Adam LeBor

"Budapest, autumn 1943. After four years of war, Hungary was firmly allied with Nazi Germany. Budapest swirled with intrigue and betrayal, home to spies and agents of every kind. But the city remained an oasis in the midst of conflict where Allied POWs and Polish and Jewish refugees found sanctuary. All that came to an end in March 1944 when the Nazis invaded. By the summer Allied bombers were pounding Budapest's grand boulevards and historic squares....

Life's tough for a Gypsy detective in Budapest. The cops don't trust you and your fellow Gypsies, even your own family, shun you because you're a cop. But when Balthazar Kovacs, a detective in the city's murder squad, gets a mysterious text, he gulps down his coffee and goes to work. The message has two parts: a photograph and an address. The photograph shows a man, in his early thirties, lying on his back with his eyes open, half-covered by a blue...

“Tower of Basel” is the first investigative history of the world's most secretive global financial institution. Based on extensive archival research in Switzerland, Britain, and the United States, and in-depth interviews with key decision-makers - including Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Sir Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, and former senior Bank for International Settlements managers and officials, “Tower...