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The Schirmer Inheritance
It is just after WW II and the Schirmer estate has a long history, a battery of lawyers, and millions to disperse. It also has a problem: no heir.
It takes a young American attorney to locate one. He succeeds by going back to records of the Napoleonic wars and finds there clues that lead him to Europe. His improbable quarry: a German sergeant in the occupation forces during the war, living as a bandit in the hills of Greece.
"A wonderfully ingenious tangle of slow dissolving mystification which has the persuasive nag of truth." (New York Herald Tribune)
219 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1953
63 people are currently reading
486 people want to read
About the author
Eric Ambler
99 books486 followersSuspense 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
August 6, 2013
This book is not quite as ambitious as either Passage or Deltchev - but no less masterful for that. Despite a slower beginning (for me), the book picks up and is flawless, once again, in its construction. Clearly Ambler is a man who does not write until he knows what it is he wants to say. How refreshing! and while he chooses to use the style of the political thriller, it is nothing less than the anatomy of man, that "ape in velvet", that he has firmly in his sights.
May 28, 2022
A book I didn't want to end as for me there are many questions left unanswered about the characters, but I can't say what those questions are otherwise I will give away the ending.
However, the ending is satisfying and does close the main story of this book, which leads from early 19th-Century Eastern Europe to the USA of the early post-WWII years and then back across to the European continent. George Carey, the lawyer, and Maria Kolin, the interpreter, head towards The Balkans in search of a man who may be entitled to inherit a lot of money, should he prove to be alive. This proof is very hard to find, but eventually leads to a conclusion in the rather wild and lawless country in the border between Greece and Yugoslavia.
However, the ending is satisfying and does close the main story of this book, which leads from early 19th-Century Eastern Europe to the USA of the early post-WWII years and then back across to the European continent. George Carey, the lawyer, and Maria Kolin, the interpreter, head towards The Balkans in search of a man who may be entitled to inherit a lot of money, should he prove to be alive. This proof is very hard to find, but eventually leads to a conclusion in the rather wild and lawless country in the border between Greece and Yugoslavia.
August 20, 2013
The usually skillful Ambler spends 100 pages on back-story & exposition as an American legal treks post-war Europe looking for an heir to a million bucks. His aide-de-camp, born in Yugoslavia, was traumatized by invading troops and she now likes to be abused, but not by our Harvard sleuth. There's a lotta trek in this hasty pudding.
December 5, 2017
Non è di spionaggio che si parla in questo romanzo, eppure Ambler trova un pretesto (un'eredità) per accompagnarci in un intrigo che affonda nella storia europea a cavallo tra 2 secoli (otto e novecento). Molto bello, molto Ambler.
January 27, 2014
Un'eredit� controversa con un lascito agognato. Il titolo � stato cambiato da "l'eredit� S." al pi� vasto "il caso S.", ma sempre di un eredit� si tratta. Ci sono soldati, e un paio di guerre ma non � solo un libro di guerra. Terroristi e partigiani e politica e spie ma non � solo un libro di intrighi, pure amore ma non � solo un libro romantico. E un personaggio importante � pure avvocato, pur non essendo solo un legal thriller. In sintesi � un Ambler. Uno che si documenta benissimo, sui complessi eventi greci nel decennio a cavallo tra la seconda guerra mondiale e la guerra civile non dice una sola cazzata, ma al contrario di noti vendutissimi, i fatti li fa agire da persone vere, non da stereotipi o macchiette. E poi se ne esce con: "il dotto giudice del quale era stato segretario aveva detto una volta che era impossibile occuparsi di legge per molti anni per imparare che, nessun caso, per quanto sembri semplice e concreto, pu� considerarsi interamente inattaccabile dalla lamentevole tendenza della realt� ad assumere la forma e le proporzioni di un melodramma." e "io credo che ci siano persone di tutte le qualit�, lui no. Lui crede che ce ne siano solo di due tipi: quelli che vuoi con te quando le faccende si mettono male, e quelli con cui non vuoi avere a che fare a nessun prezzo." Meriterebbe non pi� di tre stelle, per via di svariate parti moralmente bacate e deontologicamente deficitarie, poff�re. Salvo che ci sono i libri di etica che illustrano pedissequamente cosa si dovrebbe fare e perch�, e i romanzi che mostrano cosa si pu� fare e come e con chi. Un saluto all'efficiente interprete, la signorina Kolin, strana donna, di ambizioni assai inferiori la sua spiccata intelligenza. Colonna sonora: Chailly/Bollani/Gershwin - Rapsodia in blu ecc.
November 19, 2016
I liked the part with the lawyer and the translator trying to solve a mystery.
The rest of it? Ugh.
If the story was just about George Carey,
it would have been four stars.
It wasn't a bad story, just not as good as Raymond Chandler.
The rest of it? Ugh.
If the story was just about George Carey,
it would have been four stars.
It wasn't a bad story, just not as good as Raymond Chandler.
February 20, 2024
The Schirmer Inheritance left me impressed and yet a little deflated. Impressed by Eric Ambler's skill as a writer and deflated by the point, or lack of, in the story. Possibly if I had been reading it in 1953 the events would have had a greater impact. The Second World War had only come to an end eight years earlier and evidence of the violence and loss would have been visible everywhere for an everyday reminder of trauma. Searching for a Nazi who was still an active young man and who had clearly not shed his military or political views, far from being difficult to contemplate, would have been an adventure with danger at every step.
However, the story is set out using a device which seemed popular back then. The hero is a young man in a quiet clerical job, in this case a junior partner in a Philadelphia law firm, who finds himself thrust into an unfamiliar world of peril and threat far from his comfortable home. George Carey is given the job of tracking down a surviving heir to a small fortune created by a German immigrant to the United States. After weeks of searching through dusty documents and archives he finds such a person exists in Franz Schirmer, a former Wehrmacht sergeant last seen in Greece during the German retreat. Was he still living?
Carey picks up a beautiful but neurotic Serbian interpreter to help him called Maria Kolin, who is addicted to brandy and full of painful memories of the Nazi occupation of her country. Together they set off for Greece and step right into a world far removed from paper pushing behind a desk. It takes them ninety pages to get there, so the reader has to have some fascination and respect for descriptions of sifting through records and ledgers and following paper trails.
The Greek adventure moves very neatly from situation to situation and Franz Schirmer is disclosed as not only alive and fighting but a completely unreconstructed Nazi with all the indoctrination of the Hitler Jugend intact. It boils up so well and then fizzles out as Ms. Kolin is finally depicted as a woman who not only likes a bit of rough but also a bit of roughing up. Herr Schirmer and Ms. Kolin have apparently found their perfect matches of dominance and subservience. It is a very obvious display of 1950s masculine joy through strength which leaves Ms. Kolin bruised yet infatuated and Mr. Carey making his way to the nearest airport for a flight back to America.
I can't say his work was done as he had achieved little other than flush out a Nazi who cared little for his financial inheritance and seen him escape into the wilderness of the Balkan mountains. The book is an example of beautiful writing while the story ends up going nowhere.
However, the story is set out using a device which seemed popular back then. The hero is a young man in a quiet clerical job, in this case a junior partner in a Philadelphia law firm, who finds himself thrust into an unfamiliar world of peril and threat far from his comfortable home. George Carey is given the job of tracking down a surviving heir to a small fortune created by a German immigrant to the United States. After weeks of searching through dusty documents and archives he finds such a person exists in Franz Schirmer, a former Wehrmacht sergeant last seen in Greece during the German retreat. Was he still living?
Carey picks up a beautiful but neurotic Serbian interpreter to help him called Maria Kolin, who is addicted to brandy and full of painful memories of the Nazi occupation of her country. Together they set off for Greece and step right into a world far removed from paper pushing behind a desk. It takes them ninety pages to get there, so the reader has to have some fascination and respect for descriptions of sifting through records and ledgers and following paper trails.
The Greek adventure moves very neatly from situation to situation and Franz Schirmer is disclosed as not only alive and fighting but a completely unreconstructed Nazi with all the indoctrination of the Hitler Jugend intact. It boils up so well and then fizzles out as Ms. Kolin is finally depicted as a woman who not only likes a bit of rough but also a bit of roughing up. Herr Schirmer and Ms. Kolin have apparently found their perfect matches of dominance and subservience. It is a very obvious display of 1950s masculine joy through strength which leaves Ms. Kolin bruised yet infatuated and Mr. Carey making his way to the nearest airport for a flight back to America.
I can't say his work was done as he had achieved little other than flush out a Nazi who cared little for his financial inheritance and seen him escape into the wilderness of the Balkan mountains. The book is an example of beautiful writing while the story ends up going nowhere.
January 13, 2018
Primo libro di Ambler che leggo, e devo dire che si meriterebbe 4 stelle: la scrittura e' fluida e mai noiosa (probabilmente anche grazie alla traduzione di Manganelli), ricostruzione storica accuratissima e piacevole, ma una parte del finale mi ha lasciata proprio basita:
Peccato per questa componente a mio parere inutile ed anche un po' ridicola, (senza questa "scivolata" il libro sarebbe stato da quattro stelle piene) comunque un libro sicuramente da leggere.
Peccato per questa componente a mio parere inutile ed anche un po' ridicola, (senza questa "scivolata" il libro sarebbe stato da quattro stelle piene) comunque un libro sicuramente da leggere.
September 13, 2019
Even when they involved violence and murder, the prewar spy thrillers Eric Ambler wrote managed to maintain an upbeat, chirpy optimistic tone for the most part. This second of his postwar novels, The Schirmer Inheritance seems of a different mood and outlook entirely. I haven't looked much into Ambler's biography or his autobiographical writings, but I'm guessing there is more than the usual postwar disillusionment in this book. Ambler has substituted a story that ends on a note of bitter irony for his prewar feeling that peril might exist but a united front could defeat the looming Axis threat.
Ambler's attitude towards communism and the political nature of man is one thing that has certainly been drastically altered. The true believers are depicted as fools, cannon fodder for scheming opportunists. The hunger for power and the willingness to make people expendable comes through loud and clear. Perhaps Ambler had seen enough of Stalinism to know that it was little different from Hitlerism. And if there is one message that finally does come through at the end, it is this: take the money and run--the money you have right now; abuse breeds abuse; and pain seeks out pain.
Ambler's attitude towards communism and the political nature of man is one thing that has certainly been drastically altered. The true believers are depicted as fools, cannon fodder for scheming opportunists. The hunger for power and the willingness to make people expendable comes through loud and clear. Perhaps Ambler had seen enough of Stalinism to know that it was little different from Hitlerism. And if there is one message that finally does come through at the end, it is this: take the money and run--the money you have right now; abuse breeds abuse; and pain seeks out pain.
March 24, 2015
A post war tale centered on an estate lawyer combing Europe for a lost heir to millions. A fascinating premise, but....
Zzzzzzzzzzzz...whazzuh??! No more peanut butter, mommy....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Huh?! I'm up! Sorry, must have dozed off there. Where was I? Oh yeah, the estate lawyer sitting in dimly lit rooms searching through family records and......
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
Snork! I'm awake! I lost my train of thought. Is it warm in here? Something about a lawyer and paperwork and Germans. Germans? I think; and Greeks of some sort. The point is, he was a lawyer, and there was paperwork, and a lady who comes along.....
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....here kitty kitty.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
Kitty? What did I say? Dammit, the kitty, no....LAWYER, the LAWYER finds the cat and she helps him with Germans and gorillas...wait, that's not right...I'm pretty sure there was a twist...
Anyway, you'll have to read the molasses for your own book and try to stay awake for the dry, uninteresting parts that make up the whole thing.
Zzzzzzzzzzzz...whazzuh??! No more peanut butter, mommy....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Huh?! I'm up! Sorry, must have dozed off there. Where was I? Oh yeah, the estate lawyer sitting in dimly lit rooms searching through family records and......
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
Snork! I'm awake! I lost my train of thought. Is it warm in here? Something about a lawyer and paperwork and Germans. Germans? I think; and Greeks of some sort. The point is, he was a lawyer, and there was paperwork, and a lady who comes along.....
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....here kitty kitty.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
Kitty? What did I say? Dammit, the kitty, no....LAWYER, the LAWYER finds the cat and she helps him with Germans and gorillas...wait, that's not right...I'm pretty sure there was a twist...
Anyway, you'll have to read the molasses for your own book and try to stay awake for the dry, uninteresting parts that make up the whole thing.
August 16, 2018
Not Amber's best. It held my interest for a while, with a mystery concerning a missing heir, interesting locations, etc. But the ending, especially the part that concerned Miss Kolin, was strange, made no sense, and seemed to be the machination of a misogynist's fantasy. I might switch back to Graham Greene.
And now a year or so after writing the above, I want to add that I absolutely love Eric Ambler's books. Many of them touch on the qualities that make for a most enjoyable reading experience: humor and lots of plot twists and action. And since he was writing espionage books before, during, and just after WW2, the details of time and place are spot-on and have an authenticity that one won't find in a more recent novel set during the same time periods.
And now a year or so after writing the above, I want to add that I absolutely love Eric Ambler's books. Many of them touch on the qualities that make for a most enjoyable reading experience: humor and lots of plot twists and action. And since he was writing espionage books before, during, and just after WW2, the details of time and place are spot-on and have an authenticity that one won't find in a more recent novel set during the same time periods.
September 25, 2009
Not really spy fiction, not very thrilling or intriguing. All in all, I hope this is one of (only?) the underwhelming efforts by Ambler because I want to read more. The first 50 pages or so led me to think this was going to be very interesting. Then nothing happened...seriously, nothing was added to the story again until the final 40 pages or so, and the final 40 pages didn't serve any purpose other than to wrap up and get out of town. If you're an Ambler completest, read until George leaves for Europe and then don't pick it up again until the truth about Schirmer "appears". If you're only interested in reading "an Ambler"...skip this one.
Rating: 2.4
Rating: 2.4
March 14, 2018
Entertaining enough. Takes quite a while to get going, and ending is marred by some good old-fashioned sexism.
January 1, 2020
Αδιάφορο στην αρχή, με πολλά ονόματα και μπερδεύει λίγο τον αναγνώστη. (Αναγκάστηκα να κάτσω να κάνω σχεδιάγραμμα για να δω πως ο κ. Μορτον έφτασε σε όλα αυτά τα ονόματα για να συνεχίσω).
Άρχισε να γίνεται ενδιαφέρον από την στιγμή που έφτασαν στην Ελλάδα καθώς ερχόμαστε σε γνώριμα για εμάς τους Έλληνες μονοπάτια και μπορώ να πω ότι μου άρεσε αρκετά αυτό το σημείο, μιας και η περίοδος του Εμφυλίου με ενδιαφέρει πολύ...
Κι εκεί που με έχει συνεπάρει κι έχω φάει όλο το απόγευμα για να μπορέσω να το τελειώσω και να δω που καταλήγει, έρχεται ο "έρωτας" της δις Κόλιν με τον Γερμανό "αντάρτη" κομμουνιστή και τρώω ένα χαστούκι άλλο πράμα.
Συγνώμη κ. Άμπλερ αλλά αυτά δεν γίνονται ούτε σε βιβλία επιστημονικής φαντασίας ή παραφυσικού.
Δλδ οι Γερμανοί σκότωσαν όλη την οικογένεια της, έχει απίστευτο θυμό μέσα της, τον καταδίδει στον Συνταγματάρχη, τρώει ξύλο γιατί την ανακάλυψαν και τελικά τον ερωτεύεται και φεύγει μαζί του;
Ασε μας ρε κύριε Άμπλερ...
Ευτυχώς έδωσα μόνο 2.5 ευρώ για να το αγοράσω από κάποιο πάγκο...
Δύο αστεράκια καθαρά και μόνο για το κομμάτι από την άφιξη στην Ελλάδα μέχρι και την φυλάκιση της δις Κόλιν και Τζωρτζ στο κρυσφήγετο του Σίρμερ.
Δεν το κρίνω ιστορικά γιατί στο σημείωμα στο τέλος του βιβλίου το ξεκαθαρίζει ότι δεν πρόκειται για ιστορικό βιβλίο αλλά για μυθιστόρημα με ελάχιστα ιστορικά στοιχεία.
Άρχισε να γίνεται ενδιαφέρον από την στιγμή που έφτασαν στην Ελλάδα καθώς ερχόμαστε σε γνώριμα για εμάς τους Έλληνες μονοπάτια και μπορώ να πω ότι μου άρεσε αρκετά αυτό το σημείο, μιας και η περίοδος του Εμφυλίου με ενδιαφέρει πολύ...
Κι εκεί που με έχει συνεπάρει κι έχω φάει όλο το απόγευμα για να μπορέσω να το τελειώσω και να δω που καταλήγει, έρχεται ο "έρωτας" της δις Κόλιν με τον Γερμανό "αντάρτη" κομμουνιστή και τρώω ένα χαστούκι άλλο πράμα.
Συγνώμη κ. Άμπλερ αλλά αυτά δεν γίνονται ούτε σε βιβλία επιστημονικής φαντασίας ή παραφυσικού.
Δλδ οι Γερμανοί σκότωσαν όλη την οικογένεια της, έχει απίστευτο θυμό μέσα της, τον καταδίδει στον Συνταγματάρχη, τρώει ξύλο γιατί την ανακάλυψαν και τελικά τον ερωτεύεται και φεύγει μαζί του;
Ασε μας ρε κύριε Άμπλερ...
Ευτυχώς έδωσα μόνο 2.5 ευρώ για να το αγοράσω από κάποιο πάγκο...
Δύο αστεράκια καθαρά και μόνο για το κομμάτι από την άφιξη στην Ελλάδα μέχρι και την φυλάκιση της δις Κόλιν και Τζωρτζ στο κρυσφήγετο του Σίρμερ.
Δεν το κρίνω ιστορικά γιατί στο σημείωμα στο τέλος του βιβλίου το ξεκαθαρίζει ότι δεν πρόκειται για ιστορικό βιβλίο αλλά για μυθιστόρημα με ελάχιστα ιστορικά στοιχεία.
April 21, 2024
Strong start, weak end. Maybe a 2.5?
April 14, 2008
Eric Ambler’s 1953 novel The Schirmer Inheritance isn’t quite a crime novel, or at any rate certainly not a conventional one. It’s perhaps best described as a mystery thriller with a dash of international intrigue. It’s somewhat in the style of Graham Greene’s cloak-and-dagger novels. Ambler and Greene took the spy/adventure story as written by people like John Buchan and seasoned it with lots of cynicism, and a certain amount of black humour. The Schirmer Inheritance is typical of Ambler’s work in having an amateur, in this case a young attorney, who becomes involved in a web of mystery, crime and international politics. Sent to Germany in 1949 to trace a possible heir to an American soft-drink fortune he finds itself drawn into a story that started during in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars when a Prussian dragoon deserted his regiment, and which now leads him to Greece in the midst of civil war as he follows the trail of a young German sergeant killed by partisans in World War II. It’s a fascinating and unusual story, told with great skill and with Ambler’s gift for striking characterisation. A very entertaining read, and a book I recommend very highly. If you haven’t discovered Eric Ambler then you’re missing out on a very fine and underrated writer.
July 7, 2013
Ambler is one of those old school spy/espionage authors that is heavy on atmosphere. In this time out, he writes about an American lawyer searching in Greece for a long lost heir to a fortune. The book opens with a brief synopsis of Schirmer's forebear, and it really gives you a taste of what was going on in 1950's post-WWII Greece. The political strife and the intense betrayals that had gone on for decades is really brought home very well. So using this as a backdrop, the American lawyer follows a very cold trail. This is more of an espionage type of book - definitely not heavy on plot points. But he uses the atmosphere and setting so well that it makes it interesting and tension-filled. So when the climax arrives, you know there's going to be a twist of some kind, and you can see it coming from quite a ways off. But that's okay because it's done well and is somewhat a product of its time. The only thing I really didn't get was how the lawyer's interpreter suddenly switched teams from hating Schirmer and the Germans to suddenly having a tryst and riding off into the sunset with him. Maybe I missed something as I have three kids distracting me, but outside of this, it was very good.
May 2, 2010
Different from other Amblers I have read, in that it takes place after WWII and the protagonist is an American. The plot (a young American lawyer is sent to Europe to search for a possible German heir to a U.S. fortune) isn't much, but much of it is set in Greece and deals with the German occupation and the post-occupation political struggles, which is very interesting. As usual, Ambler writes well and moves the story along. There were some character surprises along the way, which added to the fun.
September 8, 2013
If you enjoy old time espionage books, you will enjoy Eric Ambler, who is most known for Coffin for Demetrious. Ambler's ordinary characters find themselves in the middle of intense espionage activities, often at their peril. His focus is the WWII era.
The Shirmer Inheritance focuses on the role of Greece in the war its the freemdom fighters and the communists ( something that most WWII books do not focus on). Many twists.
The Shirmer Inheritance focuses on the role of Greece in the war its the freemdom fighters and the communists ( something that most WWII books do not focus on). Many twists.
July 17, 2016
I like Eric Ambler's books because they often combine a suspenseful tale with a dose of little known Balkan history. Always some total innocent gets caught in an intrigue beyond his capability to handle. This one is about an American attorney trying to find the potential heirs to a large estate somewhere in Eastern Europe. The time is the early 1950s in the wake of WWII and the civil war in Greece. Although I generally enjoyed this book, it seemed to me it wasn't Ambler's best.
July 22, 2016
Despite the competence of Ambler's writing, his books tend (for me, anyway) to blur together, so I remember this as "the one set in Greece after the Civil War." Not many books out there with that particular setting, though.
February 11, 2014
I'm not sure what this was... a completely inexplicable resolution marred what had been, up to that point, an engaging exploration of post-WWII Europe. Also, Mr. Ambler's portrayal of women in this novel is deplorable.
October 20, 2014
This is another fine Eric Ambler novel at the beginning and through most of the book. However, like most of his others that I've read up to this point, the ending is a bust. I'm going to take a break from my Ambler retrospective for a few weeks before I tackle the next one.
June 17, 2015
good plot and character development; kept my interest all the way through
February 9, 2018
I bought this book because I am an Eric Ambler fan. This was a terrible read. It is slow, plodding and the end totally escapes logic. I can't believe this was not written in jest.
January 1, 2020
Wow, wow, wow. FUCK this book. Fuck this book so hard. Fuck everything about this godawful disgusting book. Eric Ambler is repugnant.
It started off good. It was very slowly paced and for sure it could have been 75 pages shorter, but it was all somewhat interesting history and story background and I didn't necessarily mind reading it.
Spoilers ahead and trigger warning for rape:
The male lawyer and female interpreter are looking for an heir to a small fortune and spend a LOT of time tracking him down which was interesting but in the end just seems like filler.
Then it turns out that the heir is an unrepentant, evil man who was a former German soldier stranded in Greece, who abuses and rapes women and robs banks as a soldier of fortune pretending to be a communist. The female interpreter hates him because there's hints of abuse by Germans in her background, but the dumbass American male lawyer says he's "above it all" and all he wants to do is solve his little case and give this evil person the money. (What the fuck.)
Then they get imprisoned by the soldier. Then the soldier beats and rapes the interpreter while the lawyer can hear. Then the lawyer and the soldier's partner joke about it and have a jolly ol' time. Then, in a case of some of the worst writing I've ever had the repulsive misfortune to read, the interpreter *falls in love* with the soldier who beat and raped her, over the course of maybe a paragraph, and they run away together as she expresses how much she wants to have his children, and then they just don't care about the inheritance anymore, which was the whole plot and title of this terrible stinking pile of shit, and it ends with all the criminals getting away with lots of money and the lawyer agreeing to help a couple of them and laughing about the whole experience.
In a disgusting passage, the interpreter "can't keep her hands off him" because "she's been waiting for a man like that all her life." And after some additional comments about her virginity, they just move on.
Fuck Eric Ambler. I've never heard of him before this book but let me tell you, I hate this man. There are only a few books out there that make me physically hate their authors, and this is definitely one. You think it's a slow intriguing mystery for 206 out of 219 pages. Then on page 207 it turns into fascist militarist rapist fantasy trash. Fuck this book and fuck Eric Ambler.
It started off good. It was very slowly paced and for sure it could have been 75 pages shorter, but it was all somewhat interesting history and story background and I didn't necessarily mind reading it.
Spoilers ahead and trigger warning for rape:
The male lawyer and female interpreter are looking for an heir to a small fortune and spend a LOT of time tracking him down which was interesting but in the end just seems like filler.
Then it turns out that the heir is an unrepentant, evil man who was a former German soldier stranded in Greece, who abuses and rapes women and robs banks as a soldier of fortune pretending to be a communist. The female interpreter hates him because there's hints of abuse by Germans in her background, but the dumbass American male lawyer says he's "above it all" and all he wants to do is solve his little case and give this evil person the money. (What the fuck.)
Then they get imprisoned by the soldier. Then the soldier beats and rapes the interpreter while the lawyer can hear. Then the lawyer and the soldier's partner joke about it and have a jolly ol' time. Then, in a case of some of the worst writing I've ever had the repulsive misfortune to read, the interpreter *falls in love* with the soldier who beat and raped her, over the course of maybe a paragraph, and they run away together as she expresses how much she wants to have his children, and then they just don't care about the inheritance anymore, which was the whole plot and title of this terrible stinking pile of shit, and it ends with all the criminals getting away with lots of money and the lawyer agreeing to help a couple of them and laughing about the whole experience.
In a disgusting passage, the interpreter "can't keep her hands off him" because "she's been waiting for a man like that all her life." And after some additional comments about her virginity, they just move on.
Fuck Eric Ambler. I've never heard of him before this book but let me tell you, I hate this man. There are only a few books out there that make me physically hate their authors, and this is definitely one. You think it's a slow intriguing mystery for 206 out of 219 pages. Then on page 207 it turns into fascist militarist rapist fantasy trash. Fuck this book and fuck Eric Ambler.
January 4, 2022
I have never read a book by Ambler I didn't enjoy, and this is no exception. There are so many mystery novels that involve people who commit crimes in order to inherit a fortune. This is the first and only one I have read in which the threat comes from a prospective heir to a fortune who has no idea they might be entitled to anything. I have given it four stars rather than five because its plot, though very interesting, is perhaps not quite as fascinating as some of Ambler's other books (admittedly that is a very high standard).
Briefly, not long after WWII a young attorney at a prestigious New York law firm is given what should be a routine, even boring, assignment. He is to look through the firm's files on the estate of a wealthy, deceased client to determine whether there are any legitimate claimants; if not, the money may end up going to the state in which the decedent resided. In the course of his research, he realizes that a descendant with a valid claim may have been overlooked. He must travel to war-ravaged Europe in order to trace the missing heir. He doesn't anticipate, however, that finding the person he is seeking may place him in the greatest danger he's faced since his own wartime service. Ambler fans will not be disappointed, I think.
Briefly, not long after WWII a young attorney at a prestigious New York law firm is given what should be a routine, even boring, assignment. He is to look through the firm's files on the estate of a wealthy, deceased client to determine whether there are any legitimate claimants; if not, the money may end up going to the state in which the decedent resided. In the course of his research, he realizes that a descendant with a valid claim may have been overlooked. He must travel to war-ravaged Europe in order to trace the missing heir. He doesn't anticipate, however, that finding the person he is seeking may place him in the greatest danger he's faced since his own wartime service. Ambler fans will not be disappointed, I think.
October 17, 2022
In my childhood I seem to remember that my grandparents had books by Eric Ambler next to those of Somerset Maugham. I must have liked the name but it meant nothing to me even as I grew up, read Agatha Christie and SF, watched James Bond and read Len Deighton and John Le Carré.
In my work as an academic and researcher I have been lucky to travel extensively in Europe. As part of that work I have visited the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. My colleagues have been from those countries and even further, Moldova, Bosniaks, Serbs, Slovenians and the very neat Austrians.
It all seemed exotic, appealing, and the first thing I noticed was the similarities, the food, the drink, the culture. At first I thought it was to do with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, then maybe the Slavic-Russian heritage, and then the Ottomans. It's all this and more. I began reading history.
In my reading of fiction I love the quiet man spy stories. Probably Len Deighton first for the economy of his prose that drives out such pulsing drama. Then Le Carré for his polite English charm as betrayal is layered on betrayal. Recent maestros that I love are Mick Herron and Cummings. We chat about this on my BBS and eventually an old friend casually says, "of course this starts with Eric Ambler", you'll have read him.
I hadn't.
However I remembered the name.
Clean prose. Colourful description that doesn't descend into authorial cliché even when a character is prejudiced. Quiet men from upper middle class England caught up in cultures and histories they are drawn to by their exotic richness and yet never fully understand. A desperate gambit, a resolution. It is true to say as both Deighton and Le Carré have done, this is the origin of the Quiet Man School of English Espionage.
For me, even more. Ambler lived and drank with the emigres of the Balkans, heard their tales and in these pages maps out the hidden histories of peoples, Jews, Greeks, Macedonians, Turks, Bulgarians; and yet never not just one identity but mixed heritages that belie the modern labels that we use and were invented in the early 20th century.
This novel starts in the US. It's a Quiet American that will navigate this tale. It is seductively dull at first but the first chapter about a Prussian deserter has already drawn you in. It's a post WW2 novel, the story moves to Germany. So far, so luring. Then, and you knew it would, thick Greek tobacco smoke envelopes the plot. We are in Greece with Macedonians and the city of Thessaloniki; once Jewish Salonika and the birthplace of Atatürk. I'll not spoil it, but it's a long and winding road from a US law firm.
In my work as an academic and researcher I have been lucky to travel extensively in Europe. As part of that work I have visited the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. My colleagues have been from those countries and even further, Moldova, Bosniaks, Serbs, Slovenians and the very neat Austrians.
It all seemed exotic, appealing, and the first thing I noticed was the similarities, the food, the drink, the culture. At first I thought it was to do with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, then maybe the Slavic-Russian heritage, and then the Ottomans. It's all this and more. I began reading history.
In my reading of fiction I love the quiet man spy stories. Probably Len Deighton first for the economy of his prose that drives out such pulsing drama. Then Le Carré for his polite English charm as betrayal is layered on betrayal. Recent maestros that I love are Mick Herron and Cummings. We chat about this on my BBS and eventually an old friend casually says, "of course this starts with Eric Ambler", you'll have read him.
I hadn't.
However I remembered the name.
Clean prose. Colourful description that doesn't descend into authorial cliché even when a character is prejudiced. Quiet men from upper middle class England caught up in cultures and histories they are drawn to by their exotic richness and yet never fully understand. A desperate gambit, a resolution. It is true to say as both Deighton and Le Carré have done, this is the origin of the Quiet Man School of English Espionage.
For me, even more. Ambler lived and drank with the emigres of the Balkans, heard their tales and in these pages maps out the hidden histories of peoples, Jews, Greeks, Macedonians, Turks, Bulgarians; and yet never not just one identity but mixed heritages that belie the modern labels that we use and were invented in the early 20th century.
This novel starts in the US. It's a Quiet American that will navigate this tale. It is seductively dull at first but the first chapter about a Prussian deserter has already drawn you in. It's a post WW2 novel, the story moves to Germany. So far, so luring. Then, and you knew it would, thick Greek tobacco smoke envelopes the plot. We are in Greece with Macedonians and the city of Thessaloniki; once Jewish Salonika and the birthplace of Atatürk. I'll not spoil it, but it's a long and winding road from a US law firm.
February 20, 2022
In general, Eric Ambler's books range from the excellent to the truly excellent. This one didn't quite match the brilliance of the majority of his books though.
Maybe because it's pretty low key, maybe because he doesn't spend as much time developing the characters as he does in his other books, maybe I just didn't really identify with any of the main protagonists - but this left me a little underawed.
It tells the story of an American lawyer who needs to find the heir to a fortune. The plot develops fairly prosaically without too many of the twists and thrills usually associated with Ambler's novels. The theme isn't very universal either - so it's really about whether an inheritance gets claimed or not - which is hardly a compelling proposition.
And so the piece plays out - yes, it's well written, and yes it moves at a fair pace, and it is better than your average novel for that alone. But it doesn't move very far, either in distance or in depth. Probably the most disappointing of all of his books that I've read so far.
Maybe because it's pretty low key, maybe because he doesn't spend as much time developing the characters as he does in his other books, maybe I just didn't really identify with any of the main protagonists - but this left me a little underawed.
It tells the story of an American lawyer who needs to find the heir to a fortune. The plot develops fairly prosaically without too many of the twists and thrills usually associated with Ambler's novels. The theme isn't very universal either - so it's really about whether an inheritance gets claimed or not - which is hardly a compelling proposition.
And so the piece plays out - yes, it's well written, and yes it moves at a fair pace, and it is better than your average novel for that alone. But it doesn't move very far, either in distance or in depth. Probably the most disappointing of all of his books that I've read so far.
December 29, 2017
From an apparently thin premise (young lawyer is given thankless task of establishing the rightful heir to an unclaimed fortune), this novel soon develops into a classic Ambler thriller. The familiar features are all in place: the unwitting, though dogged, and inexperienced, though resourceful hero, the international trail of clues, the concerns with European politics and warfare of the middle twentieth century and Ambler's skill with plot pushes things along at a brisk old pace.
The characters are, as ever, a little underwritten; Carey is pure Ambler template, while, in character terms, the enigmatic Miss Kolin is woefully mistreated. The antagonists are rather more interesting and enjoy Ambler's customary sympathy for the grey-shaded but (Kolin aside) this is a minor criticism for a plot-driven thriller that is still a thoroughly enjoyable read more than half a century since it was written.
The characters are, as ever, a little underwritten; Carey is pure Ambler template, while, in character terms, the enigmatic Miss Kolin is woefully mistreated. The antagonists are rather more interesting and enjoy Ambler's customary sympathy for the grey-shaded but (Kolin aside) this is a minor criticism for a plot-driven thriller that is still a thoroughly enjoyable read more than half a century since it was written.
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