Eric Ambler Collection

Written by Eric Ambler
Format: MP3
Unabridged

1936 The Dark Frontier
The Dark Frontier (1936) is Eric Ambler’s first novel. He wrote about its genesis thus:”… Became press agent for film star, but soon after joined big London advertising agency as copywriter and ‘ideas man’. During next few years wrote incessantly on variety of subjects ranging from baby food to non-ferrous alloys. Have travelled in most countries of Europe, been stranded in Marseilles and nearly drowned in the Bay of Naples. Decided, on a rainy day in Paris, to write a thriller. Result was The Dark Frontier.” Based on the development in weaponry of the year 1936, The Dark Frontier was one of the first novels to predict the invention of a nuclear bomb and its consequences. Ambler evidently had no knowledge of what producing an atomic bomb may involve (even professional physicists at the time had only a vague idea). The book makes no mention of uranium or any other radioactive material, and makes instead the assumption that setting off an atomic bomb would involve a considerable electric charge. Still, Ambler could be credited with having become aware, before many others, of this coming weapon which was to have such a profound effect on the entire world, and his depiction of scientists in a secret hideout building such a bomb could be considered a preview of the Manhattan Project - and he correctly surmised that refugees from Nazi Germany might get involved in such a project.

1951 Judgement On Deltchev
Foster’s dramatic skill is well-known in London’s West End theaters. So perhaps it wasn’t so surprising when he was hired by an American newspaper publisher to cover the trial of Yordan Delchev for treason. Accused of membership in the sinister Officer Corps Brotherhood and of masterminding a plot to assassinate his country’s leader, Delchev may in fact be a pawn and his trial all show. But when Foster meets Madame Delchev, the accused’s powerful wife, he suddenly become enmeshed in more life-threatening intrigue than he could have imagined.

1953 The Schirmer Inheritance
It wasn’t anyone’s idea of a glamorous first assignment at a white shoe law firm. George Cary, former WWII bomber pilot and newly minted lawyer, was given the ignoble task of going through the tons of files on the Schneider Johnson case, just to make sure nothing had been overlooked. But, as luck would have it, George did discover something among the false claims and dead-end leads that made this into more than just another missing-heir-to-a vast-fortune case. And what he found would connect a deserter from Napoloeon’s defeated army to a guerrilla fighter in post-war Greece, and lead Cary himself 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.

1956 The Night-Comers
All in all Steve Fraser had enjoyed his three-year stint in the former Dutch Southeast Asian colony of Sunda, and he’d been well compensated. But now he was looking forward to a last weekend in the capital before heading home. But Sunda was newly independent, and not entirely stable. An opposition faction with fundamentalist Islamic leanings was set on overthrowing the provisional government. And instead of enjoying a sybaritic weekend with the Eurasian beauty Rosalie, Fraser finds himself trapped with her by a fanatical group who’ve taken over the country’s radio station and made their headquarters in his friend Jebb’s apartment. As the government launches a counterattack, the couple’s survival depends on their ability to dodge bullets and the shifting loyalties of the coup’s lieutenants.

1964 A Kind Of Anger
Six weeks ago, Lucia Bernardi fled the Swiss villa where her lover was murdered—and then she vanished. No one can find Not the police, who want her for murder; not the tabloids, who want her for her story; nor the real killers, who desperately want the papers she spirited away from the scene of the crime. Disgraced reporter Piet Maas stumbles upon Lucia, in hiding in the south of France. There he must decide whether to publish her story—reviving his career but guaranteeing her death—or to join in her perilous extortion scheme, and risk both their lives for the promise of profit.

1967 Dirty Story (Arthur Abdel Simpson 2)
Also published as ‘This Gun for Hire’. The book continues the life of Ambler’s anti-hero, petty criminal Arthur Abdel Simpson, a man whose English father and Egyptian mother have given him uncertain citizenship. Simpson took part in a daring Istanbul robbery in Ambler’s earlier novel The Light of Day. In Dirty Story Simpson faces the prospect of becoming a penniless exile, a non-citizen of any country. He is forced to become a mercenary for a cynical Central African mining company seeking to secure control of land rich in rare earth ores. He is a misfit with little military experience and is unsuited for the role of mercenary; however, he manages to outwit his ruthless adversaries who are seasoned professionals. This is one of several novels by Ambler in which statelessness or the danger of becoming stateless (an exile, not a citizen of any country and unwelcome in all countries) features prominently in the plot.

1972 The Levanter
It is Syria in 1970, three years after the Six Days War. Michael Howell was utterly apolitical and genetically programmed for survival, a Levantine of mixed origin who possessed profitable business enterprises throughout the Middle East and an Italian mistress as his office manager. Life was sweet for Michael Howell until, one night in Damascus, he discovered that his factories had become the clandestine operations base of the Palestine Action Force, a fanatical terrorist organization dead-set on destroying Israel. Suddenly, Howell is caught in the middle with nowhere to run.

1974 Doctor Frigo
In the early 1970s, Ernesto Castillo lives in exile on the island of St. Paul-les-Alizés, in the French Antilles, a typical post-colonial Caribbean island. Twelve years earlier, his father, the leader of a Central American country, a former Spanish colony that is never named, was assassinated.
Ever since two gunmen killed his father on the steps of a hotel one night in a coup d’état organized by the military junta, Castillo’s mother (who recently passed away) and many of his friends in exile have hoped that Castillo would return to homeland as an avenging angel, to right the wrongs done to his family, and assume his place as his father’s successor. But Ernesto Castillo, also known as Doctor Frigo, is a doctor so nicknamed because he has the tenderness of a refrigerator. Doctor Fridge does not want to participate in political machinations, he wants to bury the past and forget his homeland. Castillo is a state employee, paid by the French government, and has his medical practice at the local hospital. His lover, Elizabeth - estranged from her husband - is an artist, a delightful and eccentric woman. Castillo would only like to continue living a quiet existence on the island, with Elizabeth. But of course, this is not possible.
A large oil reserve has been discovered in Castillo’s former Central American homeland, and another coup is in the offing, as many opposing interests vie to acquire the immense new wealth. Everyone from the French secret service to the oil cartels is convinced they need the support of Castillo, the former president’s son. If he is not willing to lend his support, they could take away his peace of mind and perhaps even his life.

1977 The Siege Of The Villa Lipp - Send No More Roses
In the shadowy areas of international law criminals work hard at figuring loopholes. One such wheelerdealer is Paul Firman. He pursues his own ends in a quiet, unobtrusive way. Why would anyone want to bother about him? But he is unaware that an obsessive academician, Professor Krom, has stumbled on Firman’s activities and is determined to expose him. Two of Krom’s colleagues are on hand as witnesses as Krom prepares to confront Firman. But none have bargained with a third party threatening to put a permanent stop to the encounter. The booby-trapped grounds of the Mediterranean Villa Lipp, a hovering motor cruiser, a sudden attack–Krom is prepared for none of these. But Firman, always cool and self-possessed, responds with force and decision, and in the end pulls Krom’s chestnuts out of the fire.

1981 The Care Of Time
Robert Halliday, an American free-lance writer is coerced into negotiations between NATO and the “Ruler,” a powerful Persian Gulf sheik of questionable sanity, and finds mystery in each of their interests