As an investment banker specializing in mergers and acquisitions, Francois yon Hurter spen

t a lot of time in airport lounges, where he'd often set aside the latest deal calculations in favor Of a good mystery fiction read. So when he retired in 1998 after 25 years as a dealmaker, instead of joining legions of ex-bankers on extended vacations in exotic locales, yon Hurter committed himself and some hard-earned capital to his next business venture: He launched London-based Bitter Lemon Press, a publishing company Specializing in reprinting in English mystery novels he'd grown to love.

These are not the usual hard-boiled Raymond Chandler imitations found in some bookstores and at airport lounges. The works, written originally in German, French, Spanish and Italian, offer social criticism and a slice of culture with the who-done-it, according to Von Hurter, who likened some of Bitter Lemon's titles to travel fiction. The books, translated into English for the first time, take readers to locales like Mexico City, Munich and Havana. "I'd always go to bookstores in countries where I can read" the language, 58-year old yon Hurter told Reuters while in New York this month to promote the company. In fact, he admits to making sure that, whenever possible, his U.S. flights went through Minneapolis, which has one of his favorite second-hand bookstores.

Von Hurter, born and raised in Geneva, Switzerland, and a graduate of University of Pennsylvania's Wharton business school, is not the only Wall Street veteran financing Bitter Lemon Press. His brother Frederic yon Hurter, a former commodities trader at Cargill, the Minneapolis food giant, and Laurence Colchester, a former economist at Citibank, are partners. Though the trio speaks French, Greek, German and Italian, they employ translators to bring the books to life in English.

Francois von Hurter would not detail how much of the groups's own money they put into Bitter Lemon. Bitter Lemon has published six books in Britain and has plans for five titles in the next six months or so as part of its launch in the United States. One such title, "Thumbprint", is a mystery written by Friedrich Glauser, who was born in Vienna in 1896 and has been referred to as a Swiss Simenon--a reference to the noted Belgian mystery writer known for his French detective Maigret. "Thumbprint", translated from German, has been one of the Bitter Lemon's most popular books, selling 5,000 copies. Other Bitter Lemon titles include Gunter Ohnemus' "The Russian Passenger", the story of a cab driver who gets entangled with the Russian Mafia that has been translated from German, and "The Snowman" by Jorg Fauser, a German author born in 1944 who died in 1987. "Fauser was one of the romantic heroes of post-war German literature, a friend of Charles Bukowski ... he is now being rediscovered," news magazine Der Spiegel noted in July, responding to a biography of Fauser published this summer.

As a banker for First Boston, known today as Credit Suisse First Boston, and Morgan Stanley, Francois von Hurter worked not only in New York but London and Saudi Arabia. Among other deals, he had a hand in Seagram Co Ltd.'s purchase of MCA Inc. and Coca-Cola Co.'s purchase of Columbia Pictures. And white the players are different, book publishing has some similarities to Wall Street's merger business. Like a company put up for sale, a book needs a specific market and needs to have potential for growth. "You have to put together a business plan ... negotiate with suppliers like printers, a sales force and distributors. You need to apply the same marketing savvy to decide how to position the book," he said.

What is different about this latest venture, though, is that the hours spent in the office seem to race by much more rapidly. "In a way, the hardest part of the second career, is that it creates such enthusiasm that you tend never to turn off," he said. "The line be

A．English mystery novels written by London-based writers.

B．Mystery novels which offer social criticism and a slice of culture, written originally not in English.

C．Travel fiction which take readers to locales like Mexico City, Munich and Havana.

D．Hard-boiled mystery novels translated into English for the first time.