The Ghost by Robert Harris

Robert Harris wrote Fatherland, a "what if" novel that wrapped a thriller plot around the premise that the Nazis won WWII. He also wrote Enigma (about the code-breaking machine), and Archangel, a thriller set in present-day Russia. He's also written a lesser-known non-fiction book called Selling Hitler, which was about the so-called "Hitler Diaries." Harris' novels always have a political subtext, and one of his best, The Ghost, was turned into a movie called The Ghost Writer, directed by Roman Polanski. It's about "power, politics, and murder." Great stuff and just the thing to be reading four days out from the most important election so far in the millennium.