Alarums & Excursions - Virginia Perdue

This 1944 classic was picked by National Book Award winner Jacques Barzun and his collaborator Wendell Hertig Taylor as one of the 50 best mysteries from the first half of the 20th century. Gasoline is in short suppy as World War II wages on and Nick Matheny's oil company just might have the formula for creating a cheap, synthetic fuel. Only Matheny is attacked before he can get to Washington, D.C. to tell the feds and loses his memory. It's a book that literally begins with a bang and ends with one of the most chilling lines in crime fiction.