One Day in Budapest is the fourth book in the ARKANE novel series by author J.F. Penn.

Penn crafts a powerful story about the tenuous nature of society when deep seeded hatred flows beneath the surface. One Day in Budapest follows ARKANE Agent Morgan Sierra as she teams up with Zoltan Fischer to uncover the conspiracy behind the theft of the Holy Right relic of St. Stephen and its use to foment old hatreds against the Hungarian Jewish community.

Penn’s novella is well crafted and involves such deep and subtle detail that can only come from someone who has been there, visited the locations, understands the culture and knows how to present a possible future if bigotry and ignorance were to reign.

The fast-paced story shows how quickly mob rule and generational bias can boil over into something ugly. This possibility exists in every society and Penn does a wonderful job to show how only a couple of pieces are required to thrust the ugly parts of society to the surface.

The characters are rich and well formed, making this book a very enjoyable read.

I also had the additional pleasure of listening to the audio book, which is exceptionally well done. Either reading the book or listening to it are both great options.