A man of no nation, an everyman on holiday becomes involved in a spy intrigue. Pressed into service by the police, he must figure out which his fellow holiday makers are not who they seem to be. One of the earliest and best spy novels (1937) is paradoxically not about the professional but rather about the amateur temporarily coerced into playing a role for which he is unsuited. A Hungarian with a Yugoslavian passport living in France who teaches languages, Vadassy makes an ideal pawn for the authorities.

Written at a time where war was on the horizon and the ghosts of the first world war were still making their presence felt. Also the concentration camps loomed. Prescient and naturalistic, a taut thriller.