Loser Takes All »

Known for his espionage thrillers set in exotic locales, Graham Greene is the writer who launched a thousand travel journalists. But although Greene produced some unabashedly commercial works -- he called them "entertainments," to distinguish them from his novels -- even his escapist fiction is rooted in the gritty realities he encountered around the globe.

Bertram is not a believer in luck. An unambitious accountant, his plans for his second marriage are typically quiet: St. Luke’s then two weeks in Bournemouth. But he comes to the attention of Dreuther, the director of his company, who changes Bertram’s plans for him: wedding and honeymoon in Monte Carlo, on board his private yacht. Inevitably Bertram visits the casino, and loses. But then his system starts working, and his trouble really begins.