The latest release from Hard Case Crime is a re-issue of Robert B. Parker's 1951 espionage classic, Passport to Peril. Not to be confused with the Robert B. Parker (the "B" is for Brown) who writes the Spenser novels, Robert Bogardus Parker was a lifelong newspaper man. A European correspondent during World War II, Parker filed his reports throughout Eastern Europe and was secretly an agent for the OSS, crossing borders without papers and trying to stay one step ahead of the Gestapo.
Parker's experiences contributed heavily to his handful of crime/espionage novels. In Passport to Peril, American reporter John Stodder feigns Swiss citizenship and travels from Vienna to Budapest on a false passport to discover the fate of his missing brother. As the Orient Express hurries along, Stodder learns that his phony passport belonged to a murder victim whose secretary is secretly carrying a mysterious manila envelope that must not fall into the hands of her Russian or German pursuers. Stodder is suddenly knee-deep in spies from all sides and becomes the only person to know the location of the crucial manila envelope.
This page-turner is the perfect example of an early spy thriller. With its solid cast of characters and a pulpish plot favoring suspenseful turns, Parker created a genre classic. You'll also enjoy the afterword by Parker's daughter that sheds some light on the author's real-life adventures.
[Update, August 24, 2009: I also posted a review of this title on the Comics Buyer's Guide forums.]
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