I had forgotten about Eric Ambler despite the fact that he was one of the authors that my Dad enjoyed reading, along with the likes of Alistair MacLean and Dennis Wheatley. But yet again I was in the kitchen, making soup I think, and listening to Radio 4 extra when a dramatised episode of one of Ambler’s books came on and jogged my memory. So when I was at the library recently Journey Into Fear jumped out at me from the edge of one of those book carousel thingys, it was obviously time to give him a go.
It’s a Penguin Modern Classic which was first published in 1940 and as always with these books I avoid the introduction until I’ve finished the book because they always give crucial details of the storyline, right to the very end, which I would rather find out for myself as I read the book – why do they do that? It’s SO ANNOYING!
It’s World War 2 and Mr Graham is an engineer and an arms expert and because of his quiet and amiable personality he has become useful to his employers as a negotiator of contracts abroad. He has just been having high-level talks with the Turkish government in Istanbul and it’s time for him to make the journey back to England.
Unfortunately someone has a different idea and is determined to kill him before he can leave Istanbul. How can Graham get back home in one piece?
I did enjoy this one and I’ll read more of his books. If you like reading John Buchan then you’ll probably like this too, it’s quite similar in style. In fact the introduction, which I read after I’d finished the book does mention that Ambler is a sort of combination of Buchan and Ian Fleming, but I’ve never read anything by Ian Fleming, other than Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
It was made into a film in 1943, which you can read about here. In the film Mr Graham’s nationality is changed from English to American, as often happened in films.
I’ve also given up reading introductions til the end. Do they not consider that anyone might just be discovering the book for the first time? I really appreciated my edition of The Mill on the Floss having a warning note in big type to the effect that the introduction gives away major plot points.
I haven’t heard of Eric Ambler, but I always enjoy a good war-time escapade – and the setting sounds very interesting.
Lisa,
I don’t know why they can’t put things like that at the end of the book, too much like common sense I suppose. I haven’t seen any books with warnings like that, it’s a good idea.
I think Ambler’s books must have been very popular in wartime, he went on to work with Hitchcock and eventually moved to the US I think.
You have reminded me to include this book in my 2013 reading. I want to read more Eric Ambler and I plan to read some John Buchan also. Although I had heard of Buchan before, of course, it was one of your earlier posts about one of his books that motivated me to add him to my planned vintage mystery reading.
TracyK,
I’m going to read more Ambler too. I think Greenmantle is Buchan’s best, so far anyway, I haven’t read them all, but The Thirty-Nine Steps is his best known, probably because of the films, but the films have Hannay clambering about the Forth Bridge, which is all very exciting but it isn’t in the book, Hitchcock added the bridge to the story but Buchan should have!
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