Eric Ambler - The Night-Comers
scaramanga1
The English RivieraPosts: 845Chief of Staff
I bought a copy of this book yesterday, and am really pleased with it so far. It only cost me 20 pence and has the endorsement on the front -'A Splendid piece of writing' Quoting Ian Fleming himself no less! 
Now in a few reviews of Fleming's books Ambler is often mentioned alongside him. This will be my first Ambler tale -I am just wondering if any other members have read any of these tales?
I also have to say I particularly like the cover to this one -it has a very Bondian feel to it.
Now in a few reviews of Fleming's books Ambler is often mentioned alongside him. This will be my first Ambler tale -I am just wondering if any other members have read any of these tales?
I also have to say I particularly like the cover to this one -it has a very Bondian feel to it.
Comments
You may be interested to know Ambler is mentioned on the backs of the 1st Ed hardbacks of LALD, TSWLM, FYEO and Moonraker.
It is indeed a cool cover. It has James Bond feel to it although it isn't a James Bond novel.
Here is some more information about this author:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/Eric_Ambler.htm
I have to say having just started with The Night Comers, I'm really impressed so far -sure it maybe a little dated but it is indeed full of intrigue, exoticism and even violence. Certainly you can see where Fleming got some inspiration -I myself have started writing a novel that I will submit to be published one day, and it is this quite easy to read yet fast paced style that I wish to achieve.
My intention is to write an interesting tale that has the main protagonist drawn into an underworld of espionage against his will just by circumstances that he can not escape from. Hopefully I will manage to produce a tale with the same sort of atmosphere and exoticism -but laced with a gritty realism that today's audiences will enjoy.
What I have noticed, however, is that Mr Ambler's work - despte being generally renowned as one of Great Britain's finest thriller writers - is far more readily available in the United States than in the United Kingdom. Amazon US has a wider selection of re-releases from Vintage publishers, the Waterstones and Borders I visited in Glasgow do not stock any of his work and the books I ordered from Amazon UK are American paperbacks (published by 'Vintage Books USA'). Is there a reason for Mr Ambler's greater popularity in the United States? And does anyone have other recommendations/reviews of his work?
[line]
It is often assumed that the 1950s and 1960s represented the epitome of the spy thriller, the world of Ian Fleming, Edward S. Aarons, Donald Hamilton and the more pretentious and 'serious' writers such as John le Carré. While this era did include some of the genre's most notable and important works, for me one has to go back to an earlier generation to find the best that it has to offer. That era is the 1930s; a dark, tense period during which Europe, and the world, stood on the brink of a mighty confrontation between powerful nations. It was tailor-made for an author to write some inspired works in the area, and Eric Ambler was that author.
It is unfortunate that Mr Ambler is not more widely read. Once considered one of Great Britain's finest thriller novelists, and one of the best selling, he now appears to be sadly forgotten by most under the weight of his contemporary Graham Greene and successors, most of whom took varying degrees of inspiration from the great man himself. For those who are interested in well-written thrillers with rich characterisation, gritty suspense, subtle twists and expert plotting, Ambler is your man. For literary James Bond fans too, Ambler's pre-war works may be of appeal.
The model Ambler novel is of the 'innocent-in-too-deep' ilk; ordinary, un-heroic men drawn into the dirty world of espionage in difficult circumstances. Perhaps one of the best ways to describe them is to draw a parallel with the Alfred Hitchcock pictures that were similar plot-wise, and as a declared Ambler fan the influence of his novels is discernable in some of Hitchcock's works. Be clear, these *are* spy stories - Ambler arguably invented the modern spy novel - and contain all the thrills and twists one would consequently expect. However, so subtly are they crafted, and so lucidly are they written that they transcend most others and deserve to be recognised as the classics that they are.
Ambler's first, THE DARK FRONTIER (1936), is notable primarily for forecasting the nuclear bomb and the associated repercussions. Although the novel does not mention radioactive material, Ambler did nevertheless foresee a destructive atomic weapon based on an electrical charge and the profound consequences such a weapon would have. The problem with THE DARK FRONTIER is that it was intended as a sort of parody of the sorts of thrillers he enjoyed in childhood, indeed Ambler confirms this in an introduction to the book. For readers of the modern day, the subtleties of the comic intention are easily missed since the sorts of novels being parodied are not really read anymore. The other problem is that it is not at all representative of Ambler's work. The subject matter is undoubtedly the same, however the dark atmosphere that pervades his subsequent novels is absent. On firmer ground is BACKGROUND TO DANGER (1937) - or UNCOMMON DANGER as it was originally published in Britain. This could be classed as Ambler's best novel, personally it is between this and CAUSE FOR ALARM. DANGER is a model literary thriller that mesmerises its reader. The protagonist, Kenton, is a destitute journalist in Vienna who is offered by a man claiming to be Jewish on a train money to take an envelope across the border and deliver it to his hotel. When Kenton arrives at the hotel, in a tense and sinister scene, the man is dead. The envelope contained what, to Kenton, appeared not particularly interesting military information and photographs. Dark passages of borderline torture and escape ensue, after which Kenton disguises himself and makes a flight through dangerous territory. A gripping adventure.
EPITAPH FOR A SPY (1938) sees Vadassy, a teacher on holiday in France, taking photographs. On their development he finds himself under arrest for photographing a secret naval installation, and he will only be free once he finds out which of his fellow hotel guests is the actual spy. As a stateless Hungarian on a Yugoslav passport he complies. This book is less an adventure novel and more a traditional mystery one, and it is here that Ambler most proficiently displays his flair for rich characterisation. Next was what I regard as Ambler's joint-best, CAUSE FOR ALARM (1938). Written in the first person, we meet Nicky Marlow, a man desperate for a job in a Britain where work was scarce. Able to speak Italian he braves Milan for a year after his fiancée reads a notice for a job which involves supplying munition equipment. In Milan he finds his office with an enormous backlog, while in his charge are two hopelessly idle assistants. There is an edginess throughout the novel as Marlow cannot obtain his passport from the Italian authorities and his letters from his fiancée are being steamed open. He befriends Andreas Zaleshoff, an - ostensibly - American businessman of Russian descent. Zalshoff tells Marlow that his assistant is a spy for OVRA (the Italian secret police) and is watching him and everything that he does very carefully, while his predecessor, who died as a result of a car accident, was in fact murdered. The unpleasant General Vagas, meanwhile, informs him that he has little choice but to spy for the Yugoslavs. What Marlow has unwittingly done is entered the dangerous world of Britain's foes, foes who are spying upon each other and determined to use Marlow to their advantage. One really feels for Marlow and becomes drawn into his predicament; his fear and anxiety will grip you, especially when he realises he has little freedom of decision. His odyssey into northern Italy towards Zagreb his quite possibly the best 'on-the-run' writing that I have ever read.
A COFFIN FOR DIMITRIOS (1939) - aka THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS in Britain on release, is widely regarded as Ambler's most seminal work. Latimer is originally a university professor who has become the writer of successful romans policiers, and is holidaying in Istanbul when he is introduced to Colonel Haki – a Turkish police chief – who is a fan of his. Latimer manages to talk his way into seeing the body of one Dimitrios Makrapolous and so interesting is this man's story that the detective writer in Latimer could not help but be intrigued. I shall not ruin the major twist, however Ambler very effectively creates a disturbing image of Dimitrios through the recollections of those who had known him whom Latimer meets, and the secondary characters are particularly well-drawn. However, this is probably not the best novel with which to star. I love it; but it is rather more convoluted and dense than the others. That could be a good thing of course, and I did just finish re-reading it within two or so days, although this is one probably best saved until one is better acquainted with Ambler’s style. Finally, and before a substantial break from published writing, Ambler wrote JOURNEY INTO FEAR (1940). This is the novel that was adapted into the Orson Welles motion picture and is of particular note given the emphasis on the psychology of killers. The danger and intrigue are there, but in JOURNEY INTO FEAR Ambler presents the reader with a fundamentally more chilling element; a constant feeling of terror pervades the book. Part of this may be the claustrophobic setting on a ship, and Ambler adroitly captures the atmosphere of the sitzkreig that marked the beginnings of the Second World War. Again Graham our protagonist is an amateur thrown into the seamy games of espionage, another (sort of) innocent thrown in at the deep end. Having been in Turkey to help our ally against possible invasion an assassin makes an attempt at his life, as a result of which Colonel Haki (of TMOD) arranges for him to leave by ship. Unfortunately Graham recognises one of the passengers, and stuck on a ship with nowhere to go he must fight for his life as best he can.
Ambler was a fierce anti-Fascist, and as a liberal he was suspicious of the effect of big business. His stand on communism was rather more ambiguous, where his Soviet characters are usually fairly sympathetically drawn (see Andreas Zaleshoff in particular). These political views are fairly evident in his novels, but not excessively so, and the nuances and sophistication of both his politics and his writing are gratifyingly dissimilar to the jingoism and, at times, xenophobia of some of his peers and predecessors in the genre. He took a decade-long break after 1940, writing SKYTIP in 1950 under the pseudonym ‘Eliot Reed’ (the name he used in books written alongside Charles Rodda). His next credited novel was JUDGEMENT ON DELTCHEV (1951), then THE SCHIRMER INHERITANCE (1953). While it did not match the atmosphere of his pre-war thrillers, the former does probably represent, along with perhaps PASSAGE OF ARMS (1959), the pinnacle of Ambler’s post-war works.
Nonetheless, if one is looking for an intelligent, sophisticated yet thrilling read, the early Amblers really are amongst the very best one could find. Aside from THE DARK FRONTIER, a haunting, sinister air permeates each of them, and on reading them one gains the impression very quickly that this is a master craftsman at work. Vivid and noir, superbly plotted and exquisitely written; in these novels Eric Ambler set the standard for the modern literary thriller, a standard that has not, in my opinion, been met since. Go on, read them, you will not be disappointed.
Agreed.My suspicion is that all that will really be retained from Ambler's novel (and even more from the award-winning screenplay) will be the locale,the general concept(but updated to a point where it is barely recognizable)and the Topkapi museum--unless the producers--among them Brosnan--decide to film elsewhere.
And while "The Topkapi Affair" sounds good enough, I have no doubts whatsoever that the final film will be entitled "The Thomas Crown Affair 2".:v
In my opinion,great movies don't need to be remade and Topkapi is a great movie.I'd rather see Brosnan try something original instead.
Supposedly, they're just using the bare bones of the heist concept and location and reconceiving it around the Crown character. Which I think sounds much more interesting than a straight remake.
Speaking of upcoming Brosnan films, he's about to start filming Marriage in a couple of weeks. It's based on the classic crime novel "Five Roundabouts to Heaven" by John Bingham. Has anyone read any of his books? Once very well regarded like Ambler, most of his books now seem rather hard to get except in used books stores.
Interesting tidbit -- Bingham (Lord Clanmorris) was LeCarre's mentor in the spy and writing trade and one of the two men LeCarre modeled George Smiley after -- for his "devious resourcefulness and simple patriotism". But they had a falling out after LeCarre's books because he thought LeCarre presented the service in a too unflattering light, which LeCarre writes about in his intro to "Five Roundabouts".
Lazenby880, great article. It's spurred me onto checking a couple of Ambler's books out of the library.
MBE
I would go as far as to say that his first novels, except THE DARK FRONTIER, make up the best spy thrillers written. Hopefully you will think so too.
I'm not sure The Topkapi Affair is very well known now, much as I really like it so it's not so much using it's frame as it's quality. MGM owns the rights to the original film as they did the original TCA and I believe it was the idea of one of their people to use the heist of Topkapi as a frame for the character of Crown in a new setting. I don't mind because I think he's a great character (the 1999 version, the 1968 not so much IMO) and worthy of another film.
MBE
Unfortunately, most of his novels available in my library system seem to be his later works except I was able to reserve Mask of Dimitrious and Journey Into Fear.
MBE
Therefore I will conclude on one thought: They're quite good.
As the story proceeds Grahmn is made likeable through his sheer politeness with others even if sometimes he seems a tad too naive to be believed until he's far too efficient to be believed. But then that's part and parcel of many everyman in the face of danger stories.
There are some marvelously rendered secondary characters who give the book most of it's color -- Kopeikin, Col Haiki, Haller, Kevelti, Mathis and even Jose. I think Josette is his only major misfire and by being so damages the protaganist Grahamn a bit. Mathis -- well Fleming had to have partially knicked him because the coincidence is a tad to much to believe otherwise. B-)
By the time he got on the boat I remembered this plot. I'd seen this years before -- the 1940s Joseph Cotten/ Orson Welles (how much Orson is a question for film historians) which was rather truncated and some same butchered by the studio down to a run time of 68 minutes.
Unfortunately, Dimitrios has been lost in the Library system. As happens with older books they didn't know it was lost until I asked for it since no one had asked for it in years (maybe decades).
Thank you for the recommendation.
MBE
In fact, I think you might enjoy those two more (I certainly do). This is how Cause For Alarm starts:
"The man standing in the shadow of the doorway turned up the collar of his overcoat and stamped his numb feet gently on the damp stones.
In the distance he could hear the sound of a train pulling out of the Stazione Centrale, and wished he was riding in it, lounging back in a first-class compartment on his way to Palermo. Perhaps after this job was done he would be able to take a holiday in the sun. That was, of course, if They would let him. It never seemed to occur to Them that a man might like to go back to his home occasionally. Milan was no good. Too dry and dusty in the summer; in the winter these damnable fogs rolled in from the plains and ricefields, damp and cold and vringing the smoke from the factories with them. It was getting misty already. In another hour you wouldn't be able to see your hand in front of your face, let alone anything else. That meant that Buonometti and Orlano wouldn't be able tosee what they were doing. There would have to be another night of watching and waiting in the cold. He had no patience with it. If this Englishman had to be killed, let him be killed easily, quickly. A dark stretch of pavement, a knife under the ribs, a slight twist of the wrist to let the air inside the wound, and it was done. No fuss, no trouble, practically no noise. Whereas this...
His gaze travelled up the dark facade of the office building across the street to the single lighted window on the fourth floor. He shrugged resignedly and leaned against the wall. One hour or two, what difference di it make? What did They care if he got pneumonia?
Only once during the next twenty-five minutes did he move. The footsteps of a stray pedestrian echoing along this deserted business street caused him to shrink back into the shadow. But of a passing policeman he took no notice, and grinned to himself when the uniformed man seemed deliberately to avoid looking his way. That was one advantage in working for Them. You didn't have to worry about the police. You were safe."
Have I convinced you?
I'm afraid I would not recommend that one, no. Ambler was furrowing a different burrow with The Dark Frontier--the atmosphere and feel of the novel is unlike the rest of his oeuvre. Of the two available in your library go for The Mask of Dimitrios: although I think it is not quite as good as the two mentioned above it is commonly held to be his classic work. As with Ambler's other pre-war novels (and most of his post-war ones too)--excluding Frontier--it is a most thrilling and rewarding read.
I have never read of Eric Ambler's work, but the high praise found here has encouraged me to investigate him further. I also noticed that John Gardner took a bit of literary licence and mentions that "The Mask of Dimitrios" is one of James Bond's favorite books in his premiere 007 Novel Licence Renewed.
A couple of days ago I finished re-reading Eric Ambler’s The Light of Day. Ambler is my favourite author, and the San Francisco Chronicle was surely right in declaring him ‘the greatest spy novelist of all time’. Ambler’s novels of the pre-war era were crackerjack spy thrillers in which the writer fashioned a dark and gritty atmosphere, full of foreboding about the horrors which would visit the continent during the War. These novels are full of the suspense and tension of a Hitchcock picture, indeed the director himself described the author thus: ‘Mr Ambler is a phenomenon!’.
The Light of Day, first published in 1962, is the novel adapted by Jules Dassin for his classic film Topkapi, for which Peter Ustinov won an Oscar in the lead role. Now Pierce Brosnan is to apparently star in The Topkapi Affair, an update which will serve as a sequel to 1999’s The Thomas Crown Affair. If anything, hopefully Ambler’s profile will be raised by this enterprise as The Light of Day is a witty, entertaining and gripping novel of intrigue with a wealth of compelling characters and is *definitely* worth a read.
Arthur Abdel Simpson, a petty thief living in Greece, is working as a driver. Born in Cairo to an Egyptian mother and British officer father Arthur claims a thoroughly British background: he went to a grammar school and became well-versed in the British way of things. From Athens airport Arthur picks up work from a man Harper, whom he believes to be American. Later, Harper discovers Arthur going through his things in his hotel room. Harper then blackmails Arthur into smuggling arms across the border into Turkey; unfortunately for Arthur the border police discover the loot while checking the car. Arthur is then blackmailed by a Major Tufan into spying on Harper and his associates to discover for what purpose the arms are to be used.
The Light of Day is completely different in tone from the spy thrillers Ambler wrote in the pre-war era: there is not the urgency of, say, Uncommon Danger or Journey Into Fear. The atmosphere is different too. The Light of Day has a more leisurely feel, and both the setting and the pacing combine to create a sort of languid, sunset-by-the-Bosphorous tone. Greece and Turkey are realised beautifully; Ambler draws you in so that you really feel like you are there.
Ambler’s greatest success is in terms of character. Arthur is a pathetic character in every way, and yet he does not elicit sympathy: “I have often thought of killing myself, so that I wouldn’t have to think or feel or remember any more, so that I could rest; but then I have always started worrying in case this afterlife they preach about really exists. It might turn out to be even bloodier than the old one.” With a penchant for self-pity Arthur is rather difficult to like. Nonetheless, with wonderful little insights peppered throughout the novel Ambler builds this completely compelling and fascinating central character about whom you want to learn more, and by the end it becomes clear why Arthur has become so wayward. (Basically it has a lot to do with his childhood and the way the British Government treat him: Arthur is a bit like a stateless person).
When I mention that he is pretty dislikeable it is little thoughts like this which might inspire contempt: “Miss Lipp’s legs were particularly long, and, for some reason, that was irritating as well as exciting; exciting because I couldn’t help wondering what difference long legs would make in bed; irritating because I knew damn well that I wasn’t going to be given the chance to find out.” However, while this might inspire contempt it does make Arthur a recognisable character: he feels real as I am sure that we are all aware that there are plenty of decidedly un-heroic chaps about. Arthur is a complex little man, and he emerges from the text as one of Ambler’s best creations.
Part of Arthur’s pitiful existence is his tragic relationship with Nicki. Arthur lies when asked about his former wife: he says she died during Suez when in reality she left him because they could not have children. Masterfully Ambler does not reveal this as a lie until later as he shapes slowly a more pitiable man. Now Arthur is shacked up with Nicki with whom he shares a convenient association at best: “I did not mention Nicki. I don’t know why; perhaps because I did not want to think about her just then.” Later Arthur notes: “Anyway, there was no point in giving an address. I knew she wouldn’t write back to me.” He seems to do his own thing and she hers: she works as a dancer in an insalubrious establishment. How she spends her free time is apparently her business entirely.
Ambler has also created a great cast of other characters in The Light of Day. Harper and his girlfriend Lipp, as well as Miller and Fischer, all feel like the genuine participants in a criminal gang and are all with *very* few endearing features. Then there are the more-than-slightly mad cook and the servant couple all of whom add more colour and are memorable once the novel is finished. Major Tufan, for whom Arthur is spying, is a great invention as a slightly melodramatic chief who nevertheless demands results. One of Ambler’s strongest features as a writer, besides the atmosphere, suspense and intrigue, is in the fashioning of an array of vibrant characters to become involved in and, as ever, they read as incredibly authentic and accurate.
Ambler’s trademark twists are in there as well which continue the momentum forward, so much so that you may find yourself sitting up at three or four in the morning reading the novel. Often these end-of-chapter surprises have a great deal of dramatic impact: Harper’s discovery of Arthur rummaging through his room is unsettling stuff—while countless other thriller writers may have utilised a similar thing *no-one* I have read comes close to doing so with the unnerving effect of Ambler. And while the pacing may be a bit more leisurely this is not to suggest a lack of tension; there are a number of incredibly suspenseful scenes in which Arthur, not the most proficient of amateur spies, almost gets caught.
The Light of Day is an enormously engaging and entertaining novel which underscores once more why Eric Ambler was considered one of Great Britain’s best writers. Excellent stuff well worth reading.