Ambler and the Craft of the Thriller
Theme: International Thrillers
Why are the Brits so good at sophisticated, literary thrillers? Whether it's due to their being a bit reserved and thus the patience to unravel a story at a slow and measured pace or due to their rich literary history that just might be woven into their DNA, Brits rise above the typical confines of a genre to offer the most suspenseful and well-crafted espionage thrillers that includes stalwarts such as Graham Greene and Eric Ambler. Although I haven't read all of Ambler's work, A Coffin for Dimitrios is surely Ambler at the apex of his game. If you're searching for that thriller that doesn't just give you the typical dead body/detective formula, you will find a novel that sates the tastes for fans of character and plot alike.
It doesn't move quickly; it unfolds masterfully through the actions of a well-developed protagonist, Latimer. Ambler understands the connection between tension, narrative and character so well that not only is the reader pulled along by the events but also by the motivations of all the characters that Latimer encounters. Told in a close third-person, we decide whether the people he's meeting are trustworthy or not as he is deciding. On vacation in Turkey from detective novel writing, a local Colonel(after giving him a script of his own idea for a detective novel) tries to bait Latimer by asking if he wants to know what a real murder is. At first, Latimer shuns Colonel Haki's display of braggadocio, but then decides to indulge him because he has nothing better to do on vacation.
He accompanies Haki to the morgue to identify the miscreant, Dimitrios, an active criminal throughout Eastern Europe for more than a decade. After viewing the body and listening to the spotty dossier gathered by police, Latimer is drawn to recreating Dimitrios' steps through his crimes in different countries including human trafficking, drug peddling and assasination. Ambler gives us a description of Latimer as he arrives in Smyrna to begin investigating the life of Dimitrios:
It has been said that Latimer possessed a tenacious mind. Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that he did not possess the sort of mental airlock system which enables its fortunate owner to dispose of the problems merely by forgetting them. Latimer might banish the problem from his mind but it would soon return to nibble furtively at his consciousness. He would have an uneasy feeling that he had mislaid something without being quite sure what that something was. His thoughts would wander from the business in hand. he would find himself staring blankly into space, until, suddenly, there was the problem, back again. Useless to reason that, as he himself had created it, he should, therefore, be able to destroy it. Useless to argue that it was futile and that the solution of it did not matter anyway. It had to be tackled.Through his journey to discover how Dimitrios was able to escape capture from police throughout the Balkans, Latimer discovers the Eastern European political landscape and its deterioration during the 1920s and 1930s. This provides a historical backdrop that up the stakes for Dimitrios and his crimes. Ambler gives us the saga of the Turks invading Smyrna. Dimitrios' birth in Salonika in 1889 when it was part of Turkish territory and an assassination in Adrianople. Latimer goes from Smyrna to Sofia to Belgrade to Geneva and ends up in Paris, all as a man whose curiosity has been piqued, and not to avenge any wrongdoing. Simply because he is obsessed with the story of Dimitrios who began as a fig-packer from Salonika.
It is wrong to think that because he is on the trail of Dimitrios, he knows what he is doing. Throughout the novel, the reader believes it is possible that Latimer will be killed. This adds an extra layer of tension that is woven well into the narrative. And what becomes clear as the novel progresses, is the ambiguity of morality at a time when money was all that mattered(sound familiar?). All hail capitalism. Slyly, Ambler presents Dimtrios as a microcosm of the macrocosm of Eastern Europe and the brutality of that the quest for money and power can bring to men and nations. A lofty goal, but one worth the effort.
One of the other elements that is so striking about this novel is that it was published in 1939, but it does not feel dated. Meaning that there are historical details that are accurate to the era, but the depth of character and the grittiness are so strong it feels timeless. Ambler gives us white slavery, heroin and prostitution, just like we have today. There's no attempt at shocking readers nor does he tip his hat to conservatism of the era. He reveals the story slowly, truthfully and with the suspense that one should expect. Readers of Greene and Le Carre should find solace in discovering the cannon of Eric Ambler.
Shop Indie Bookstores
Other Ambler Titles Worth Reading:
A Coffin for Dimitrios
By Eric Ambler
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
Paperback, 304 pages
ISBN: 9780375726712
$13.95
Posted by Monica at 10/7/2010 4:12 PM 
Categories: Espionage, Britain, International Thrillers
Tags: Espionage Coffin for Dimitrios Britain WWII International Thrillers Eric Ambler
Categories: Espionage, Britain, International Thrillers
Tags: Espionage Coffin for Dimitrios Britain WWII International Thrillers Eric Ambler
Indeed, a very good book. I read it under the title “The Mask of Dimitrios,” with an introduction by Mark Mazower.
I liked the way the search for Dimitrios highlights the search for identity; something vital in the seismic shocks created by the crumbling of the Ottoman Empire and the unrest in the ethnic populations at the time. Greek, Jew or Muslim, criminal, perpetrator, or victim, the mysterious Dimitrios’ character brings to life the first decades of the 1900s – especially the turbulent and seedy worlds in Smyrna (now Izmir) and the Balkans. It is also one of the few novels referring to the plight of the refugees fleeing Smyrna for Greece.
Reply to this
Great point, Stella. His ability to include all of this in a novel is admirable. Definitely a feat and most of the events weren't the usual fodder for espionage novels in that era. Thanks for the comment!
Reply to this