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This page lists novels, short story collections, and non-fiction by Eric Ambler. Books about Ambler and his work are also listed.

Cover images are when possible of the first UK edition and a recent paperback or digital edition.

By Eric Ambler:
- novels, story collections
- Eliot Reed (pen name) novels
- non-fiction

Edited by Eric Ambler:
- anthologies

About Eric Ambler:
- biographical/critical

The Dark Frontier

Eric Ambler

1936

"England, 1935. Physicist Henry Barstow is on holiday when he meets the mysterious Simon Groom, a representative for an armaments manufacturer. Groom invites the professor to Ixania, a small nation-state in Eastern Europe whose growing weapons program threatens to destabilize the region. Only after suffering a blow to the head—which muddles his brain into believing he is Conway Carruthers, international spy—does the mild-mannered physicist agree to visit Ixania. But he quickly recognizes that Groom has a more sinister agenda, and Carruthers is the only man who can stop him."

Uncommon Danger

Eric Ambler

1937

Published in the US as Background To Danger which was Ambler's original title for the book.

"Kenton's career as a journalist depends on his facility with languages, his knowledge of European politics and his quick judgement. Where his judgement sometimes fails him, however, is in his personal life. When he travels to Nuremberg to investigate a story about a top-level meeting of Nazi officials, he inadvertently finds himself on a train bound for Austria after a bad night of gambling. Stranded with no money, Kenton jumps at the chance to earn a fee helping a refugee smuggle securities across the border. Yet he soon discovers that the documents he holds have far more than cash value - and that they could cost him his life."

Epitaph for a Spy

Eric Ambler

1938

"Josef Vadassy, a Hungarian refugee and language teacher living in France, is enjoying his first break for years in a small hotel on the Riviera. But when he takes his holiday photographs to be developed at a local chemists, he suddenly finds himself mistaken for a Gestapo agent and a charge of espionage is levelled at him. To prove himself innocent to the French police, he must discover which one of his fellow guests at his pension is the real spy. As he desperately tries to uncover the true culprit's identity, Vadassy must risk his job, his safety and everything he holds dear."

Cause for Alarm

Eric Ambler

1938

"Nicky Marlow needs a job. He's engaged to be married and the employment market in Britain in 1937 is pretty slim. So when his fiancée points out the position with an English armaments manufacturer in Italy, he jumps at the chance. Soon after he arrives, however, he learns the sinister truth about his predecessor's departure and finds himself courted by two agents with dangerously different agendas. In the process, Marlow realizes that it's not so simple just to do the job he's paid for - not in fascist Italy, on the eve of a world war."

The Mask of Dimitrios

Eric Ambler

1939

"English crime novelist Charles Latimer is travelling in Istanbul when he makes the acquaintance of Turkish police inspector Colonel Haki. It is from him that he first hears of the mysterious Dimitrios - an infamous master criminal, long wanted by the law, whose body has just been fished out of the Bosphorus. Fascinated by the story, Latimer decides to retrace Dimitrios' steps across Europe to gather material for a new book. But, as he gradually discovers more about his subject's shadowy history, fascination tips over into obsession. And, in entering Dimitrios' criminal underworld, Latimer realizes that his own life may be on the line."

Journey into Fear

Eric Ambler

1940

"It is 1940 and Mr Graham, a quietly-spoken engineer and arms expert, has just finished high-level talks with the Turkish government. And now somebody wants him dead. The previous night three shots were fired at him as he stepped into his hotel room, so, terrified, he escapes in secret on a passenger steamer from Istanbul. As he journeys home - alongside, among others, an entrancing French dancer, an unkempt trader, a mysterious German doctor and a small, brutal man in a crumpled suit - he enters a nightmarish world where friend and foe are indistinguishable. Graham can try to run, but he may not be able to hide for much longer."

Judgment on Deltchev

Eric Ambler

1952

"Foster is the toast of London’s West End theatres and it’s no surprise when the playwright is hired by an American newspaper to cover the high-profile trial of Yordan Deltchev for treason. But all is not as it seems and he is soon drawn into a bewildering web of plots and counter-plots. Foster knows he is a pawn… but in whose game? Accused of membership in the sinister Officer Corps Brotherhood and of masterminding an assassination plot, Deltchev’s trial is clearly for show. But when Foster meets Madame Deltchev, the accused’s powerful wife, he becomes enmeshed in more life-threatening intrigue than he could have imagined."

The Schirmer Inheritance

Eric Ambler

1953

"George Cary, former WWII bomber pilot and newly minted lawyer, reviews the files on the Schneider Johnson case, to make sure nothing has been overlooked. What George discovers connects a deserter from Napoleon’s defeated army to a guerrilla fighter in post-war Greece, and leads him into a dangerous situation where his own survival will depend more on what he learned in the army than anything he learned in law school."

The Night-Comers

Eric Ambler

1956

"Steve Fraser has planned the perfect weekend on the Southeast Asian island of Sunda. But Sunda is newly independent, and not entirely stable, and a fundamentalist Islamic group is determined to overthrow the provisional government. Instead of enjoying a hedonistic weekend with the beautiful Rosalie, Fraser finds himself held hostage with her under the fanatical group’s control. As the government launches a counterattack, the couple’s survival depends on their ability to dodge bullets, lies and the shifting loyalties of the coup’s lieutenants."

Passage of Arms

Eric Ambler

1959

"Some men take to gun-running because they have a longing for danger and adventure. Girija Krishnan, an Indian clerk, is not one of them. Deep in the Malayan jungle, Girija stumbles on a cache of arms hidden during the communist insurgency. Selling the arms will help Girija achieve his lifelong dream of founding a transport company. Two American tourists in the Far East find more adventure than they bargained for when they get entangled in Girija's plans. Greg and Dorothy Nilsen had wanted to go on an adventurous trip, to see some out-of-the-way places. So when Mr Tan in Hong Kong asks Greg to travel to Singapore and help with a business deal, Greg is surprisingly receptive. All he has to do is sign some papers and collect a handsome fee - but this is Greg's first step into the dangerous world of post-colonial rebellions."

The Light of Day

Eric Ambler

1962

"Arthur Simpson - 'British to the core', but without a passport to prove it - lives in Athens, scraping by as a driver, journalist and petty thief. When Simpson spots Harper at the airport he recognises him as a tourist new to the city and in need of a private driver. But an ill-judged attempt to relieve Harper of his traveller's cheques reveals him to be a highly sophisticated criminal, and entangles Simpson in a complex double blackmail. Simpson becomes an unwilling member of an armed gang in Istanbul, tasked with driving a suspicious car across the border. Soon he is an even less willing agent for the Turkish secret police, who suspect Harper of planning a coup - but his plans are far more audacious than that, and Simpson is in very deep water indeed."

A Kind of Anger

Eric Ambler

1964

"A car hurtles down the driveway of a luxury villa in Switzerland. The driver is a young woman, Lucia Bernardi. Inside the house, police find the body of her lover on the bedroom floor. The dead man - Ahmed Fathir Arbil - was an Iraqi refugee, who has been tortured and killed. Lucia vanishes into hiding in the South of France.Piet Maas, a journalist for the World Reporter, sets out on Lucia's trail, hoping for a scoop. Soon he must decide whether to publish his story - which will lead to Lucia's exposure and almost certain death - or join her in executing a perilous scheme that could net them both a fortune."

Dirty Story

Eric Ambler

1967

"A further account of the life and misadventures of Arthur Simpson, anti-hero from The Light of Day Arthur Simpson is middle-aged, stateless and desperately in need of a new passport. Jumping from one illicit job to another, Arthur soon finds himself in trouble when the whistle's blown and he needs to lie low for a while. Fleeing to Central Africa to save his skin, Arthur Simpson convinces his new employers that he is an accomplished soldier of fortune. But his shady assignment on the border of a North African country soon turns out to be more than he bargained for when he finds himself up against a multinational corporation willing to do anything for a piece of the land Arthur finds himself on."

The Intercom Conspiracy

Eric Ambler

1970

"Thirty years after Eric Ambler introduced the world to unlikely hero, academic and novelist Charles Latimer in The Mask of Dimitrios, Latimer returns in The Intercom Conspiracy. Now a bestselling author promoting a new book, Latimer steps in to help Theodore Carter, the hapless, hard-drinking editor of international political newspaper Intercom. A small paper suddenly publishing big secrets, Intercom has recently been purchased and the once frivolous publication is causing a stir. Carter suspects something is amiss and sets about investigating his mysterious new bosses and the sources of the suddenly serious secrets he’s publishing. As Latimer and Carter get closer to the truth, they realise they’re jeopardising more than just their careers."

The Levanter

Eric Ambler

1972

"Syria, 1970. Michael Howell has kept his family’s Middle Eastern business going through a decade of takeovers, war, and revolution, but he’s about to meet his deadliest challenge yet. Howell is working late with his office manager and mistress, Teresa, when the pair discover men working overtime—producing bombs for the Palestine Action Force. The terrorists are not deterred by their discovery—rather, they force Howell and Teresa to help them carry out their plan."

Doctor Frigo

Eric Ambler

1974

"Dr. Ernesto Castillo has shunned politics and shut himself off from the world since his father, a Central American leader, was assassinated years ago. The doctor is content to live quietly on a small island, keeping busy with his practice and his mistress . . . but now his late father’s political party comes calling. Its rising leader, Manuel Villegas, hopes to put Dr. Castillo to work as his physician and as a rallying figure for the elder Castillo’s supporters."

Send No More Roses

Eric Ambler

1977

"Criminologist Frits Krom secures an interview with Paul Firm, the director of an ostensibly legitimate international investment firm who is in fact an expert in tax avoidance. It soon becomes evident that the host and his guests are under siege by a third party, one whose motives and violent intentions are unclear. If they are to survive, the criminal and the criminologist will have to work together."

The Care of Time

Eric Ambler

1981

"One Monday, Robert Halliday receives a bomb threat in the mail. Two days later, he receives the bomb - accompanied by an offer of employment from Karliss Zander, an international fixer. Unless Halliday agrees to help him edit the memoirs of a 19th century Russian terrorist and ghostwrite an exposé of modern terrorist governments, Zander will detonate the bomb. As Halliday discovers that Zander requires more than mere literary assistance, he wonders if it would have been less painful if the bomb had just gone off. The Care of Time, Eric Ambler’s final novel, is a carefully constructed, utterly absorbing story of intrigue and suspense, one of the most acclaimed works of his more than sixty year career."

Waiting For Orders

Eric Ambler

1991

"Nine short stories spanning the sixty-year career of master spy novelist Eric Ambler. The stories include thrilling portrayals of wartime Europe; six cases featuring a refugee Czech detective, Dr. Czissar; a Central American political thriller; and a detective story of sorts about the death of a painter. In four accompanying essays, Ambler shares intriguing anecdotes from different phases of his career, offering unique insight into his writing process."

• Introduction
• The Army Of The Shadows
• The Intrusions of Dr. Czissar
  1. The Case of the Pinchbeck Locket
  2. The Case of the Emerald Sky
  3. The Case of the Cycling Chauffeur
  4. The Case of the Overheated Service Flat
  5. The Case of the Drunken Socrates
  6. The Case of the Gentleman Poet
• The Blood Bargain

The Story so Far: Memories and Other Fictions

Eric Ambler

1993

Contents possibly the same as Waiting For Orders (1991).

"These stories, never published in book form date from 1939 when Ambler's first short story, "The Army of the Shadows" was published; then six tales about an East European detective, "The Intrusions of Dr Czissar"; "The Blood Bargain"; and "The One Who Did for Blagden Cole". Essays link the stories."

Skytip

Eliot Reed

1950

"Peter Ackland is ordered to rest by his Doctor. He travels to Cornwall and is greeted by Henry Braddock at the door of a cottage below the 'skytip'. Braddock has a revolver in his pocket. Ackland also comes across Nathan Murrison and his valet, who divide their time between exploring the 'skytip' and propping up the bar of the Green Dragon; a charming young lady who, on behalf of a Member of Parliament, tries her hand at burglary; other less charming characters who try their hand at blackmail; and a stage that is all set for murder."

Tender to Moonlight

Eliot Reed

1952

Published as Tender To Danger in the US. The US edition may have been in 1951.

"A blanket of fog grounds a flight in Brussels and Dr. Andrew Maclaren finds himself sharing a room with a fellow passenger who by morning disappears in suspicious circumstances, leaving behind an envelope hidden under the carpet. Whilst the contents are seemingly innocent, they lead the young Doctor into nightmarish adventures, culminating in the avoidance of cold-blooded killers in a deserted windmill and in the company of a beautiful redhead."

The Maras Affair

Eliot Reed

1953

"Charles Burton, journalist, cannot get work past Iron Curtain censors and knows he should leave the country. However, he is in love with his secretary, Anna Maras, and she is in danger. Then the President is assassinated and one of Burton's office workers is found dead. He decides to smuggle Anna out of the country, but her reluctance impedes him, as does being sought by secret police and counter-revolutionaries alike."

Charter to Danger

Eliot Reed

1954

"Vincent Flavius, a millionaire industrialist, charters a cabin cruiser owned by Ross Barnes. Flavius is on the verge of engineering yet another sensational financial coup. Embarkation is set for Cannes, but that is where the trouble begins. Shock after shock follows a strange encounter Barnes has with a girl in a dingy café. Murder and kidnapping follow, along with a dangerous chase which brings the Sûreté Nationale into swift action."

Passport to Panic

Eliot Reed

1958

"Lewis Page needs money urgently and a way out. He determines to get it from his wealthy brother who lives in a remote region of San Mateo in South America. Upon his arrival, however, he finds his brother desperately ill and in the hands of a notorious man named Benevides. Held prisoner, Lewis slowly but surely learns what is going on, whilst Benevides is making newspaper headlines throughout the continent. Fearful and dramatic events, with dangerous and violent intermissions, allow Lewis to rediscover his true self."

The Ability To Kill

Eric Ambler

1962

"In this collection of five essays exploring famously intriguing and disturbing cases of the last few hundred years. He delves into the dark tale of Edinburgh’s Burke and Hare who supplied the medical school with ill-gotten cadavers and the infamous Jack the Ripper of Victorian London. Though these subjects are sometimes grim, Ambler’s skill at story telling make this examination of homicide and criminal activity a pleasure to read."

Here Lies: An Autobiography

Eric Ambler

1985

"Here Lies is an insightful look inside the life and work of one of our greatest thriller writers. In this Edgar Award winning autobiography, Ambler applies his deft touch to his own story: his South London childhood, his brief engineering career, his time as an advertising copywriter, and, of course, the publication of his revolutionary spy novels. He then explores his time at war, his service in the film division of the British War Office, and his resulting screenplays. Here Ambler presents a compelling account of a life as enigmatic as it was exceptional."

To Catch A Spy

Editor: Eric Ambler

1964

An anthology of espionage related shot stories selected by and with an introduction by Eric Ambler. The contents are:

• Introduction (Eric Ambler)
• The Loathly Opposite (John Buchan)
• Giulia Lazzari (Somerset Maugham)
• The First Courier (Compton Mackenzie)
• I Spy (Graham Greene)
• Belgrade 1926 (Eric Ambler)
• From A View To A Kill (Ian Fleming)
• On Slay Down (Michael Gilbert)

Eric Ambler

Peter Lewis

1990

A revised edition was published in 2014.

"Eric Ambler is widely regarded as one of the most important thriller writers of the twentieth century. In the 1930s he set out to give respectability to a genre that he rightly recognized needed to be rescued from its status as pulp fiction. With six landmark novels published between 1936 and 1940, Ambler laid the foundations for the postwar generation of writers who raised the spy novel to a form of literature. Like Graham Greene, Ambler used the ingredients of a thriller to create a series of novels that investigated many aspects of modern life, from totalitarian political regimes to white-collar crime. And with those books, he transformed the scale and scope of the genre. But who was the man behind the work? Peter Lewis gives us the first full-length study of Amber’s life and work. …. By examining the individual books, Peter Lewis shows us how Ambler’s work changed throughout his life – while remaining always topical. As this book argues, no novelist did more to dissolve the boundaries that separated 'popular' from 'serious' fiction."

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Alarms and Epitaphs: The Art of Eric Ambler

Peter Wolfe

1993

"Eric Ambler's novelistic career falls into two halves. In the first half belong the works he published between 1935-1940. These include the highly acclaimed Epitaph for a Spy (1938) and The Mask of Dimitrios (1939), both of which were made into successful films in 1944. The intrigue books of this period unfold in interwar Europe, a bitten-up, anxious place reeling between the extremes of fascism and Soviet communism. To reflect changes in the postwar world, Ambler set his later books in third-world countries where first-world financing collides with unstable, often revolutionary, politics - all within the shadow of large multinational corporations. These powerful firms with connections in high places take the same liberties as big governments have always done in works like Dr. Frigo (1974), the only Ambler book set in Latin America, and the best-selling The Care of Time."

Eric Ambler: Twayne's English Authors

Ronald J. Ambrosetti

1994

"Born in London in 1909, Ambler had by the age of thirty produced a group of novels that would forever change the fundamental nature of the suspense thriller. ….. Current criticism generally takes the view that Ambler's best work is in these early, path-breaking novels. Ambrosetti contests this position, finding evidence of Ambler's maturation as a writer in terms of character development, social and political verisimilitude, and cognizance of moral subtlety. Gone from the novels of the 1950s onward are the one-dimensional ideologues of the collectivist 1930s; in their place are ambivalent, alienated characters, morally confused and psychologically homeless. In such novels as State of Siege (1956), Passage of Arms (1959), and The Light of Day (1962), Ambler considered the West's post-World War II view of the East - politically and psychologically - as the mysterious, untrustworthy 'other.' In the five books he devoted to this topic, Ambler took up the theme of the Western traveler on a journey of self-discovery and exploration; as one book followed the next into publication, Ambler's protagonists evolved from a stance of fearful and condescending fascination to one of at least partial understanding and involvement. Ambler's interest in the evolving personality, the ability to adapt, is apparent throughout his work."

The Art of Indirection in British Espionage Fiction: A Critical Study of Six Novelists

Robert Lance Snyder

2011

"In contrast to the classical detective story, the spy novel tends to be considered a suspect, somewhat subversive genre. While previous studies have focused on its historical, thematic, and ideological dimensions, this critical work examines British espionage fiction’s unique narrative form, which is typically elliptical, oblique, and recursive. Featured works include eighteen novels by Eric Ambler, Graham Greene, Len Deighton, John le Carré, Stella Rimington, and Charles Cumming, most of which exemplify the existential or serious spy thriller."