Alarms and Epitaphs

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.