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Tempo scaduto
Partito alla ricerca di un manoscritto perduto di Nečaev – il nichilista russo capostipite di ogni specie di terroristi contemporanei –, il protagonista di questo romanzo, Robert Halliday, si ritrova sulle tracce di uno sceicco degli Emirati noto come «il Principe», che dal fondo di una miniera abbandonata nelle Alpi austriache progetta di compiere attentati devastanti con armi chimiche quali il gas nervino. Quando nel 1981 Eric Ambler decise di inventare una trama a partire da questo spunto, credeva di fornire al lettore dosi massicce di intrattenimento allo stato puro, della specie più adrenalinica e fantasiosa. In effetti così è, anche se Ambler non poteva immaginare che tipo di brividi i suoi lettori di ventitré anni dopo avrebbero provato, né prevedere che nel caso di Tempo scaduto persino l’aggettivo «profetico», cui immancabilmente si ricorre quando la narrativa anticipa con inquietante precisione la cronaca, sarebbe parso inadeguato.
345 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1981
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200 people want to read
About the author
Eric Ambler
113 books494 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 34 reviews
April 19, 2018
Eric Ambler wrote his first novel, The Dark Frontier, in 1936. His last was The Care Of Time, published in 1981, when he was aged 72.
I didn’t realise this fact when I read the book, but with hindsight I wonder if it explains my need for matchsticks each night (there could be other reasons, of course).
Ambler certainly had a talent for making a modest cameo stretch to a full-length feature, but I think in this instance the plot was too thin to begin with, and as such became rather tenuous, and pedestrian and repetitive, when action and scene changes were called for.
Like many of his books the subject matter is ambitious (an oil sheik building a secret nuclear bunker in Austria) and not a little perspicacious (when talk of chemical warfare suddenly rears its ugly head). That said, I felt in this case it lacked his usual ring of gritty authenticity.
Ambler’s protagonist is generally a bumbling amateur that finds himself entangled with professional crooks; here in The Care Of Time the ‘hero’ is more competent (and strangely successful with an attractive member of the opposite sex).
I got this book as part of a trilogy, ‘free’ with my Amazon Prime membership, so I can’t complain. But my recommendation would be that, just like it was Ambler’s last, to observe the same protocol and read his others first.
I didn’t realise this fact when I read the book, but with hindsight I wonder if it explains my need for matchsticks each night (there could be other reasons, of course).
Ambler certainly had a talent for making a modest cameo stretch to a full-length feature, but I think in this instance the plot was too thin to begin with, and as such became rather tenuous, and pedestrian and repetitive, when action and scene changes were called for.
Like many of his books the subject matter is ambitious (an oil sheik building a secret nuclear bunker in Austria) and not a little perspicacious (when talk of chemical warfare suddenly rears its ugly head). That said, I felt in this case it lacked his usual ring of gritty authenticity.
Ambler’s protagonist is generally a bumbling amateur that finds himself entangled with professional crooks; here in The Care Of Time the ‘hero’ is more competent (and strangely successful with an attractive member of the opposite sex).
I got this book as part of a trilogy, ‘free’ with my Amazon Prime membership, so I can’t complain. But my recommendation would be that, just like it was Ambler’s last, to observe the same protocol and read his others first.
October 6, 2019
This last of Ambler's novels is a slight step down from the superb novels that had just preceded it in the decade of the 1970s. But it's still a fascinating effort. Recurring themes, some old and some newer ones, emerge in the story. Once more the showdown and escape into a mountainous wilderness marks the end, as it had in a couple of Ambler's novels from the 1930s. So, too, does the less than reassuring ending and ambiguity that marked the works from the 1970s.
One thing is different, however, and it is the hero of this story, Robert Halliday. Halliday is as close to a professional in the spy game as Ambler ever gets. This former newsman with contacts with the CIA knows how to operate in the world of espionage. He is not the naive character(s) that populated Ambler's previous novels. But Halliday is also an exhausted figure. Perhaps he is more of an echo of the author than are Ambler's other protagonists. This was to be Ambler's last fictional novel. And much the same lingering tiredness and doubt about the world surrounds Halliday as well.
The ideological Ambler is far in the past with the The Care of Time. Answers don't come about very easily. Murky actions by governments and potentates point to a terrorist dominated world that eventually engulfs the old order. Nobody is to be trusted. And no set of beliefs will substitute for the sureties of the past. This is a grim world without a great deal of redemption, even at the personal level. Perhaps that is why Ambler made it his last novel.
One thing is different, however, and it is the hero of this story, Robert Halliday. Halliday is as close to a professional in the spy game as Ambler ever gets. This former newsman with contacts with the CIA knows how to operate in the world of espionage. He is not the naive character(s) that populated Ambler's previous novels. But Halliday is also an exhausted figure. Perhaps he is more of an echo of the author than are Ambler's other protagonists. This was to be Ambler's last fictional novel. And much the same lingering tiredness and doubt about the world surrounds Halliday as well.
The ideological Ambler is far in the past with the The Care of Time. Answers don't come about very easily. Murky actions by governments and potentates point to a terrorist dominated world that eventually engulfs the old order. Nobody is to be trusted. And no set of beliefs will substitute for the sureties of the past. This is a grim world without a great deal of redemption, even at the personal level. Perhaps that is why Ambler made it his last novel.
February 15, 2025
The warning message arrived on Monday, the bomb itself on Wednesday. It became a busy week.
With such an opening, it's easy to find oneself immediately drawn in. This is told in the first person by Robert Halliday. Halliday is an author who works as a ghost writer for famous people wanting to publish memoirs. The content of the message comes right after the introduction, which purports to be friendly, despite the threat. The bomb did indeed arrive. When the "friendly" contact is made, Halliday is offered a contract to write, not a memoir, but an update of a Russian who himself wrote a memoir prior to the 1917 Revolution. The payment for his work is much higher than is normal for the day: $25k up front plus expenses, and another $25k upon completion. The question soon becomes Is that memoir authentic or a fake? And then it appears to be a ruse to get him involved in protecting the man who has contacted him.
This was Ambler's last novel, but I felt in no way that his writing was on the decline. I did think there was a lot of groundwork done which tested my patience. I was rewarded. The plot thickens and, as can be expected with thrillers, there is the possibility of various assassinations. Good stuff.
I am indebted to the 1001 Books Before You Die list for introducing me to Eric Ambler. This title is not on that list, but I read (somewhere) that the compilers of the 1001 List tried to pick the best titles of good authors so that readers would find books worthy of precious reading time. It has worked for me! I have others by Ambler on my wish list. I fervently hope to get to some others. Because this novel kept building until the last 5 pages, I'd like to give it 5-stars. Somehow I feel it falls just short of that heady rating.
With such an opening, it's easy to find oneself immediately drawn in. This is told in the first person by Robert Halliday. Halliday is an author who works as a ghost writer for famous people wanting to publish memoirs. The content of the message comes right after the introduction, which purports to be friendly, despite the threat. The bomb did indeed arrive. When the "friendly" contact is made, Halliday is offered a contract to write, not a memoir, but an update of a Russian who himself wrote a memoir prior to the 1917 Revolution. The payment for his work is much higher than is normal for the day: $25k up front plus expenses, and another $25k upon completion. The question soon becomes Is that memoir authentic or a fake? And then it appears to be a ruse to get him involved in protecting the man who has contacted him.
This was Ambler's last novel, but I felt in no way that his writing was on the decline. I did think there was a lot of groundwork done which tested my patience. I was rewarded. The plot thickens and, as can be expected with thrillers, there is the possibility of various assassinations. Good stuff.
I am indebted to the 1001 Books Before You Die list for introducing me to Eric Ambler. This title is not on that list, but I read (somewhere) that the compilers of the 1001 List tried to pick the best titles of good authors so that readers would find books worthy of precious reading time. It has worked for me! I have others by Ambler on my wish list. I fervently hope to get to some others. Because this novel kept building until the last 5 pages, I'd like to give it 5-stars. Somehow I feel it falls just short of that heady rating.
July 9, 2016
I picked up The Care of Time because I had read a strong piece by Eric Ambler in an anthology edited by Alan Furst called The Book of Spies.
The Care of Time, however, isn't strong. It's slapdash with a lot of undeveloped characters and motivations careening into one another. The prose is professional and crisp, but it's full of cliches. The settings (from Bucks County, Pa., through Milan, Italy, into Austria) are underexploited. Much of the plot is presented in the form of explanatory dialogue. The shadows are just gray, not black. The villains are labels undeserving of gravestones.
The really interesting element of the book revolves around a bit of early plotting related to the 19th century Russian anarchist/Nihilist Nechayev. Allegedly a manuscript of his has been found. Nechayev in many ways was a precursor to today's Islamic terrorists, notably by virtue of his association with the phrase, "the propaganda of the deed." This, of course, is the essence of terrorism--generating an outsized psychological effect with a beheading, a car bomb, or a series of murders. The Nechayev manuscript is simply forgotten in The Care of Time, but it caused me to reflect on how much emphasis "revolutionaries" placed on terror in the 19th century.
Dostoevsky turned Nechayev into a major character in his novel, Demons. Ambler simply didn't bother. There are many differences between these two writers but one is that Dostoevsky took literature and culture seriously and Ambler didn't. Dostoevsky understood certain forces to be existential and moral challenges. Ambler understood similar forces as entertaining games.
The Care of Time, however, isn't strong. It's slapdash with a lot of undeveloped characters and motivations careening into one another. The prose is professional and crisp, but it's full of cliches. The settings (from Bucks County, Pa., through Milan, Italy, into Austria) are underexploited. Much of the plot is presented in the form of explanatory dialogue. The shadows are just gray, not black. The villains are labels undeserving of gravestones.
The really interesting element of the book revolves around a bit of early plotting related to the 19th century Russian anarchist/Nihilist Nechayev. Allegedly a manuscript of his has been found. Nechayev in many ways was a precursor to today's Islamic terrorists, notably by virtue of his association with the phrase, "the propaganda of the deed." This, of course, is the essence of terrorism--generating an outsized psychological effect with a beheading, a car bomb, or a series of murders. The Nechayev manuscript is simply forgotten in The Care of Time, but it caused me to reflect on how much emphasis "revolutionaries" placed on terror in the 19th century.
Dostoevsky turned Nechayev into a major character in his novel, Demons. Ambler simply didn't bother. There are many differences between these two writers but one is that Dostoevsky took literature and culture seriously and Ambler didn't. Dostoevsky understood certain forces to be existential and moral challenges. Ambler understood similar forces as entertaining games.
December 17, 2016
Later Ambler, picked up at a book sale just to see what it was like. Didn't expect much, and wasn't disappointed. His protagonist is still a little clueless, but in this case winds up acting a bit too clever. I liked the old protagonists better. This book also suffers from the literate dialogue disease. Real people don't talk like this. Plus, there's too much talk and not enough action for my taste, and I completely lost track of whether all the plot turns really would have worked or not. Oh well, guess there's a reason why it's the early Amblers that are regarded as the classics.
November 24, 2017
Questa tarda (1981) opera di Eric Ambler non è stata una lettura coinvolgente. A mio parere la trama è inutilmente complicata, i personaggi sono poco verosimili. Ambler ha sempre avuto la tendenza ad infarcire i suoi romanzi con approfondimenti e elucubrazioni sui temi più disparati, ma qui ho l'impressione che vengano tirati in ballo argomenti molto complessi (e sviluppabili) per poi essere abbandonati senza esito alcuno. Curiosamente una parte dell'ambientazione si svolge a Milano e dintorni, con un buon dettaglio della topografia locale, anche questo però senza uno scopo preciso.
Meglio dedicarsi al primo Ambler.
Meglio dedicarsi al primo Ambler.
December 17, 2016
The thing I learned from reading this book is that although Eric Ambler's early novels are entertaining and paved the way for people like Len Deighton, his later work, this being an example, is tired and doesn't stand up in such company. The Care of Time is sort of all right, but has long passages in which nothing much happens, a chief protagonist you don't really care about, and plot holes big enough to drive a bus through. It is almost true that once I put it down I could not pick it up again, but I made myself finish it if only for the sake of sharing my views with you.
August 3, 2014
Ambler's late in the day thriller pitches an American ghostwriter into regime change and middle-east intrigue through the rather novel device of a simple television interview. Of course, the interview is heavily rigged as it is conducted deep within an Austrian mine-shaft, which an Arab prince proposes to turn into a nuclear shelter. The latter part of the book consists of the Prince's desperate attempts to retrieve the tapes. Ghostwriter Halliday understands his NATO brief from the start, even if the interview comes as something of a surprise to the reader. All in all, as complex as most of Ambler's thrillers, but less satisfying. Reading between the lines of dialogue is difficult first time round - this is a book that handsomely rewards re-reading.
November 8, 2021
I grew up in a house full of books. All sorts of books - biographies, literary criticisms, plays, anthologies of poetry, political writings, philosophical tomes - and novels. Lots and lots of novels.
One of the names which featured prominently on the spines of those novels was Eric Ambler - though I suspect it's only in very recent times that I've come to realize he was a novelist - when I was younger, I suspect I probably thought he was another one of my father's favoured political writers. I suppose he is in a way....
Whilst on holiday in a cottage in Ireland a few years ago, I ran out of books to read. It was a very wet week.... on the bookshelf in the cottage, a name on a book spine rang a chord from a previous age....Eric Ambler....more out of curiosity than anything else, I started reading the book - and about 8 hours later put it down, done and dusted.
Since then, I have managed to gather the majority of Eric Ambler's works on my own book shelves. Knowing that this is now a finite collection, I ration myself to one every couple of months or so - the next 6 are already lined up.
Like the others I've read so far, this too was excellent - original, twisty, unpredictable, and riveting and un-put-downable from the first.
This one is about a journalist who meets a strange man with access to more strange men, one of whom takes part in an extraordinary TV interview with the journalist....I won't say more for fear of spoiling it for the uninitiated.
They say that Ambler was the forerunner to le Carre and Ludlum. He was also a contemporary of Ian Fleming, and published the main body of his work at the same time that Fleming was churning out his Bond novels.
For me, Eric Ambler is head and shoulders above all the writers in his genre, if only for the originality of his plots and characters, his wonderfully reach whilst being completely accessible writing style - and the fact that he brings back so many sweet but at the time unrealized childhood memories.
One of the names which featured prominently on the spines of those novels was Eric Ambler - though I suspect it's only in very recent times that I've come to realize he was a novelist - when I was younger, I suspect I probably thought he was another one of my father's favoured political writers. I suppose he is in a way....
Whilst on holiday in a cottage in Ireland a few years ago, I ran out of books to read. It was a very wet week.... on the bookshelf in the cottage, a name on a book spine rang a chord from a previous age....Eric Ambler....more out of curiosity than anything else, I started reading the book - and about 8 hours later put it down, done and dusted.
Since then, I have managed to gather the majority of Eric Ambler's works on my own book shelves. Knowing that this is now a finite collection, I ration myself to one every couple of months or so - the next 6 are already lined up.
Like the others I've read so far, this too was excellent - original, twisty, unpredictable, and riveting and un-put-downable from the first.
This one is about a journalist who meets a strange man with access to more strange men, one of whom takes part in an extraordinary TV interview with the journalist....I won't say more for fear of spoiling it for the uninitiated.
They say that Ambler was the forerunner to le Carre and Ludlum. He was also a contemporary of Ian Fleming, and published the main body of his work at the same time that Fleming was churning out his Bond novels.
For me, Eric Ambler is head and shoulders above all the writers in his genre, if only for the originality of his plots and characters, his wonderfully reach whilst being completely accessible writing style - and the fact that he brings back so many sweet but at the time unrealized childhood memories.
October 27, 2020
Detta är inte egentligen en thriller, utan snarare ett politiskt drama, med fokus på en journalist och spökskrivare, som när han skall intervjua en potentat från mellanöstern blir mellanhand mellan en vizirs vilja till avhopp och västtyska underrättelsetjänsten. Detta är en förenkling, och det händer i motsatt ordning, men om man tar bort krumbukterna, så är det hela intrigen. Den är inte komplicerad alls. Det är också den huvudsakliga kritiken mot boken. Den är så rättfram att tankeverksamhet under läsningen blir fullständigt frivilligt.
Jag rekommenderar denna för de som gillar Amblers stil, vilket jag själv gör. Den kan inte riktigt stå för sig själv, men är långt ifrån dålig.
Jag rekommenderar denna för de som gillar Amblers stil, vilket jag själv gör. Den kan inte riktigt stå för sig själv, men är långt ifrån dålig.
March 11, 2023
Although I am a big fan of Eric Ambler, I thought this one failed to meet the mark. While the plot line keeps the reader interested, it is needlessly convoluted and the dialogue is often odd and opaque. Worst of all, the climax of the intrigue was flat and disappointing. Care of Time was the last of Ambler's standalone novels and time did this story no favors.
December 13, 2021
Interesting
Ambler is always good. The writing is spare and unostentatious. The plot is believable. I have deducted a star because there are a ridiculous number of large spaces. The conversion of the text has not been done well.
Ambler is always good. The writing is spare and unostentatious. The plot is believable. I have deducted a star because there are a ridiculous number of large spaces. The conversion of the text has not been done well.
November 8, 2024
Firstly, Goodreads has one of its’ quirks with this title. Despite listing 39 editions, it does not have the GB first edition hard back, which is what I have, and this paperback, despite being English, has its’ blurb on Goodreads in Italian!
Moving on to the book, which was Ambler’s last novel, though an interesting and entertaining read, is not up there with most of his others I’ve read. There is less politics in it, a frankly unbelievable plot and several loose ends that never get tied up.
Moving on to the book, which was Ambler’s last novel, though an interesting and entertaining read, is not up there with most of his others I’ve read. There is less politics in it, a frankly unbelievable plot and several loose ends that never get tied up.
December 29, 2022
Ghost writers, a TV interview, a strange Arab Prince possibly planning chemical/biological warfare and an intermediate who has upset one too many people who now wish him dead. The characters are well structured and written. Though not the length of modern books there is lots of details to keep the reader interested, with a number of interesting plot twists.
October 3, 2022
The last novel by the great thriller writer is far from his classics. Like his previous, The Siege of Villa Lipp, it's bogged down by plot mechanics and dialogue at the expense of character and setting, though a little more exciting this time.
February 19, 2022
Um bom livro com uma trama regular, a narrativa do autor oscila entre boa em algumas partes e vaga em outras. Porém recomendado, dentro de tudo, o livro é bom.
May 5, 2023
Not nearly as good as The Light of Day and Dirty Story.
August 9, 2023
His last and not his best. Still, he is always worth reading.
April 30, 2025
Very reliable Eric Ambler, as ever, even though it does drag a little with rather too much detail at times. Even so, highly recommended.
January 24, 2021
Quite the complex spy story, with multiple layers; the Persian Gulf leader, his Michael Cohen, the plan to offer a US base near the straits of Hormuz for ??? The roles of CIA, NAtO intelligence, the biography of the anarchist Nechaev; the cover story interview of the builder of a sanitarium over a former silver mine or bomb shelter, with an interview of a crazy sheikh with a fascination for Sarin, bomb shelters, assassination plots....very intricate!!!! The characters are a freelance private investigator/journalist. River Halliday, and Karlis Zander, the international “fixer.”
March 25, 2016
What I find remarkable about Eric Ambler's writing is his ability to fuse the intrigue of a thriller with the conviction of a political manifesto. In his final spy novel, The Care of Time, originally published in 1981, he does so, however, with mixed results.
Editor Bob Halliday's new contract begins with a bang when he receives a bomb threat followed by an actual, albeit already defused, bomb from Karliss Zander, a known terrorist middleman seeking Halliday's assistance. With this bluff of violence, Zander lures Halliday to Italy under the pretense of ghostwriting a book that will be part memoir of 19th-century anarchist Sergey Nechayev (the inspiration for Dostoevski's The Possessed) and part expose of government corruption that benefits from covertly backing terrorist organizations. Zander's true intention, however, is to use Halliday as a pawn in negotiations between NATO, the CIA, and an Arab prince known only as "the Ruler, who will allow NATO to build a military base in the Persian Gulf in exchange for permission to found a health clinic in Austria. Through this mediation, a second cover story evolves in which Halliday, Zander, and his associates pose as a television crew to interview the Ruler about the plans for said clinic in an attempt to reveal his true motivations for seeking refuge in Austria.
The Care of Time has all the hallmarks of an Ambler thriller -- a protagonist trapped by his situation, fantastic journeys of flight and pursuit, and a narrative layered with falsehoods -- yet the pacing of the novel's second half suffers from lengthy and sometimes convoluted dialogue as information passes among parties and overly detailed exposition of the television set-up storyline. Where Ambler excels is in the first 100 pages in which he uses Zander's bomb threat to assess the history of terrorist philosophy. In conversation with previous espionage works, Ambler recalls the first wave of anarchism featured in Conrad's The Secret Agent before denouncing the bureaucratic back-room deals that fuel and finance the second wave of terrorism. Had Ambler continued this thread, The Care of Time would be on par with his earlier works that reinvigorated the espionage genre. Instead, the novel feels like the embodiment of Zander himself, a worn, world-weary intelligence agent for whom the spy game has gone on too long. The novel may not appeal to fans of contemporary fast-paced techno thrillers, but those interested in the more cerebral strain of classic spy fiction will appreciate Ambler's overview of the transitory end of the Cold War and the onset of the new age of terror.
Editor Bob Halliday's new contract begins with a bang when he receives a bomb threat followed by an actual, albeit already defused, bomb from Karliss Zander, a known terrorist middleman seeking Halliday's assistance. With this bluff of violence, Zander lures Halliday to Italy under the pretense of ghostwriting a book that will be part memoir of 19th-century anarchist Sergey Nechayev (the inspiration for Dostoevski's The Possessed) and part expose of government corruption that benefits from covertly backing terrorist organizations. Zander's true intention, however, is to use Halliday as a pawn in negotiations between NATO, the CIA, and an Arab prince known only as "the Ruler, who will allow NATO to build a military base in the Persian Gulf in exchange for permission to found a health clinic in Austria. Through this mediation, a second cover story evolves in which Halliday, Zander, and his associates pose as a television crew to interview the Ruler about the plans for said clinic in an attempt to reveal his true motivations for seeking refuge in Austria.
The Care of Time has all the hallmarks of an Ambler thriller -- a protagonist trapped by his situation, fantastic journeys of flight and pursuit, and a narrative layered with falsehoods -- yet the pacing of the novel's second half suffers from lengthy and sometimes convoluted dialogue as information passes among parties and overly detailed exposition of the television set-up storyline. Where Ambler excels is in the first 100 pages in which he uses Zander's bomb threat to assess the history of terrorist philosophy. In conversation with previous espionage works, Ambler recalls the first wave of anarchism featured in Conrad's The Secret Agent before denouncing the bureaucratic back-room deals that fuel and finance the second wave of terrorism. Had Ambler continued this thread, The Care of Time would be on par with his earlier works that reinvigorated the espionage genre. Instead, the novel feels like the embodiment of Zander himself, a worn, world-weary intelligence agent for whom the spy game has gone on too long. The novel may not appeal to fans of contemporary fast-paced techno thrillers, but those interested in the more cerebral strain of classic spy fiction will appreciate Ambler's overview of the transitory end of the Cold War and the onset of the new age of terror.
April 7, 2014
Actually, I didn't read very far into this book. The nearly exclusive use of dialogue, boring dialogue at that, became annoying enough that I finally decided to give it up and move on to another book. I read "The Mask of Demetrios" (originally "The Coffin of Demetrios") about a year ago, and loved, loved it. Written in 1939, it relates to events dating from the early 1920s (Greco-Turkish War and the horrible events in Smyrna--now Izmir) through the narrator's/protagonist's present time of 1938, taking place in Turkey, Greece, other Balkan areas, and Paris. Ambler has been considered by many to be the father of the spy novel, and influenced Graham Greene and John LeCarre as well as Alfred Hitchcock. So "The Care of Time" was especially disappointing, but given that it was written 42 years and quite a few books later, maybe Ambler became formulaic in his writing (think of any one of the myriad popular writers cranking out Stuff every year.) Or maybe I just picked a not so good one. Or didn't give it a chance. I thought so highly of Demetrios though that I will try some other Ambler work.
July 26, 2013
ambler wrote thrillers for nearly five decades, and in doing so transformed the genre completely. his early thrillers were written in the backdrop of world war 2, while this one - his last - at tail end of the cold war. his mastery of geopolitics is very sound, as always. the beauty of the book is how much he accomplishes merely through clever dialogue and intricate plotting. he doesn't need explosions, cool gadgets or contrived action to keep the book interesting.
robert halliday, a professional ghostwriter of some repute is hired, in a rather bizarre way, by an international mercenary to ostensibly write a biography of sergei nechayev, a 19th century russian anarcho-terrorist. the plot takes off from there and touches upon the delicate geopolitics of the middle east and how nato, the us, and the soviet union are all vying for some sort of superiority. thoughtful, interesting and delighting.
robert halliday, a professional ghostwriter of some repute is hired, in a rather bizarre way, by an international mercenary to ostensibly write a biography of sergei nechayev, a 19th century russian anarcho-terrorist. the plot takes off from there and touches upon the delicate geopolitics of the middle east and how nato, the us, and the soviet union are all vying for some sort of superiority. thoughtful, interesting and delighting.
January 25, 2017
Another of those 80s book without the modern gadgets. I found it quite interesting when everything happens on the field and your life depends on your smart thinking. The author has provided a very detailed description of everything in this book and then there are lengthy pieces of dialogue between the characters. Because of that the book has grown to close to 278 pages. The actual plot and the story line is quite simple. If you do not like reading details and you do not have patience then this book is not for you.
I liked it. :-)
I liked it. :-)
July 6, 2015
Eric Ambler's long career as a thriller writer shows no sign of failing grip. The central character of The Care of Time, Robert Halliday, a freelance ghost writer, ingeniously and plausibly is draws him into a plot with international ramifications. The action moves between the US, the Middle East and Austria, the characters are well drawn, the outcome hard to predict and the tension skilfully maintained.
The books begins:
"Th letter arrived on Monday.
"The bomb arrived on Wednesday.
"It was a busy week."
In short, this is the old master at his best.
The books begins:
"Th letter arrived on Monday.
"The bomb arrived on Wednesday.
"It was a busy week."
In short, this is the old master at his best.
February 5, 2013
This book was kind of a slow read for me. The plot is very dense and convoluted with a larger cast of characters than was really necessary. It is a very dated cold war/spy story involving the first hints of issues arising from the gulf. It also involves a journey to asylum for a retiring foreign "spook" for hire. in the end, it was a lot of work for not much payoff. And WAY too dated. They used Telex to communicate, for heaven sake. Pass it up.
January 21, 2012
Two stars feels a bit harsh: this has its moments. But I was hoping for a sharp, stylish thriller. Instead, most of the book consists of long passages of mediocre dialogue conducted against the thinnest of atmosphere; it's much duller than it should be. The plot's fun though, and, at only 278 pages, it's a fast read. With more attention to style and more thought about things other than the plot, it could have been so much better.
August 22, 2013
The standard set-up for an Ambler thriller is the innocent abroad, a man who stumbles--through naivete or arrogance or overconfidence or happenstance--into international intrigue and danger with which he is utterly incapable of coping. The hero of this one is considerably less naive and more aware of what's happening, and he isn't as far out of his depth as the usual narrators, though his greater awareness doesn't completely protect him.
April 20, 2014
Without question, the smartest and smoothest of the several Ambler spy stories I've read, this book lifts the spy genre neatly into the realm of good literature. Its theme is the plight of the aging criminal, and Ambler easily evokes our empathy for his characters. The story,dripping with historical relevance - high level negotiations between NATO and international terrorists - is a tough, concentrated masterpiece.
October 27, 2015
My late friend Rick left me his books, and I'm reading through all of his Eric Ambler. This book took me forever. I would read it between my regular library checkouts. It just didn't grab me, and yet it had all of the elements: a good story line, interesting characters, some facts in the fiction in terms of espionage and world problems. On to the next one.
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