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's dark history finally catches up with Detective Balthazar Kovacs in the final instalment in Adam LeBor's Danube Blues Hungarian crime trilogy. Budapest, January 2016. The Danube is grey and half-frozen, and the city seems to have gone into hibernation. But not Detective Balthazar Kovacs. Elad Harrari, a young Israeli historian, has disappeared. There's no sign of violence but something feels very wrong. Harrari was working in the city's Jewish Museum, investigating the fate of the assets of the Hungarian Jews murdered in the Holocaust. It's clear his research set 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. And the pressure is building: Budapest is preparing for a major diplomatic visit - if Harrari 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. Reviews for Dohany Street: 'Budapest is a versatile and exciting setting for Adam LeBor's superb thriller' The Times'All the twists and turns of a high-concept Hollywood thriller' Financial Times