John le Carré meets Robert Harris, with this business-and-moral-dilemma dimension of a corporate geopolitical thriller.
★★★★★
“An exciting novel that feels like a genre of its own – entertaining, thought-provoking, and beautifully written. I was hooked from page one.”
Summary:
August 1985. The Cold War is beginning to thaw. But in Moscow, nothing is ever simple.
Henrik Bertelsen is not a spy. He is a Danish computer salesman, sent behind the Iron Curtain to help secure a deal that could save his struggling American employer.
The reward is huge: cutting-edge supercomputers for the Soviet raw materials and energy industries. Under Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika, Moscow wants Western technology to modernise a stagnating superpower. American corporations see a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Intelligence agencies see a nightmare.
Henrik eyes adventure and a career-making assignment.
But from the moment he arrives in Moscow, he discovers that business is only the surface. His hotel room is searched. Helpful strangers appear at convenient moments. Diplomats offer advice with hidden meanings. Soviet officials speak in riddles. And the KGB is watching—not because Henrik knows secrets, but because one day he might.
In a system built on secrecy, hierarchy, fear, and favours, technical superiority is not enough. To win, Henrik must learn how power really moves: through unofficial channels, personal loyalties, quiet threats, and carefully placed money.
A dinner. A favour. A discreet payment. A harmless shortcut.
Each compromise seems manageable. Each one brings him closer to the contract. And each one pulls him further from the values he thought were non-negotiable.
At home in Denmark, his wife and children are paying the price for his ambition. In Moscow, the deal grows larger, darker, and more dangerous. What began as a business opportunity becomes a test of loyalty, judgment, and moral courage.
Meticulously researched and set against the real tensions of the late Cold War, The Dollar Compass is a gripping political and business novel about ambition, corruption, espionage, and the price of letting money become your guide.
When the compass points to money, how long before it leads you away from yourself?
Early readers say:
★★★★★
“Caught between American and Soviet values, Henrik’s story is a Cold War novel like no other—where private life, business, and politics intertwine.”
★★★★★
“I rarely read fiction, but this one captivated me. A surprising, compelling story that lingered long after the final page.”
★★★★★
“Bech writes like a man who has tasted both vodka and Villy’s walnut schnapps – and still stands upright. A perfect armchair travel companion.”
