A Kind of Anger

by Eric Ambler

A car hurtles down the driveway of a luxury villa in Switzerland. The driver is a young woman, Lucia Bernardi. Inside the house, police find the body of her lover on the bedroom floor. The dead man - Ahmed Fathir Arbil - was an Iraqi refugee, who has been tortured and killed. Lucia vanishes into hiding in the South of France.
Piet Maas, a journalist for the World Reporter, sets out on Lucia's trail, hoping for a scoop. Soon he must decide whether to publish his story - which will lead to Lucia's exposure and almost certain death - or join her in executing a perilous scheme that could net them both a fortune.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Espionage, Novels, Classics, Crime

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

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

[Geevee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Kind of Anger is a crime-thriller rather than one of Ambler's espionage themed novels, and is one of his later books, published in 1964. As such it provides a nice touch of post-war France coupled with interesting avenues into the Kurdish struggle for independence, and how stories were published in newspapers and magazines when a scoop was in the offing.

The story centres around a young woman, Lucia Bernardi, who has fled her lover's home in Switzerland. Gone along with Miss Bernardi as certain papers that provide interest for the Iraqi government and others. It is these papers that create the danger for both Bernardi and our story's central character, Piet Maas.

Maas is sent by his Amercian magazine publisher to trace and find the missing Lucia Bernardi. He picks up a trail with some nice investigative journalistic skills. What he finds is a situation that not only endangers him but introduces him to conmen, hostile agents and officials of groups and nations only too keen and willing to find Lucia and take the papers.

Overall, this was enjoyable, and with much of Ambler's writing the plots are well thought out with elements of wit and suspense. That said, I didn't find the ending as strong as I had hoped, and the reason for my 3-star rating (as per GR's own of I liked it).

My copy was the Penguin Modern Classic volume published in 2023 with 164 pages.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third Eric Ambler espionage thriller I have read. It was the best of three. I like Ambler because he is less dour than Le Carre, less trashy than Ian Fleming, and less serious than Graham Greene. His stories fall a bit outside the usual Cold War plots.

Although the book is over 50 years old, it has some chilling similarities to current times. No social media but the tabloids complicate the plot. A Kurdish revolutionary scheme with connections to oil magnates. A protagonist whose failed literary journal haunts him.

Lucia as the femme fatale is smart and operates in a moral gray area. Can she and her sympathetic journalist pull off their extortion caper and cause competing political zealots to lose on both sides?

Good stuff!

[Julian Worker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not one of Eric Ambler's better books. The plot is a little complicated and contrived.

Colonel Arbil is tortured and killed by people who want him to hand over some papers about Kurdish 'rebels'. However, these papers are in the hands of the Colonel's girlfriend, Lucia Bernardi, who escapes after hiding in a false turret in the house belonging to the Colonel.

Lucia is tracked down by a journalist Piet Maas from the World Reporter magazine and there begins a game of cat and mouse. Piet starts negotiations to sell the papers to some interested parties, who are determined to track down Piet and Lucia. The action moves from various houses and locales around Nice with the Iraqis, oil company hitmen, the police, and Piet's journalist colleagues in pursuit.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eric Ambler is a competent and consistent thriller writer. Recommended to me by a poetaster and minor reprobate while living in the Zambian bush, nevertheless I read "A Kind of Anger" while enjoying my life in Athens, Greece. Ambler is always a good read.

[Bert van der Vaart · Rating 5 out of 5]

My all time favorite Ambler ("A Kind of Anger") and read it again just after Epitaph for a Spy. Ambler writes a complicated but entirely logical/possible thriller--here, a Dutch journalist (Piet Maas) who is sent to investigate a mysterious murder of an Iraqi diplomat in Switzerland finds himself trying to outsmart a number of greedy individuals from various nationalities and representing various interests. His own magazine is hounding him with a lack of ethics which contrasts to the double crossings that Maas has to encounter and perform himself. Do the "bad guys" win? A great read!!

[Pirate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another highly enjoyable, beautifully written yarn by the inestimable Ambler...more like Galloper as a reader....and was a pleasant late night read post covering the days of world athletics championships. Great entertainment but with a touching side in regards to the central relationship amidst some right old rascals. Found another two as a result in Daunts to while away the time....so pleased that ahem relatively late in life I tumbled across him. Central character a journalist after my own heart ...not in every respect referring to his more tragic actions but largely so. Prescient too vis a vis what transpired in Iraq over 40 years later.

[Daniel Polansky]

A depressed journalist gets involved in a scam to sell the intelligence gathered by a murdered Kurdishman. Taught, extremely clever, very nearly a masterpiece but the landing doesn't quite hit like it should. Still, the usual excellence from Eric Ambler.

[John McCaffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book started a bit slow, picked up and got me hooked, but then finished I feel much too fast. The end made sense, but I was wanting more time to process the culmination of the plot in the context of the characters. Ambler is a genius, but this feels a bit like he rushed it off to press...or was done with the story and ready to move on. Still, worth the read.

[Nicholas George · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing moved along and was well-paced, but frankly, the story--about a reporter seeking to obtain information regarding about an Iraqi warlord's stolen documents--felt dated, flat and uninvolving.

[Sueleen Deelan · Rating 3 out of 5]

well-paced mystery/crime/thriller that i overall enjoyed. the portrayal of kurds as power hungry and corrupt left a bad taste in my mouth, although i may be biased and reading too much into it. stopped me from fully enjoying the plot, which was otherwise fun and easy to follow

[David Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s 1964. Eric Ambler’s intriguing and cerebral tale concerns a Dutch newspaper journalist working for a US-owned weekly magazine in Paris. The paper’s owner likes to aggravate his foreign staff by sending them on fool’s errands and Piet is saddled with this one.
Ambler sets the scene in a magnificent opening chapter which displays his mastery of the thriller genre. The irritation and tension between Piet and his immediate boss, Sy, are only bettered by the description of Mr Cust, the owner, whose telephone “voice is both loud and indistinct, like a defective public address system at an airport. Though deafened by it you have to strain to hear what is being said.”
Piet, whose personal paper-owning ambitions were previously defeated by bankruptcy and mental breakdown, is sent to the south of France to determine the whereabouts of a beautiful woman last seen driving hell for leather from the scene of her boyfriend’s assassination and is sought by the police and the world’s press. She’d gone to ground so successfully that the story had gone cold for months but, in spite of being set up to fail, Piet manages to create a situation which incentivises him to resurrect his former ambitions (not entirely legally) while thwarting several interested parties who want and are prepared to pay for the information the girl has secretly stashed. The patience of numerous hotel receptionists and car hire firms is tested to the extreme as a game of cat and mouse is played out along the Riviera.
My copy is inscribed in pencil - ‘Read this book on the Andes 1968’. I read it in 2021 - in Wales.

[Lance Charnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is typical Ambler -- the everyman hero, the sinister but identifiably human forces manipulating events, the threatened damsel, the travelogue of venues. The hero (a nearly-failed journalist in this outing) survives through pluck and steady thinking rather than brawn and gadgets. In his day, Ambler was the anti-Ian Fleming, closer in some ways to Le Carre (but less cerebral) than to the spy-adventure novelists such as Fleming and Matt Helm's Donald Hamilton.

The joy of Ambler is the scale of his stories. It's easy to place yourself in the hero's shoes, to see yourself reacting to the various threats and adventures in much the same way without having to engage in wild flights of fancy. While the villains are formidable, they're also human, with understandable motives and behaviors. The hero usually earns the girl rather than having her fall instantly into heat for him. In some ways, you'll be reminded of Hitchcock. Even fifty years later these stories still work.

Understand that while A Kind of Anger and Ambler's other books were billed as "thrillers," by modern standards they're nearly cozies. There are no end-of-the-world tropes, no megarich master villains, no psychotic indestructible henchmen, no fabulous gadgets, a low body count, no on-stage sex. Ambler wrote about a version of the real world that modern thrillers often leave behind. If this sounds hopelessly quaint to you, move on. If you're in the mood for some 1960s-70s intrigue that doesn't involve James Bond and doesn't make you work as hard as Smiley, you could do worse than Eric Ambler.

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

More of a detective story than a spy thriller, A Kind of Anger displays yet another side of Eric Ambler. The so-called "progressive Left" novels of the 1930s are long behind him. But so are the most argumentative of the post World War II anti-totalitarian novels. In its place, is a bit of a spoof, a story that highlights the absurdity of criminal procedures along with the ineptness of international plotters of intrigue. Topkapi had much better comic moments than this book, but A Kind of Anger still has its moments, as everyone gets cheated after a fashion at the end.

This is much lighter fare than I've seen so far from Ambler. Even Topkapi was more hardened. And The Levanter, a representative work from the 1970s, has a political cynicism and psychological depth that A Kind of Anger cannot begin to match. Ambler seems to have been recharged somewhat in the 1970s, as far as the political messaging goes. But I think I prefer the 1950s and 1960s works above all others.

I've become somewhat enamored of these stories. Funny, I was in the process of reading through John le Carré, when I was sidetracked by my first Ambler novel. Now? I think Ambler much the superior of the two. Primarily because he shows the ability to adapt, to change. In some ways, he grows more than his protagonists do. And he can always bring you into a story in just a few pages.

[Comrade_Bazarov · Rating 4 out of 5]

a high-ranking iraqi secret police official living as a refugee in a posh swiss villa gets assassinated by assailants one cold, snowy night. the only initial clues to what happened lie with a mysterious blond seen fleeing the scene in a mercedes. the papers dig up her past and soon her bikini-clad picture is on the front pages of european tabloids. problem is she has gone into hiding and no one can find her.

piet maas, a jaded hard-nosed journalist working for an american weekly magazine, gets assigned the improbable task of finding this woman and interviewing her. maas knows this is upper management (with whom he has clashed many times) trying to kick him out of the company with a blot on his name but chooses to face the challenge as gamely as he can.

this is a classic ambler story. detailed descriptions of the french countryside, coupled with an intricate and highly believable (for too many thrillers these days suffer from outlandish plotting) plot and witty, well fleshed-out characters make this a highly entertaining and gripping read.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not Eric Ambler's best book. Although some of the story is remarkably relevant for a book published in 1964 (Iraqi expat murdered in Geneva, Kurdish uprisings), the plot is pretty simple : a journalist traces the IRaqi's girlfriend, after she flees the murder scene. They plot together to sell the dead man's compromising documents to the highest bidder. In the end they drive off into the sunset together.

The plot is pretty basic, and the characters are not particularly engaging. The journalist, Piet, was probably intended to be a dark, brooding hero with a literary bent, but he's pretty lifeless. The girl, Lucia, is no more interesting than your average clever gold digger. And the action mainly involves driving around between a set of 5 or 6 houses on the French riviera, dodging various pursuers. Despite dark mumblings about how dangerous all of this is, the tension never really moves beyond "tepid".

[Huw Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh Eric Ambler, where have you been all my life?

Yet again, he assumes a completely different personality (Pete Maas, a journalist, this time round) as he travels the world putting wrongs to right with his flawed, likable but often irritating lead characters.

A lot of people compare him to le Carre - but the main difference being Ambler's plots which are so accessible, don't need to revert to too subtle innuendo to confuse, obfuscate - and fill in large plot holes - and just keep you riveted from start to finish. I've only about a dozen of his recently discovered books left. My biggest challenge is how long I can string them out for. Though I always suppose I could start reading them again......

Masterful.

[Elizabeth Gates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slick. Is this possible in the sixties, when it was all beginning? It is, in this novel. Spare sentences mean immediacy. Hoorah! Not an adjective out of place. No wonder John Le Carre said we all draw from Ambler.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A superior thriller by an original craftsman, with a distinctive turn of phrase.

A generous helping of Graham Greene with a splash of Fleming and a twist of Hitchcock.

[Francis Pellow · Rating 5 out of 5]

another great Ambler thriller. So happy to have come across this author and have the chance to work through his writings.

[Petrus Forsgren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Kind of Anger – Eric Ambler (1964) is about Piet Maars who follows the trail of a missing woman Lucia Bernardi who was involved in the murder of an Iraqi officer Ahmed Fathir Abdil. Piet is a Dutch journalist who grew up in Britain. His parents died in the bombing of Rotterdam during World War II. Suffering from a number of setbacks and mental problems, while also employed by the weekly magazine “World Reporter” with a number of months left on his contract, he is assigned to find the missing woman when other “better” journalists are busy. When the police stop looking, the tabloids take up the hunt for sensational news. A fresh clue to Lucia’s whereabouts has emerged. This is picked up by the top boss in New York, Mr. Cust, who in turn calls the Paris bureau chief, Sy Logan. They thus set up and follow up Piet Maars’ investigations. The clue quickly leads to a tangle that turns out to be bigger than initially thought. International interests are possibly involved and those who are interested in the truth begin to live dangerously. But there is also a chance to get rich. The characters in the book are realistic, the places interesting (Set in Switzerland), the ending satisfying. Little bits of humor. It was a pleasure to read this book.

[Lloyd Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

American journalist who works for the Paris branch of weekly American magazine ‘World Reporter’ headquartered in New York City was sent to find some bikini clad girl who had been missing for six or seven weeks. She had worked for Advil, a Kurdish businessman living in Switzerland when he had been murdered. It was said he was in possession of political papers that could be embarrassing and damaging to certain politicos. It was quite the public story with legs indicating it had many more weeks of life in them, and NYC didn’t want the competition to scoop them. So Piet Maas was put on the scent. Piet was noble in some ways, human in others. His personality/ demeanor began to evolve as he waded through the murky waters that stories like this bring forth — thus the title ‘A New Kind of Anger’. 4 stars, Eric Ambler is a master storyteller in the Graham Greene mold.

[David Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Opens on in intriguing ironic view of the world, magazine publishing and its chain of command, flawed protaganist and hooks you right in from there. Brilliant. From there maintains interest with enough developments in the characters and maintains believability and suspense throughout detailed cat and mouse around the south of France and the anonymous properties and the people that own them. The story stays small but these small events have wider ramifications from secessionists in the middle east, to oil companies in the west to media outlets in the United States and worldwide. Reminded me of Le Carre and of Hitchcock.

[Cartoisb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having recently read Journey Into Fear, which was excellent, I was keen to read a second Ambler book. I chose A Kind of Anger with high expectations but was disappointed. The overall quality of the writing is amateurish, very much in contrast with Journey Into Fear. The plot is uninteresting and predictable, the characters poorly developed and the author fails to achieve any real sense of suspense. In addition, the story is intended to be comical in some respects but the humour is poor and dated.

[Kirsty Darbyshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would never have read this if it was in the original cover that Goodreads has just offered me (woman with head out of shot and a gun tucked into her knickers), so there is something to be said for reissuing books in new editions! With a less objectionable cover image it was an enjoyable thriller, borrowed from Darren who recommended it to me because we'd visited a lot of the places they go to in the book as much as anything else.

[Rich Lambert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this and knew i would from about the first 5 pages with the slow reveal of it being a first-person novel. The plot was filled with twists that made sense and were easy to follow but at the same time difficult to predict. I loved Lucia as a character and Pierre's development was excellent. At noon point did it feel like anything dragged unnecessarily. Genuinely no complaints (apart from the Penguin cover not being the Goodreads picture)

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intriguing period

I really enjoyed this book. No dates as to it’s period are actually stated but no mobile phones, secondary research the old fashioned way, you could almost read this in black and white.
Characterisations are excellent as is the intrigue and the plot. Our hero obviously has more talent than he gives himself credit for. I commend this read to you.

[Jamie Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suspenseful. Grew fond of the characters (Pierre and Lucia). Very interesting methods of concealment and espionage. No massive twists but an enjoyable meandering story. Didn’t turn out to be a murder mystery as expected, but a thriller about secret agents and money. Would read the author again. The ending was the most thrilling part and drew the story to a rationally satisfying conclusion.

[Ivan Monckton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another entertaining thriller, a Penguin Modern Classic, from Ambler, with a little less ‘leftish’ politics than we are used to, but the usual believable characters, and a plot that keeps you on the edge of the seat throughout. It covers con men, political assassins, revolutionary groups, big business and journalists!

[GJ Monahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ambler apparently intended this as an "entertainment," and maybe had a screen adaptation in mind. it shows, but it works on that level. Implausibly principled & resourceful hero, dangerous and beautiful love interest, cunning villains, secondary characters of unknown trustworthiness and unclear motives.

[Roberta Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is fascinating Ambler. He has as his anti-hero a depressed half-hearted journalist who finds he has an amoral bent and in the end gets both the money and the beautiful woman. There is much hide and seek and overtones of political intrigue that are surprisingly current.