UNCOMMON DANGER - Book review

Eric Ambler’s second thriller Uncommon Danger was published in 1937 (though my Fontana paperback shows the copyright as 1941...). 

The story begins with a Prologue at a board meeting of the Pan-Eurasian Petroleum Company in London. There are concerns about the renewal of oil concessions in Roumania. Bessarabia has been a contested area between Russia and Roumania since the Great War, mainly due its vital oil fields. ‘The party’s policy is a familiar one – anti-Semitism, a corporate state, an alliance with Germany, and the “saving of Roumania from the Jewish and Communist menace”’ (p123). The company chairman has a solution – it involved recruiting a certain Colonel Robinson to set things straight. ‘It was the power of Business, not the deliberations of statesmen that shaped the destinies of nations’ (p87).

Russian double-agent Borovansky has stolen Russian plans for a possible attack on Bessarabia, which, if made public, will generate anti-Russian feeling in Roumania and bring the Fascist Iron Guard to power who will then make an alliance with Nazi Germany. Incognito, Borovansky boards a train...

Meanwhile, Russian spies Andreas Zaleshoff and his sister Tamara are tipped off and commission a Spaniard, Ortega, to pursue Borovansky on the train, follow him to his hotel in Austria, and get the plans back.

Freelance journalist Desmond Kenton has had a bad run of luck gambling and boards the same train on his way to find a pal in Vienna who might supply him with funds. He meets a Mr Sachs. Kenton’s money troubles seem resolved when Mr Sachs asks him to deliver some papers across the Austrian border, paying handsomely – and then Kenton’s troubles begin!

An amateur hero out of his depth, Kenton discovers a dead body, is hunted as the murderer, and joins up with the two Russian spies in an attempt to obtain the incriminating plans/photos and clear his name.

In the process, Kenton is captured by Colonel Robinson (in actual fact assassin-for-hire Saridza). ‘You see, your business man desires the end, but dislikes the means... That is why Saridza is necessary... there is always dirty work to be done... and he and his kind are there to do it, with large fees in their pockets and the most evasive instructions imaginable’ (p121).

Boldly, Kenton tells Saridza, ‘It’s not just a struggle between Fascism and Communism, or between any other “-isms”. It’s between the free human spirit and the stupid, fumbling, brutish forces of the primeval swamp – and that, Colonel, means you and your kind’ (p84)

It’s a fast-paced adventure with Zaleshoff and his sister Tamara providing mystery and tension, while the villains are truly villainous.

Another excellent Fontana paperback cover

THE DARK FRONTIER - Book review

Eric Ambler’s debut novel The Dark Frontier was published in 1936, when the master was still learning his craft.

It’s an unusual treatment, beginning with a statement by Henry Barstow, physicist, in which he claims that he has no recollection of being involved in certain events April 17^th and May 26^th of 193-. Apparently the American journalist William Casey believes he can fill in the blanks.

Then we’re into Part One – ‘The man who changed his mind’; third-person narrative. An arms manufacturer called Simon Groom approaches Barstow, asking him to travel to the eastern city of Zovgorod in the small country of Ixania (both fictionalised ‘for security reasons’), where they can locate a certain scientist, Kassen, who has invented an atomic bomb. Groom wants the weapon’s blueprints for his firm and needs Barstow to verify their accuracy. Initially, Barstow declines. However, some time later, Barstow is involved in a motoring accident and he sustains a head injury. From the moment of his recovery he believes he is Conway Carruthers, a British secret agent: ‘he was of that illustrious company which numbers Sherlock Holmes, Raffles, Arséne Lupin, Bulldog Drummond and Sexton Blake among its members’ (p31). Interesting that Ambler does not refer to Simon Templar, the Saint: Charteris’s first Saint novel (Meet the Tiger) was published in 1928 and by 1936 had established a best-selling reputation. Maybe the style Ambler adopted was similar to Charteris’s at this point, especially the dry humour: ‘It also boasted the dubious honour of being  the best hotel in the place, a distinction reflected more in the magnitude of its charges than in the comfort of its accommodation’ (p79).

Then, roughly half-way in, we come to Part Two – ‘Revolution’ which is narrated in the first person by Casey. To complicate matters, there is the beautiful and alluring Countess Magda Schverzinski: ‘She desires power and glory for Ixania. The peasants ask no more than food for their bellies’ (p161).

The transformation of Barstow into Carruthers is amusing and well done. There are sufficient bad guys wielding guns to inject tension, and escapes and car chases – all the ingredients of thrillers that would follow over the years.

Ambler’s use of the atomic bomb as an Alfred Hitchcock MacGuffin was quite prescient, and would be replicated by subsequent thriller writers.

An enjoyable adventure, worth reading.

Editorial comment:

There are a number of typos which presumably have survived since the original publication. (Agreed, we all suffer from them – but you’d think that some editor would pick them up eventually).

In addition, Casey went for his usual walk on May 3^rd – yet this is related in the chapter that covers 11-21 May... (p176).

One annoying trait of some writers is to tell us something happened before it has happened, thus destroying any suspense. In this case Casey reveals on p184 the deaths of three characters who do finally die later (p209 or thereabouts).

The editor should have corrected this: ‘I saw the flash of a shot in the grounds and a shout’ (p140). You can’t see a shout. The insertion of ‘and heard’ would fix it.