The Honorary Consul

When Charlie Fortnum, an Englishman who acts as "Honorary Consul" to the British subjects of a small town in Argentina, is kidnapped by Marxist guerillas, a chain of events is set in motion that draws both apathetic and committed bystanders into a confrontation with the forces of authority. Leon Rivas, a renegade priest, joins the guerillas and is ultimately ordered to kill Fortnum; Eduardo Parr, a Buenos Aires physician who seduces Fortnum's wife early in the story, becomes obsessed with saving him. Fortnum himself becomes a hapless pawn of circumstance when it becomes clear that the British Crown considers him not worth the ransom. Written with Greene's characteristic eye for squalor and decay, THE HONORARY CONSUL is a gripping and moving tale.