District Viii

By Adam LeBor

Balthazar Kovacs, a detective on Budapest's murder squad, is on the trail of a dead man.

Minutes ago, Kovacs received an anonymous SMS showing a body and an address: 26 Republic Square – the former Communist Party headquarters and once the most feared building in the country. But now, amid the ruins of the demolished building, Kovacs finds no dead body, just six members of the Gendarmerie – an elite police force reporting directly to the prime minister – and an invitation to hand over his phone and cease his investigation.

Kovacs has taken his first step on a journey deep into Budapest's dark heart, towards a deadly intersection of the criminal underworld, the corridors of power and the ghosts of history. A journey that will force him to choose between the law and family loyalty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Nov 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786692696

Adam LeBor

Adam LeBor writes for The Economist, the New York Times, The Times (London), Monocle, Newsweek, and numerous other publications. He is the author of The Geneva Option and The Washington Stratagem, also featuring Yael Azoulay, and The Budapest Protocol. In addition he has written a number of nonfiction books, including Tower of Basel, the first investigative history of the Bank for International Settlements; Hitler’s Secret Bankers, short-listed for the Orwell Prize; City of Oranges, short-listed for the Jewish Quarterly Prize; and Complicity with Evil. He lives in Budapest, Hungary.