There are many neglected authors in the crime and thriller pantheon,
but the most shamefully neglected is undoubtedly Eric Ambler.
Considered by such masters as Graham Greene and John Le Carré
to be the greatest of all English thriller writers, his fall from
grace (at least as far as the fact that most of his books are
out of print is concerned) is astonishing. Pan, therefore, are
to be heartily acclaimed for bringing some of his finest books
back into print, embellished with the glowing imprimatur of modern
master Robert Harris. The engineer Graham, an Englishman undertaking
a terrifying flight across wartime Europe, is the archetypal Ambler
hero, an ordinary man attempting to survive in extraordinary circumstances
of massive danger and corruption. The modern spy story begins
here, with all the comfortable right-wing certainties of an earlier
generation of thriller writers seeming remote and implausible.
There's no denying that certain elements of Ambler's narratives
have dated a trifle, but that shouldn't deter those who've not
yet treated themselves to his consummately well-written thrillers.
