Jonathan Gaunt is an agent for the Queen's and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer Office.
That long and highly unusual name for a department in the British government, or more accurately, the Scottish government, is a real name just as the agency is a very real one. It got its start hundreds of years ago as a position to help the monarch remember facts of finance; who owed the throne money and who was owed money by the monarch. Over time, its duties grew until it was involved in every facit of government where money was a part and since money paid for everything in government, that meant it was connected to everything.
In this ten-book series by Noah Webster, which was a pseudonym for Robert MacLeod, which was itself a pseudonym for Bill Knox, the hero is an external operative for this organization. Though at times he is referred to by some as an auditor, it is not Gaunt's job to show up with calculators and tabulators and pencils and pads of papers to scour through ledgers and peruse wills. His job is to uncover facts that cannot be found in bookkeeping files and boxes of receipts. Once in a while he will look through such things but he is much more a government detective than an accountant.
Gaunt is in his mid thirties when the series begins, the first recorded adventure taking place in the mid to late 60's. He had been a paratrooper in the military for several years, seeing action in several hotspots around the world. When his enlistment came up, he tried his hand at this and that but eventually answered an opening listing for the Remembrancer's, as it is commonly called, and was hired.
An interesting man in that he does not particularly crave excitement and danger, Gaunt is never one to shrink away from it either. He has a keen curiousity and an aversion to being pushed around. He also can shoot quite well and can hold his own in a fist fight so people who look at him thinking a bookworm are often surprised and dismayed.
Gaunt likes the ladies and enjoys their company whenever he can. He does not, however, spend much money on them because he invariably is short on that commodity. Gaunt loves the stock market. He loves to research the forms and the financial papers and talk with people in the know and is forever finding the next great investment. It is sad that more often than not, it is not next but past and not great but lousy and his banker is far more aware of his overdraft than Gaunt would like. This periodic hounding by the banks is what makes Gaunt so willing to take the assignments which take him far away.
It is true that Jonathan Gaunt is not a spy but his duties for the government takes him all over Europe and gets him involved in international intrigue, global crime, and all sorts of other nasty schemes that often put Her Majesty's realm in danger and Gaunt is the man to help set things right.
Note: the books were originally published under the pseudonym of Noah Webster. Some time shortly thereafter, they were republished under his "real" name of Robert MacLeod. Some more time later, it was revealed that Webster, aka MacLeod, was really Bill Knox.