Elmore Leonard, the American crime writer who died this week, was once asked if he could write about the wrongdoers on Wall St in the aftermath of the financial crisis. “No – where’s the action?” he said. “My people don’t have stock. It’s the most boring thing in the world to make your money that way – using money to make money.”

Nonetheless, a number of former executives, bankers and traders have attempted to do just that by leaving the constraints of the corporate world to become novelists – with some of them trying to draw on experiences from their previous careers.

Chris Morgan Jones, a former executive at Kroll, the private investigations agency, has mined the business world for inspiration for his spy thrillers The Jackal’s Share and the Agent of Deceipt, which feature corporate spy Ben Webster. He did not appreciate it at the time but now realises that his old job provided “an environment rich in stories and characters?.?.?.?colleagues were fascinating, clients were fascinating?.?.?.?The world I used to occupy was all about dirty money.”