Vilmos Kondor

His seven crime novels, known as the "Sinful Budapest" or "Budapest Noir" Cycle, depict the adventures of a journalist, Zsigmond Gordon, and are set in Budapest from the 1930s to the 1950s.

They have become very popular in Hungary.

"The search [for a Hungarian crime thriller] is at an end: Vilmos Kondor’s novel is a Hungarian crime thriller and then some, one of the harder variety, in the spirit of Chandler and Hammett, but with Hungarian characters and set in the Hungarian capital in the period before World War II. ... Kondor’s literary experiment has been a great success: the Hungarian hard-boiled crime thriller has been born, and, far predating its own period, it leads its readers – with an effect that 'carries into the present' – to the literary realm of the 1930s."

ÉS.

Bűnös Budapest (Budapest Sin)

The core five novels of the Budapest Noir cycle are set in Budapest during the years 1936-1956 and all feature Zsigmond Gordon, a determined crime reporter.

As prequels to the series two additional novels have been published, plus a collection of short stories.

These prequels chronicle Gordon's history in both Philadelphia and Budapest prior to 1936.

The novels have proven to be very successful in Hungary.

To date, only Budapest Noir, the first novel in the series has been published in English, but new English translations of the five core novels are in progress.

Budapest Noir has been published in German, Italian, French, Polish, Dutch, Russian, Estonian, Bulgarian, Greek, Czech, and Slovenian translations, and all five core novels of the Budapest Noir cycle were translated into Finnish and published by Tammi.

Budapest Noir

A Jewish girl is found dead in Budapest in 1936, and Zsigmond Gordon sets out to solve a murder that everyone else in his soon-to-be Fascist country wants to leave buried.

Budapest Noir received a warm reception in Hungary, and many reviewers hailed it as the first true hardboiled crime story written in Hungarian.

One critic, Péter I. Rácz, welcomed Kondor as the author of the first Hungarian crime thriller.

The story is set in the fall of 1939, a couple of weeks after the outbreak of World War II.

and features Zsigmond Gordon and Sándor Nemes, a retired detective.

They start investigating two different cases: Gordon wants to find out why a former colleague and friend has died, while Nemes is hired to find out what happened to a huge quantity of cocaine and morphine that has gone missing.

The two cases merge, and the solution involves politicians, Hungarian Nazis and corrupt policemen.

One reviewer, Péter Urfi, wrote about the "Kondor phenomenon":

Vilmos Kondor (born 1954) is the name (possibly pseudonym) of a successful Hungarian author.

He's been dubbed as "the creator of Hungarian crime fiction".

The first novel in the series was published in February 2008 by Agave Könyvek.

The sequel to Budapest Noir was published in June 2009 by Agave Könyvek.

Kondor finished the Budapest Noir series with the fifth novel, Budapest novemberben (Budapest in November), published in June 2012.

As influences, Kondor has mentioned Jim Thompson, Charles Willeford and Dashiell Hammett, and he based one of his characters, Vörös Margó (Red Margot) on the character Dinah Brand in Hammett's novel Red Harvest.

Kondor has also written a trilogy of historical thrillers about the fictional Wertheimer family's almost century long affiliation with the Holy Crown of Hungary; a trilogy of contemporary police procedurals with strong political overtones featuring Detective Tibor Ferenczy; and a short novel under the title 'Az otthontalanság otthona' (The home of homelessness) whose whole income he donated to an NGO that gave a helping hand to the migrants who arrived to Hungary during the crisis in 2015.

In 2022 he published the first of what promises to be a series of mystery novels set in an alternate reality version of 20th century history in which following the end of World War II Hungary does not become a communist East Bloc nation, but rather develops into an independent and successful Switzerland-like capitalist country.

Some of the same characters who appear in his "Sinful Budapest" cycle also appear or are referenced in the new counterfactual/speculative fiction series.

In April 0f 2023, the first novel in this series, Második magyar köztársasá (The Second Hungarian Republic) won the Péter Zsoldos Audience Choice Prize, an annual Hungarian literary award given to works in the imaginative fiction genre (science fiction, fantasy, supernatural horror, etc.) genre.

Kondor's work has been present in the Hungarian media in several forms.

His novels and short stories have been turned into audiobooks, radio plays, a graphic novel, photo exhibitions, and even an interactive smart phone app Budapest walking tour and interactive mystery game.

Kondor attended university in Szeged, then continued his studies in Paris.

He graduated in chemical engineering from the Sorbonne, then returned to Hungary.

Currently he teaches mathematics and physics at a high school.

He lives with his wife, daughters and dog in a small village near Sopron.

He leads a quiet life and, if he gives interviews at all, he does so only by email.

Kondor worked for three years on his first published novel, Budapest Noir.

It was his fourth finished manuscript.

The first novel in the cycle, Budapest Noir, was adapted as a film directed by Éva Gárdos which premiered 2 November 2017, and is currently available on several online platforms.