The Freedom Trap by Desmond Bagley (1971)

Joseph Rearden is a better-than-average crook with a jail conviction on his record. In London, he is hired by a man known only as Mackintosh, assisted by his secretary Mrs Smith, to steal a consignment of diamonds. The theft is successful but Reardon is almost immediately arrested.

So begins another of Bagley’s best. With its convoluted plot, you never know where it’s going. It could have been the basis for a James Bond film.

In 1973, it was made into a film entitled The Mackintosh Man, starring Paul Newman.