Recommended reading - A Gun for Sale, by Graham Greene (1936):

A Gun for Sale

By Graham Greene.

Introduction by Samuel Hynes.

Filmed as This Gun for Hire (1942), directed by Frank Tuttle.

Published by Penguin Publishing Group.

First published 1936.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 014303930X

ISBN-13: 978-0143039303

Description:

Raven is an ugly man dedicated to ugly deeds. His cold-blooded killing of a European Minister of War is an act of violence with chilling repercussions, not just for Raven himself but for the nation as a whole. The money he receives in payment for the murder is made up of stolen notes and when the first of these is traced, Raven becomes a man on the run. As he tracks down the agent who has been double-crossing him and attempts to elude the police, he becomes both hunter and hunted: an unwitting weapon of a strange kind of social justice. In doing so, he sets the stage for Greene’s next novel, Brighton Rock. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Samuel Hynes.