Mystery/suspense writer Eric Ambler

[ghost of miles]

Another goodie waiting for me when I got home last night was my order from Daedalus Books (also snagged the Mal Waldron/Jeanne Lee AFTER HOURS, which they had on sale for $12). I ordered all six of the titles they're currently carrying by Eric Ambler, who wrote political/espionage mysteries in the 1930s/40s/50s. I haven't read him, but I got that "hunch" when I read about the books--know what I mean? Has anybody else read him?

[BFrank]

I have a book called "The Intriguers" that's a collection of "four superb novels of suspense":

- Passage of Arms

- State of Siege

- The Schirmer Inheritance

- Judgment on Deltchev

To be honest, I can't remember reading any of them. I got this from my father, but held on to it because it looked so good.

[Matthew]

Another goodie waiting for me when I got home last night was my order from Daedalus Books (also snagged the Mal Waldron/Jeanne Lee AFTER HOURS, which they had on sale for $12).  I ordered all six of the titles they're currently carrying by Eric Ambler, who wrote political/espionage mysteries in the 1930s/40s/50s.  I haven't read him, but I got that "hunch" when I read about the books--know what I mean?  Has anybody else read him?

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I've been reading Ambler's novels while on vacation, and they are interesting, have a very European feel to them. A different sensability to them -- you can see how Furst was influenced by them.

Edited July 4, 2005 by Matthew

[medjuck]

Ambler was quite famous in the 40's and 50's. His best known novels are A Coffin for Demetrius

and Journey into Fear which Orson Welles made in to a pretty good film. (Welles produced it didn't direct-- I think Joseph Cotton did.)

[1ngram]

Ambler is excellent and certainly influenced Furst. But he is patchy and had good decades and bad decades. There is a site on him on the net somewhere that is worth looking into for reviews and bibliography.

If you are into spy fiction you should also check out the first four Len Deightons,Ipcress File, Horse under Water, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain.

[medjuck]

And if we're talkling spy fiction I have to recommend LeCarre's "Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy". I find a lot of Le Carre to be depressing and politically defeatist but this is a great book-- and a great read.

[kinuta]

And if we're talkling spy fiction I have to recommend LeCarre's "Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy". I find a lot of Le Carre to be depressing and politically defeatist  but this is a great book-- and a great read.

←

Why not read the complete trilogy, 'Tinker, Tailor , Soldier, Spy', 'The Honourable Schoolboy' and finally ' Smiley's People'. For dessert, ' Perfect Spy'.

I don't have to recommend them, they are the very essence espionage fiction.

[ejp626]

There was an omnibus with 4 Ambler novels in it that I read 5 or 6 years ago. I do remember Coffin was in there. It was pretty entertaining at the time, but I can't recall any of it now. Yes, a definite European flavor, sort of like The Third Man. At least one (maybe Coffin) has the narrator get sucked into this shadowy world, i.e. he doesn't start out as a spy. I think that was my favorite. Sorry I can't be more helpful, but the neurons aren't firing this afternoon.

[Dr. Rat]

The classic Ambler is definitely his between the wars stuff (like Coffin), but he continued to write after WWII, and some of those novels are quite good too, with a very different mood to them--similar to LeCarre and late Graham Greene more than Furst.

--eric