''Budapest Noir'' is the first Hungarian noir written by

Vilmos Kondor Vilmos Kondor (born 1954) is the name (possibly pseudonym) of a successful Hungarian author. His seven crime novels, known as the Sinful Budapest Cycle, depict the adventures of a journalist, Zsigmond Gordon, in Budapest from the 1930s to the 195 ...

and published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

in February 2012. The novel is about a crime journalist Zsigmond Gordon, who wants to find the killer of a Jewish girl found dead in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

in 1936, and besides the criminal element offers social commentary, political and historical background of Hungary flirting with

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

Plot introduction

, October 1936. Prime Minister Gyula Gömbös is dead. The body of a young Jewish girl is found in a Terézváros doorway. Zsigmond Gordon, a criminal journalist for The Est newspaper, arrives on the scene soon afterwards and starts asking questions, but everywhere seems to run into a brick wall. The clues lead him upwards to the highest echelons of society and downwards to the lowest depths of misery and poverty. Gordon refuses to give up, keeps asking his questions, and the more they want to frighten him off, the more determined he becomes. He does not know whom to trust, and does not know and does not care how many people's interests he is harming. He just wants to find the girl's killer, because, by the look of things, he is the only one who cares.

Critical reception

Several reviewers hailed ''Budapest Noir'' as the first noir novel written in Hungarian.

"The search or a Hungarian crime thrilleris at an end: Vilmos Kondor’s novel is a Hungarian crime thriller and then some, one of the harder variety, in the spirit of Raymond Chandler and
Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
, but with Hungarian characters and set in the Hungarian capital in the period before World War II." Péter I. Rácz i

Steven Saylor Steven Saylor (born March 23, 1956) is an American author of historical novels. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied history and classics. Saylor's best-known work is his '' Roma Sub Rosa'' historical myster ...

writes that the novel fulfills its promise:

"''Budapest Noir'' more than fulfills the expectations piqued by its title. With intrepid news reporter Zsigmond Gordon as our guide, the novel takes us down the mean streets of one of Europe's most fascinating cities during one of its darkest chapters.

Sequels

''Budapest Noir'' is the first novel in the series of five. It was followed by ''Bűnös Budapest'' (Budapest Sin), ''A budapesti kém'' (The Budapest Spy), ''Budapest romokban'' (Budapest in Ruins) and in 2012 the final installment titled ''Budapest novemberben'' (Budapest in November').

Publication history

*2008,

, Agave Könyvek , Pub date February 2008, Paperback. *2012,

, Pub date January 2012, Paperback.

Film adaptation

The rights for the movie were sold before the book was published, and the film was released in 2017

Foreign editions

As of August 1, 2012, 'Budapest Noir' has been published by
Edizioni e/o
in Italy
Payot et Rivages
in France
Proszynski i S-ka
in Poland * Mynx in Netherlands
Droemer Knaur
in Germany

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

The Official website of ''Budapest Noir''
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080419111143/http://www.nol.hu/cikk/487425/ Krisztina Horeczky's review of ''Budapest Noir'' in Hungarian in Népszabadságbr>Krisztián Benyovszky's review of ''Budapest Noir'' in Hungarian in Új Szó in Bratislava
2008 novels Hungarian novels Fiction set in 1936 Novels set in Budapest HarperCollins books