Gripping and unusual thriller

Adam LeBor has created a fascinating character in Gypsy murder detective Balthazar Kovac. Even though he’s a policeman, he’s on the outside, not trusted by his colleagues and shunned by his own family.

When Kovac gets a text message with a photo he’s drawn into a web of government, international organized crime gangs and the ghosts of the Soviet and Nazi era that still haunt Budapest.

LeBor describes the gritty back alleys of District VIII with a knowledge seemingly of having walked these streets on the ground, and his knowledge of the Romany community with its customs and practices adds an extra layer of authenticity and gives the book a rich atmospheric feel.

His characterisations are strong too with menacing criminals, corrupt politicians and truth seeking journalists all described in compelling detail.

I greatly enjoyed this book and found it to be quite a page turner. I will be looking out for further works by this author.

This review is also on Goodreads as it appears here:

I received an advance copy of this through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

As well as being a mystery/thriller, this novel was also really rich in both the history and description of Budapest and the Roma people. Coincidently, I was in Budapest briefly during the time that this novel took place and it definitely brought back memories, especially of the Terror Museum.
The lead character, Balthazar is both cop and Roma and he uses this to his advantage in investigations and also gaining access to the criminal underworld. His character is complex and I found myself wanting to know more about his past. There are many references to his family life, past cases, and love affairs and at one point I thought perhaps that I had missed some books and that this was a series. I'm hoping that he author will continue this series and expand a bit more on Balthazar.
I was a bit overwhelmed and confused at the beginning of the novel. I felt bombarded with all of these characters at once and different storylines. It was was hard to keep straight. Each character also seems to have an elaborate back story as well, which as I said before, is fantastic, but I thought maybe I had missed some books somewhere.
Budapest is described in all its glory, both tragic and beautiful. It's a city so rich in cultural history that is trying to rebuild itself. I could actually re imagine myself taking the tram, or sitting on a bench in the plaza soaking up the sun. That was very well done.
The storyline was interesting but perhaps at times, there was just too much going on and some of the plots got lost.
Overall though, it was an interesting read, and I'd recommend. I'm looking forward to another installment to this series in the future.

Budapest is a difficult place to be a policeman. A job made all the more challenging if you are, like Balthazar Kovacs, from the Roma community.

When Balthazar receives an anonymous text message concerning a man lying in Republic Square he goes to investigate. But when he gets there the body is gone and Balthazar has only the word of a child that it was removed in an unmarked van. So begins an investigation which leads Balthazar into a complex world of corruption in a city riddled with political intrigue and ruthless criminals.

As a Roma cop, Balthazar belongs to neither one world, nor the other. Although he maintains his links through his brother Gaspar who is now the head of the family Balthazar has become alienated from by his choice to become a policeman. He is a very moral man, but still slips in and out of the Roma community, courtesy of his brother and other Romas who have a soft spot for Balthazar despite his career choice. This means he is able to investigate in areas other policemen cannot, and adds an extra layer to the story.

Eniko Szalay, a journalist with whom Balthazar’s has a past, also becomes involved in the investigation. She is the kind of reporter who is interested in information of high-level people trafficking which involves genuine Hungarian passports and is prepared to keep digging despite the dangers involved. The people being given these passports are those who threaten the safety of not just Hungary but the whole world.

So, District VIII is no ordinary detective novel, but one which weaves in Balthazar’s double life as policeman and Roma as well as the convoluted politics of Hungary as Balthazar and Eniko tread their perilous way through the potentially explosive and dangerous political society of Budapest where few can be trusted and many are using the system to their own ends.

While providing an engaging and thrilling read, District VIII is also a fascinating alternative travel guide of a city with a complex and harrowing history, which has become a hub for those seeking sanctuary in the West.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Heads of Zeus for an advance copy of District VIII, a stand alone thriller set in Budapest.

Balthazar Kovacs is sent a text with the picture of a dead man. As he tries to investigate he is threatened by members of the Gendarmerie, a newly established police force with unlimited powers and responsible only to the prime minister, who take the case from him. Undeterred, Tazi conducts his own unofficial investigation at some personal cost.

There is no doubt that District VIII is a very informative novel. Mr LeBor has done his homework on both present day and historical Budapest and has created a very atmospheric novel where the city comes alive. It is not, however, the detective novel I thought it would be as it is more a political examination than investigative as it has at its heart terrorism and corruption, subjects which do not interest me. As a result it failed to hold my attention.

Hungary has a serious refugee problem which Mr LeBor exposes knowledgeably and compassionately but no one knows how many of these refugees are terrorists and this is a central theme in the novel, government corruption aiding these terrorists. I'm unsure if the corruption portrayed in the novel is realistic or if I just don't want to believe it could happen but either way it is extremely distasteful. What is apparent is the real suffering of the refugees.

The protagonist, Tazi, is Roma making him an outcast both in his less than law abiding family and in the wider world where the Roma are despised. The upside to this is that he has contacts other detectives don't. He is a pleasant individual but quite colourless in terms of his impact in the novel.

Many readers will enjoy District VIII with its authentic setting and the issues raised in it but it didn't appeal to me and failed to hold my attention.

This is wonderful crime fiction set in Budapest, Hungary, featuring Gypsy Detective Balthazar 'Tazi' Kovacs, a member of the Budapest Murder Squad. Kovacs's Roma background brings him a partial ostracism from his family and the Roma, although the fierce bonds of family and blood are unbreakable, particularly given the way the Roma face endemic prejudice from society and the police. Balthazar is sent a photograph of a dead migrant man from an unknown source. When he arrives at the scene, the body has disappeared, although he manages to retrieve a sim card as evidence. He is warned off by the brutal and unaccountable Gendarmerie, a recently formed force reporting solely to the Prime Minister and his elite circle. This story portrays the complex Hungarian social and political history from the persecution of the Jews and Roma, Nazism and Communism, to the secret police and intense surveillance, all of which inform the present. Sandor Takacs, the Head of the Murder Squad, sanctions Kovacs to investigate, but off the books, given the political dangers.

There is a migrant crisis at Keleti Station as Western Europe closes its borders to the refugees. The politics of fear becomes poisonous as the corrupt political parties take advantage and the violent MNF, the Hungarian National Front, go on the rampage. Kovacs is sent a message when he is badly beaten up to stop looking into the death. He joins forces with his ex-girlfriend, Eniko, a journalist. Human trafficking is a growing problem as is the selling of passports, ISIS involvement brings unwelcome attention to the current government from the British and American security services. The various competing criminal elements have been profiting from the refugee crisis, and this includes Balthazar's brother, Gaspar, who proves to be a valuable source of information. As the story progresses, the involvement of the state intelligence agency becomes apparent, so too does the dirty politics whilst Eniko and Balthazar find themselves in grave danger as they get closer to the truth.

Lebor has written a tense and thrilling novel that reveals the state of contemporary Hungary, influenced heavily by its geographical proximity to troubled states and its own history. He creates an interesting and complicated protagonist in Kovacs, the double outsider, who gives us unique insight into how the Roma are treated and insights into the Roma community and culture. The corrupt government that behind the scenes swindles the European Community is portrayed through the actions of the PM and the difficulties that the Justice Minister finds herself in. The overwhelming strengths of this book lie in Balthazar and the author's expert knowledge of Hungary. A wonderful and atmospheric read that I highly recommend. Many thanks to Head of Zeus for an ARC.

What is abundantly clear is that LeBor knows Hungary and one of the great pleasures of this book is his portrait of Budapest with its complicated history of Nazi then Soviet occupations, its proximity to the troubled Balkan states, and its front-line position as a border to the Schengen area. Most of this story is set against that distressing moment in 2015 when crowds of refugees were held as international trains out of Hungary were stopped and Keleti station was turned into a reluctant makeshift refugee camp.

In the foreground, we have a story of high-level government corruption, greed, exploitation and cover-ups - the problem, though, is that the whole plot is exposed very early on and there's nothing to develop. Our hero and heroine, a Gypsy cop and a female journalist, are an attractive pair, perhaps idealised, and both do a lot of rushing around chasing contacts which allows LeBor to give us detailed portraits of underground/organised crime syndicates, and government-sponsored private police/militia.

There are clunky info-dump moments throughout as LeBor fills us in on Hungarian language and culture. I actually found this almost more interesting than the stalled plot but it's sometimes placed in an almost comical manner: for example, in the middle of a police car-chase we're treated to a mini lecture on Gypsy music -
fascinating stuff, just not in the middle of a high-speed chase!

So overall I enjoyed this book but perhaps for the wrong reasons. The writing is slick, the characterisation deft, the politics dirty and realistic - if you're looking for a speedy, twisting plot then this might not satisfy, but I loved the rounded portrait of a city that I've never visited. 3.5 stars.