The Birth of the Financial ThrillerMaking a Killing in the 1970s

Illustrates how the financial thriller is deeply intertwined with the economic transformation of the 1970s and considers the genre’s enduring legacy in today's financialised world

• Offers the first in-depth analytical and theoretical account of the financial thriller genre
• Provides a new framework for understanding the literary and economic history of the 1970s, linking the rise of financial thrillers to significant economic events such as the abolition of Bretton Woods and the oil crises
• Anatomizes the genre’s thematic trinity of money, gold, and oil, its stereotypical characters, its volatile plots, and its pedagogical and moral impulses
• Demonstrates the genre’s relevance to contemporary financial fictions and financial capitalism

Discover the untold story of the financial thriller, a genre pioneered by Canadian banker-turned-author Paul Erdman from a Swiss prison cell. Starting with the publication of The Billion Dollar Sure Thing in 1973, this book explores the genre’s evolution as a popular and even vulgar genre of financialisation, characterised by volatile plots centred on currency speculation where the central mystery is money, not murder. By contextualising the rise of financial thrillers within the dramatic events of the 1970s, such as the abolition of the Bretton Woods system and the oil crises, this book illustrates how a genre found the world of finance during a particular historical moment, but also how the world of finance found its genre. This compelling narrative connects the past to our present financial landscape, making it essential for anyone interested in the intersection of economic, literary and cultural history.