District VIII is the first in a new mystery series by Adam Lebor featuring Detective Balthazar Kovacs, a man caught between his Gypsy heritage and his crime family on the one hand, and his law enforcement career and American ex-wife and their son on the other.

Talk about a novel ripped from the headlines!

District VIII is set in the hot Hungarian summer of 2015 when refugees who had fled Aleppo are held up by the Hungarian government at the train station in Budapest and not allowed travel on to Germany.

Lebor explores corruption in the Hungarian government, the criminal underbelly of Budapest, and how communism and even nazism still resonate in this East European country that is now such a draw to tourists from around the globe.

Read my full review over on Criminal Element.