The Ability to Kill

by Eric Ambler

With The Ability to Kill, first published in 1963, renowned thriller writer Eric Ambler turns his attention to true crime—with an emphasis on murder. In five essays, he presents a sampling of famously intriguing (and often disturbing) cases of the last few hundred years, including 19th-century Edinburgh’s Burke and Hare, who supplied the medical school with ill-gotten cadavers; Victorian London’s infamous Jack the Ripper; the Frenchman Henri Desiré Landru, an early 20th century serial killer; and the Californian doctor Bernard Finch and his lover Carole Tregoff, who conspired to murder his wife in 1961. Rounding out the collection are a few pieces on lighter topics such as spies and how to spot them, and novelists in Hollywood. Though his subjects are sometimes grim, Ambler’s deft touch makes this examination of homicide and other matters pure pleasure to read.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Espionage, History

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Suspense novels of noted English writer Eric Ambler include Passage of Arms (1959).

Eric Ambler began his career in the early 1930s and quickly established a reputation as a thriller of extraordinary depth and originality. People often credit him as the inventor of the modern political thriller, and John Le Carré once described him as "the source on which we all draw."

Ambler began his working life at an engineering firm and then at an advertising agency and meanwhile in his spare time worked on his ambition, plays. He first published in 1936 and turned full-time as his reputation. During the war, people seconded him to the film unit of the Army, where he among other projects authored The Way Ahead with Peter Ustinov.

He moved to Hollywood in 1957 and during eleven years to 1968 scripted some memorable films, A Night to Remember and The Cruel Sea, which won him an Oscar nomination.

In a career, spanning more than six decades, Eric Ambler authored 19 books, the crime writers' association awarded him its gold dagger award in 1960. Joan Harrison married him and co-wrote many screenplays of Alfred Hitchcock, who in fact organized their wedding.

Reviews

[Sketchbook · Rating 4 out of 5]

I go nutz over a good mystery or spy story. Eric Ambler served up both
for decades. Spies: On the Simplon-Orient Express - take note, he says, of those who have no prob w passports/customs: "Those are the spies." Spy spots? Istanbul, Tangiers, Bangkok, the Ile du Levant were once keen. As for the gentle art of murder, Ambler details the 1960 Covina, Ca., case of Dr Finch & Carole Tregoff who were accused of killing the MDs wife. The trial involved lust, greed, hired killers. A circus ensued. Ambler, asked to do an article, says LA made the most of it, as it usually does w murder. Are the two alive today? They went to jail for life. The Finch-Tregoff saga is juicy movie material.

Ambler offers acidic comments on the dopey press. Of the '50s, he recalls: "One of the reasons why McCarthy was able so rapidly and so easily to lie his way to power was that everything he said was faithfully reported." An American reporter feels obliged to report what someone has said - even if he knows that it is a lie, Ambler adds with concern. It's up to the reader to decide for himself. NYT shrugged off the issue. The NYer countered, he tells us, "That's rather like saying if a restaurant serves poisoned food, it's up to the diner to refuse it." (I think of this today when absurdists like Ann Coulter get air-time).

Ambler includes an off-topic commentary on writing for the movies. (He wrote scripts and late-life married Hitchcock associate Joan Harrison). Between scripter and his audience are producer, director, actors, photographer, film editor and sound engineer. The resultant hurly-burly is a conflict of egos and interests, notes Ambler, who's so damned erudite that he makes you almost like what he calls the "aberrant minority." Lo, they're always with us.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the historic murder cases were interesting and the sections on England, France and Scotland especially the Scottish verdict of not proven.

The book kicks off with a introduction of murders in England. The 1959 murder by a Dr Finch and his mistress Miss Tregoff of Finch’s wife is bizarre. He shoots her in the back and on the third trial is finally convicted and is out in 10 years. The sheer incompetence of the police, prosecution and juries is breathtaking. Talk about a circus.

The author discusses several other murders and the use of insanity as a defense. The Lizzie Borden Memorial Lectures cover England, Scotland where poisoning appears to be the preferred method and France where the murderers are guillotined. The crime of passion defense also appears only to work for women.

The last section discusses spy haunts of the world and how to spot a spy. Maxims the restaurant innParis and its history as well as how novelists struggles to turn there novels into film scripts.

An interesting book and gruesome descriptions of the murderers and their poor victims. The doctor in Paris killing 65 people trying to escape Nazi persecution was particularly evil and horrible.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essay collections by well-regarded novelists frequently fail to live up to expectations, but The Ability to Kill possesses many of the same virtues as Ambler's novels. His non-fiction proves informative and revealing; his prose is equally dazzling as it is during his fiction. The first section features accounts of curious murder trials told from a reporter's perspective. Section two attempts to analyze murder based on definable national characteristics (e.g. the Scots prefer poison). Only the final section lacks thematic consistency, but it contains one of the book's highlights, an expose on the hobby of international "spy-spotting." A must read for Amblophiles!

[David Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of 13 essays, articles and lectures by one of the 20th century’s greatest writers of thrillers and espionage stories. The first, which gives the collection its title, is based on Goethe’s observation that there was no crime for which he did not deem himself capable. Staring with the McNaughten Rules (“he knew what he was doing and he knew that it was wrong”) Ambler muses on the definition of sanity and (without mentioning the word) psychopathy. The second essay deals with the difficulties of being asked to report on a trial for an American newspaper along with his own experiences as a witness trying to remember the face of a confidence trickster by whom he’d been taken in. Two other fascinating cases are discussed including that of the 1961 A6 murder for which James Hanratty was hanged. DNA evidence recently proved his supporters to be wrong.
We then have a series of tongue-in-cheek (and hilarious) lectures about properties in which murders have occurred and Ambler’s annoyance that most of them seem to have been demolished - he proposes that alternative “Red Plaques” should have been affixed to their walls as a counterpoint to the myriad blue plaques which commemorate the more traditionally celebrated residents of London’s streets. There’s a chapter on Jack the Ripper too.
We finish with five essays that cover the important subjects of the best places in the world to go spy-spotting and how to recognise them (ease of going through customs is a dead giveaway - they always have impeccably forged papers), the history of Maxim’s restaurant, the invention of the film camera and the difficulties faced by a novelist once his his work has been secured for filming. Great fun.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ambler, the great novelist, writes several true crime essays, all told with a sly sense of humor. His writing reminds me of Dominick Dunne. Although Ambler wrote first; perhaps Ambler did influence Dunne.

Includes a few other essays on travel, espionage, and being a writer in Hollywood.

Ladies and gentlemen, our Anglo-Saxon culture is built on studious denials of the existence within us of the primitive.

His essay on catching spies includes a sort of score chart for assessing the likelihood a person is a spy. This chart made me think of Circle of Treason, which recounts how the CIA finally caught Aldrich Ames after he'd been getting away with espionage at the highest level for years. The counterintelligence effort began with a secret vote among the spy catchers, in which they wrote down who they suspected might be the spy — most of the group thought Ames, but without proof. They either had access to a chart like the one Ambler presents here, or they may have internalized it.

In his essay on working as a writer in Hollywood, he advises that the key to maintaining one's self-respect while working in a medium that demands collaboration calls for maturity, not only for the writer but for everyone working in the medium.

A quick fun read.

[C.J. Laurence · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not Impressed

I'm afraid to say I'm one of those people who is fascinated with murderers, more specifically, serial killers. Whilst researching something else, I came across a blog which recommended reading this book.
I must stress right now that I won't be recommending the blog either.

Having now tapped out at 54%, it's taken me 3 months to haul my interest this far. Bear in mind here that I can, and have, read an entire 4 book series over a weekend, so I am no slouch when it comes to devouring the written word.
However, Ambler's attempt at documenting such a favourite topic of mine is truly shocking. His writing style is long, drawn out, and quite frankly, utterly boring. He spends more time relaying history of countries rather than the nitty-gritty details I love to gawp at.

After finally reaching chapter 4, I felt hope at seeing the chapter titled 'London' - I am a native Brit, and proud of it. Yet, the straw that broke my waning perseverance was when he wrote of our 'President'.

I don't think I need say anymore.

[Mrs. Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eric Ambler is a good writer, but The Ability to Kill does him no particular credit. Addressing true-crime, Ambler seemed more interested in the “crime” component than the “true” element, at least in the case I know something about (Finch). This decades-old book was written before we all became accustomed to reading accounts of well-known crimes by very good writers (Capote, Mailer, Toobin, Dunne, and many others), and if nothing else it illustrates the progress in the genre, and might interest true-crime buffs for that reason if for no other.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 60% of the book is true crime. That part was fairly interesting. HOWEVER, the last 40% was about a restaurant in Paris, a man who invented the motion picture camera and the last, disputes between writers and Hollywood producers. It was like his editor called and said, say, there's not enough for a book here, so just send me some essays and we will cobble them together. It was ODD.

[Cynthia Sprout · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful writing. DNF