The Third Man by Graham Greene

8/10

This book is sweet. It's pretty mysterious. It is a plot-twister and quite suspenseful. It's one of those books that can be somewhat confusing due to the sparse details provided early on. The story reveals itself in stages the further you go. You know the book is going to be sinister and dark when the first line states thusly: "One never knows when the blow may fall." That's what I call a fantastic opening line.

So here's the skinny: A writer comes into town to visit a friend only to find out that he has just died after being hit by a car. He talks to a man who says he saw it and was one of two men who pulled his body out of the street. However, the writer speaks with a porter who claims that a third man helped pull the body aside. The porter's statement sheds a lot of doubt on the other man's earlier story. The writer believes that there may have been foul play. Paranoia, danger, revealing investigations, and thuggish rogue appearances ensue. It's a pretty fun puzzle and mystery unraveller. It's a short book too, only 117 pages. Although it isn't as quick a read as other books of similar length due to the complex plot and twists/turns of the story. I recommend this book. It receives my stamp of approval.

This was made into a really good movie as well with Orson Welles.

A quote that I really, really like because it describes how I often feel in terms of my relationships with other people:

"We never get accustomed to being less important to other people than they are to us."