The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, a review from Powells.com by Chris Bolton.
"While The Club Dumas is a thriller, it's considered a 'literary' thriller. Which is a fancy way of saying it adheres to a certain degree of dignity. So, even when femmes fatales are throwing themselves at our hero, who's on the run from dastardly villains (who may or may not be of this world) and dodging speeding cars and ducking gunshots and fleeing from unexpected dead bodies, it's all done with a respectable veneer. Meaning, the femmes aren't too fatale, the villains are dastardly with a knowing smirk, and the writing isn't excruciatingly pulpy in the style one finds with, say, Clive Cussler or (sorry, Mom) Dan Brown." Read the entire Powells.com review.