Graham Greene, prolific English writer, is featured a total of 8 times in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. The latest 2018 edition has 5 of the original 8 works still listed. The Third Man was last featured in the 2006 edition of the list.

The Third Man was originally meant as a film script but Greene wrote a novella and it became published in its own right. The film is still considered one of the best in film history with Orson Wells as the star. It differs from the film some especially in its ending, where the book went with a more positive ending the film kept the audience with a gloomy ending.

The setting of the story is the beginning of the Cold War in Vienna so we are faced with “American”, “Russian”, and “French” zones, setting the story for how characters get around Vienna “properly. It follows a man, Rollo Martins, who is a writer of what he describes “cheap Westerns” under a pseudonym. He arrives in Vienna with an invitation from his old friend, Harry Lime, who he then discovers has been killed. The book is narrated by a Colonel Calloway who interviews Martins to find out more about Lime’s suspected criminal activity, Martins is offended his friends name is being soiled and decides to clear his name. He begins a solo investigation finds himself in the middle of one of his stories. Calloway describes Martin as having battling personalities, the “Rollo” and the “Martins”, reminiscent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the same person with opposing character. The novella keeps the reader guessing while the narrator slowly reveals new information, an enjoyable and quick read.