German edition: Martin Suter: Montecristo, 9783257243666, Detebe (Diogenes) Taschenbuch, 13, €

English Edition: Martin Suter: Montecristo, 9781843448228, paperback, No Exit Press/ Old Castle Books

Martin Suter is a Swiss author I have enjoyed 
reading immensely for some time. He is regularly in the top section of the German bestseller lists, I am really surprised he is not more successful in England. Working originally as a copywriter and creative director in advertising, this training still transpires in his writing: his sentences are clipped, short and to the point mixed with a dry, black sense of humor which I love. The plots are always unexpected and twisted.  “Montecristo”, a thriller set in the world of Swiss finance, is no exception.
 

Jonas Brand is making his living as a video journalist working for a People style magazine in Zurich while trying to raise financial backing for his film project “Montecristo”.  Then two seemingly unconnected events unsettle his carefree existence.  While riding the train, he involuntarily  witnesses  a suicide or “Personalschaden”/”human damage” as the Swiss train company refer to it.

Jonas soon discovers that the dead man was working as a top trader on the floor of one of Swiss's leading banks.  When he gets home and leaves two 100 Swiss Franc notes for his cleaner, he notices both bills showing the same serial numbers, something his bank manager Mr. Weber assures him is impossible yet at the same time confirming both bills are clean and no counterfeits.  When he is attacked while walking home and his apartment is broken into after meeting up with a high ranking Swiss banker to discuss his unusual discoveries, Jonas contacts Max Gantmann, a former TV economics front man now working behind the scenes as an investigative journalist and a trusted friend.  Max does not believe that burglary and assault are not connected as the police want Jonas to think. What unfolds is a high caliber thriller set in the ruthless world of finance which kept me turning over pages faster and faster until the very last page. 

I read the book in its German original but an English Edition is published by No Exit Press.