When Detective Balthazar Kovacs is called out before dawn to a brothel owned by his brother, he knows it can only be bad news.

A customer has died in the brothel's VIP room. Worse still, he's an Arab financier, a guest of government, connected to a massive investment programme that could transform Hungary. It looks like a heart attack – but why has the brothel's CCTV footage been erased? Kovacs knows only too well the treacherous undercurrents that permeate life in Hungary's capital – the deadly intersection between the criminal underworld, the corridors of power and the ghosts of history. He knows that his investigation is more than likely to lead back to the seat of power, the Országház, in Kossuth Square... but he does not expect to be swept into his own family's dark past too.

''A first-class crime thriller' CHARLES CUMMINGS.

'An elegant, atmospheric tale that twists and surprises at every turn' DAILY MAIL.

'Budapest is a versatile and exciting setting for Adam LeBor's superb thriller ... As well as being a police procedural, the book deals with politics and organised crime in Hungary. LeBor lives in Budapest and it shows in the vivid detail' THE TIMES, Book of the Month.

'LeBor continues to captivate with his handsome Roma gypsy detective, Balthazar Kovacs ... A gripping, well-observed tale that will enthral and tantalise from the first page to the last' THE LADY.