"The Mask of Dimitrios", by Eric Ambler

Novel, 1939

Spy thriller, whose touch of paranoia and the shadowy role of bankers give it a more contemporary edge - with only a few twists and adjustments, this could be a late 60s Pynchony romp or a story for our own times. Some lovely descriptive touches and an establishment of the world of espionage on some rather sordid activity and a cast of fairly undesirable characters. Nonetheless and despite bogging down towards the end, this is a cracking look at the grime of a Europe trying to work through the early part of the twentieth century.