Eric Ambler: Three Complete Novels of Espionage and Suspense

Regrettably, the novels of Eric Ambler are not always easy to locate. I was pleased to find a used copy of this three-novel collection by Galahad Books. I already owned two titles, and I bought this book simply to acquire the third. For someone new to Ambler, this inexpensive collection - A Coffin for Dimitrios, Judgement on Deltchev, and Passage of Arms - is a great way to become acquainted with a master of espionage fiction. (Possibly I should say "the master", as Eric Ambler preceded Graham Greene, Len Deighton, and John LeCarre, and they all credit Ambler for his significant influence.)Eric Ambler's early novels date from the late 1930s and early 1940s. A Coffin for Dimitrios (1937) is now considered a classic. Movie buffs might be aware that in 1944 Peter Lorre played the role of Latimer in a popular film version titled The Mask of Dimitrios. Ambler's writing career was interrupted by his British military service in WWII. I believe that Judgment on Deltchev (1951) was his first postwar novel. Passage of Arms (1959) was among his later works. Ambler's plots are interesting and unpredictable. The settings are authentic, exotic, and vaguely threatening. But what I actually recall most about each story is a unique character, not always the protagonist, but sometimes someone in a lesser role. For example, in the first three chapters of A Coffin for Dimitrios the enigmatic Colonel Haki dominates the story, serves his role as a critical catalyst for the plot, and then quietly retires into the background.Like Colonel Haki, Girija Krishnan in Passage of Arms is not the lead character, but he is nonetheless absolutely essential to the story. His obsessive desire to purchase a passenger bus results in unpredictable, explosive events. The arms smuggling plot is intriguing and the Southeast Asia setting in the 1950s is exotic. But what I remember most about Passage to Arms is the entrepreneurial Girija Krishnan.Judgment of Deltchev takes place in the aftermath of WWII as the Soviets tightened their grip on Eastern Europe. Outwardly old legal forms were observed. Witnesses were summoned, evidence presented, and the leaders of opposition parties were condemned. In this historical context Eric Ambler produced his novel Judgment on Deltchev (1951), a story of the fictional trial of Yordan Deltchev.

I bought this omnibus in order to read A Coffin for Dimitrios, on some lists of the best mystery/ suspense novels of all time. However, I found it to be more wordy than I like. The very pleasant surprise was Passage of Arms, a less famous book but faster paced than Coffin, and with more deeply drawn characters, even the shady ones, and with a lighter tone throughout.