I'm finally getting down to the end of my friend Adam LeBor's spy/espionage novel, The Budapest Protocol.

Adam was a good friend when I lived in Budapest, and was a journalist and war reporter. He broke the story about the Swiss banks enabling the Nazi's ("Hitler's Secret Bankers") and wrote the biography of Slobodan Milosevic, after reporting on the wars in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo.

As I was leaving Budapest he began his career as a novelist, and now is highly regarded for his spy/espionage/WWII series of novels and characters.

The Budapest Protocol is his first novel, and deals with a shadow cabal of ex-Nazis who went underground at the end of WWII, and secretly worked together to form the EU, and gain control over it.

I'm glad I waited so long to read it, as the events in Central and Eastern Europe of the last 2 years seem like they are ripped directly from the pages of Adam's book!

Hungary/Slovakia/Poland's rejection of the liberal ideals and movements that stemmed from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and embracing nationalist and racist policies... corporate manipulation of elections and politics... stagnation of EU efforts at modernization, and the vacuum created by the EU's lack of leadership.... etc.

Reading his book is like looking at the future 18-months away from today.

Oh. And did I mention it is based on a real story?!?

Good stuff.