Private Detectives

Author: Varga Bálint
Publisher: Agave Könyvek
ISBN: 963 711 8136

Bálint Varga’s unique book on Hungarian private detectives was published for the National Book Week in 2005. Following 1989, private detectives were once again allowed to work after a 50-year ban. Regardless of this, we hardly know anything about them. We have no idea who they are and how they work.
The author spent one and a half years doing research during which he worked closely with many private detectives. The author dug below the surface and convinced the detectives to show him everything. In return, they asked for only one thing: anonymity. In his book, Mr. Varga recounts four different cases, each of which he played an active role in. The private detectives showed him every method – both legal and semi-legal –, and the covert operators also revealed the tricks of the trade.
The first part of the book deals with the history of private detection from Vidocq and Pinkerton to the present day, also including several interviews with English and American private investigators.
The second part of the book covers the history of private detection in Hungary from the beginnings to 2005. In this part, the author writes extensively on a topic considered taboo: the criminal intelligence network of Hungary under communism. Mr. Varga received much help from former members of State Security, with many of them – intelligence officers, agents, and investigators – speaking for the first and last time about their job.
The third part deals with four real cases. The author recounts the criminal investigations from the day the client contacted the private detective to the day the report was finished.
The fourth part is a short history of mystery fiction, from Conan Doyle to Dennis Lehane. Finally, in the fifth part the author tries to find an answer to the following question: where is Hungarian crime fiction, and why hasn’t any Hungarian mystery ever been written?
This well-written and thoroughly researched book is for everyone who pictures modern private detectives as reincarnations of Philip Marlowe. By the end of the book, it is revealed that truth is not only stranger than fiction, but real private detectives have nothing to do with Marlowe and his counterparts; instead, they are proficient experts working efficiently within private intelligence agencies.