The Wages of Fear — Georges Arnaud

First published in 1950, Georges Arnaud's The Wages of Fear is an unbearably tense classic thriller about men with nothing to lose in the toughest place on Earth.

When the Crude Oil Corporation's Number 16 well blows its top, the only available explosive to halt the gushing blast of flame and smoke is nitroglycerine - and that is 300 miles away.

This is the reason for the hastily written sign in Las Piedras: DRIVERS WANTED, DANGEROUS WORK. HIGH PAY.

Three men have to drive a lorry all the way to that oil field, over rough mountain roads spattered with boulders and potholes, through a whole night, under a burning tropical sun. The lorry has to travel those 300 miles with no special safety devices, and hastily adapted tanks - carrying half a ton of explosives that could reduce it to dust at the slightest jolt ...

Twice adapted as award-winning films, The Wages of Fear will soon be a major movie from acclaimed director Ben Wheatley (High Rise).