The Spy in the Ointment by Donald E. Westlake

The three-time Edgar Award–winning Grand Master of Mystery serves up a dangerous case of mistaken identity in “the best spy comedy I have ever read” (The New York Times)

J. Eugene Raxford is not what anyone would call a debonair man of action. He has no class, no skills, and all the physical prowess of a napping tree sloth. James Bond would think twice before letting him park the Aston Martin.

Though he is a devoted pacifist, Raxford is also—thanks to a tragically consequential typo—the supposed leader of a half-baked and violent radical organization. That’s why the FBI wants him to go undercover and spy on the consortium of real-life terrorists and deadly assassins.

Now, with the help of his girlfriend—who is even more clueless than he—Raxford is about to enter a realm of danger and deception unlike any he has ever imagined. And the safety of the entire world depends on his every move.