Author seems to lose interest towards end of the novel, with the denoument being very rushed and unconvincingly handled. ( )

This was one of those serendipitous discoveries. I had never heard of this novel, or its author Adam LeBor, and came across it entirely by chance, spotting it in the middle of a list of recommendations thrown up by Amazon. Being a reckless sort of chap at heart I threw caution to the wind and stumped up the necessary 99 pence with scarcely a moment's hesitation, and found myself reaping heavy dividends.

The encomia cited in the publisher's blurb compared it to le Carre at his finest. I am not sure that is really true. That is not a judgement on its quality but it operates in a wholly different milieu to le Carre. To my mind it was more like Charles Cumming or with shades of upper-end Alistair MacLean thrown in.

Alex Farkas is a British journalist living in Budapest, where his family had originally come from, and working on an English language weekly newspaper. As the novel opens Budapest is the scene of the first stage of campaigning for elections for the European Presidency, and the two leading candidates are in Hungary to outline their respective manifestos. One of the candidates is an Austrian academic, known for his right wings views and in particular some injudicious comments about the numbers of immigrants seeking entry into the European Union, and dismissive remarks about the Gypsy and Roma communities located around the eastern fringes of the EU.

While the candidates are pursuing their respective campaigns, the fragile coalition in Hungary teeters beyond sustainability, and a bloodless constitutional coup sees a new, far right government taking over. Meanwhile, Alex and his colleagues hear alarming stories about strange goings-on among Hungary's own Roma community.

LeBor (himself a journalist) manages all the threads of the story adroitly, with fascinating insight into the workings of a foreign news agency. All in all, a very enjoyable and engaging read. ( )

This was one of those serendipitous discoveries. I had never heard of this novel, or its author Adam LeBor, and came across it entirely by chance, spotting it in the middle of a list of recommendations thrown up by Amazon. Being a reckless sort of chap at heart I threw caution to the wind and stumped up the necessary 99 pence with scarcely a moment's hesitation, and found myself reaping heavy dividends.

The encomia cited in the publisher's blurb compared it to le Carre at his finest. I am not sure that is really true. That is not a judgement on its quality but it operates in a wholly different milieu to le Carre. To my mind it was more like Charles Cumming or with shades of upper-end Alistair MacLean thrown in.

Alex Farkas is a British journalist living in Budapest, where his family had originally come from, and working on an English language weekly newspaper. As the novel opens Budapest is the scene of the first stage of campaigning for elections for the European Presidency, and the two leading candidates are in Hungary to outline their respective manifestos. One of the candidates is an Austrian academic, known for his right wings views and in particular some injudicious comments about the numbers of immigrants seeking entry into the European Union, and dismissive remarks about the Gypsy and Roma communities located around the eastern fringes of the EU.

While the candidates are pursuing their respective campaigns, the fragile coalition in Hungary teeters beyond sustainability, and a bloodless constitutional coup sees a new, far right government taking over. Meanwhile, Alex and his colleagues hear alarming stories about strange goings-on among Hungary's own Roma community.

LeBor (himself a journalist) manages all the threads of the story adroitly, with fascinating insight into the workings of a foreign news agency. All in all, a very enjoyable and engaging read. ( )

Adam Lebor's the journalist of a hungarian english-language paper and his first novel's hero is.... an english journalist of a hungarian english-language paper. In this grim, provocative, grotesque 'what if' tale he tells he story of an alternative Hungary where everything went wrong with a lots of references to the present hungarian political situation. And that's just the surface.... Imagine the the nazis actually not lost the WWII.... they just went underground..... ( )