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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.