Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts

Overview

Elmore Leonard meets Franz Kafka in the wild, improbably true story of the legendary outlaw of Budapest.

Attila Ambrus was a gentleman thief, a sort of Cary Grant--if only Grant came from Transylvania, was a terrible professional hockey goalkeeper, and preferred women in leopard-skin hot pants. During the 1990s, while playing for the biggest hockey team in Budapest, Ambrus took up bank robbery to make ends meet. Arrayed against him was perhaps the most incompetent team of crime investigators the Eastern Bloc had ever seen: a robbery chief who had learned how to be a detective by watching dubbed Columbo episodes; a forensics man who wore top hat and tails on the job; and a driver so inept he was known only by a Hungarian word that translates to Mound of Ass-Head.

Ballad Of The Whiskey Robber is the completely bizarre and hysterical story of the crime spree that made a nobody into a somebody, and told a forlorn nation that sometimes the brightest stars come from the blackest holes. Like The Professor and the Madman and The Orchid Thief, Julian Rubinstein's bizarre crime story is so odd and so wicked that it is completely irresistible.

Editorial Reviews

This story of a bank robber who captured a nation's sympathy in post-Communist Hungary is a rollicking tale told with glee and flair. Attila Ambrus sneaked over the border from Romania into Hungary in the waning days of Communist rule. After talking his way onto a Hungarian hockey team, he turned to robbery to make some cash in the Wild West atmosphere of the early 1990s in Eastern Europe. As journalist Rubinstein shows, Ambrus was quite good at it. Taking advantage of poor police work, he took in millions in Hungarian currency and became a headline-grabber. He managed to stay at large for several years while continuing in his role as a back-up goalie on the ice. Rubinstein has a knack for telling a good story, and he captures well both Ambrus's appeal and the atmosphere of the first few years of capitalism in Hungary. Along the way, he introduces readers to memorable characters in addition to the appealing, alcoholic protagonist: the women Ambrus attracts and a Budapest detective driven out of office by the crime spree. While Rubinstein (whose work has been collected in Best American Crime Writing) overwrites at times, he has a rootin'-tootin' style that's a perfect fit for this Jesse James-like tale, which has the chance to be a sleeper that transcends nonfiction categories.
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Author Information

Bio of Julian Rubinstein

Julian Rubinstein has made a career finding and bringing unforgettable characters to life and breaking bizarre and often dangerous stories from faraway places. Whether with a fleeing Indian tribe in Brazil, with the Hell's Angels in Canada, or with John McEnroe in his art gallery in SoHo, Julian has consistently proven able to get the story no one else could. His journalism has earned inclusion in the BEST AMERICAN CRIME WRITING anthology and two citations from BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING. He began his career as a sports reporter and writer, first for The Washington Post and then Sports Illustrated. He has also written for The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Arts & Leisure Section, Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, Outside, Salon, and Details, where he is a contributing editor. Born in the Bronx and raised in Denver, he currently lives in New York City. BALLAD OF THE WHISKEY ROBBER is his first book. For more information, please visit www.julianrubinstein.com.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Back Bay

Filesize

946.99 KB

Number of Pages

352

eBook ISBN

9780316028288