbed by the bizarre circumstances of her death, Gordon is determined to investigate how such a beautiful, religious woman could end up dead in one of Budapest’s seedier neighborhoods. He’ll follow the leads through the city’s dark underbelly replete with pornographers, crime syndicates, and Communist cells to the highest echelons of power-the corrupt politicians and desperate businessmen trying to gain their favor.

Gordon soon uncovers the identity of the victim: the disinherited scion of one of Hungary’s leading executives. Her father might be well-connected-with economic and political ties to leaders in Germany-so long as he keeps secret the fact that he was once Jewish.
With masterful suspense and political intrigue reminiscent of the work of Alan Furst and Henning Mankell, Budapest Noir is a richly atmospheric tale of murder and betrayal.

Review

In pre–WWII Hungary, crime reporter Zsigmond Gordon drinks a lot of coffee, smokes a lot of cigarettes and goes about his job with a perfectly noir amount of sass and insider knowledge. Life has been cruising along quite well, when he’s called to the murder of a Jewish prostitute on the street, a crime generating a lot of disinterest of its own but which strikes Gordon as something much more complicated.

Unfortunately for him, he’s right, and against the backdrop of the sudden death of Hungary’s prime minister, a political event even Gordon can’t ignore, he uses all his contacts, pengos and wits to figure out what happened to the dead woman, and what links her to everything from the boxing ring to the police chief to those in the highest echelons of power.

I worried that the political chitchat of a region I had virtually no knowledge of would make this book an overwhelming prospect, but Kondor handles that possible issue deftly, explaining everything clearly but leaving the major thrills to the star characters – Gordon, his jam-making grandfather, his fed-up graphic designer girlfriend, and the medley of bad, good and entertaining sorts he encounters along his investigation.

Blackly humorous, as dangerous as the excellently portrayed times it’s set in and hitting all the right notes, this is a crime novel that does exactly what it says on the packet.

[[fiona-hardy-pic]]Fiona Hardy sells books and talks too much to customers at Readings Carlton, and puts together Dead Write for the

This item is not currently in-stock. It can be ordered online and is expected to ship in 7-14 days

Our stock data is updated periodically, and availability may change throughout the day for in-demand items. Please call the relevant shop for the most current stock information. Prices are subject to change without notice.

Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.