Death in Budapest

Fans of hard-edged spy novels will hope that this outing for disgraced Wall Street banker Patrick McCarry is but the first of many from Ross (Long Pig). When McCarry’s firm makes him the scapegoat after a hedge fund disaster, he manages to find a new position in London running a small investment business. Assigned to handle Chester Holt, an American looking to open a factory making engines in Hungary, McCarry learns on arriving in Budapest that his new client is actually in the arms business. Members of the American intelligence community fear Holt may be pouring fuel on the continually combustible Balkans. Naturally, the job turns dangerous, with twists straight out of a John le Carré novel. The narrator’s sardonic wit (“The skyway began to fill up with other nightcap drinkers, no more than half of them well-dressed prostitutes”) helps keep the tone from getting too gloomy, despite the story’s basic darkness. (Feb.)