The Fools in Town Are on Our Side — Ross Thomas

Lucifer Dye was born in Montana and raised in Shanghai's most distinguished bordello. Recently dismissed from Section Two, a secret American Intelligence Agency, he heads for San Francisco to be debriefed. Dye and Section Two are parting company because of the sudden, unexpected death of a Red Chinese double agent. ... a death which resulted in Dye's three month billet in a Singapore dungeon.

Unemployed, armed-only with a passport, a severance check, and his wits, Dye is approached by a man named Victor Orcutt. Orcutt's vocation is the cleaning up of corrupt cities through the application of Orcutt's First Law: "To get better, it must get much worse".

Orcutt proposes a $50,000 fee. Dye's assignment: to corrupt an entire American city.

Will he accept?

Wouldn't you?