Epitaph for a Spy: Amazon.co.uk: Eric Ambler, Robert Harris: Books

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Time Magazine
'The foremost thriller writer of out time.'

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Josef Vadassy, a Hungarian language teacher, decides to break his journey from Nice to Paris at a windswept coastal town where his solitary nightmare begins. He collects his photographs from the chemist only to discover that the pictures are not of lizards at all, but military sites.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An honourable schoolteacher plays an imperfect spy, 23 May 2005

By	Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Epitaph for a Spy (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) (Paperback)

Long before le Carre's George Smiley and Len Deighton's Harry Palmer there were Eric Ambler's accidental spies. In the late 1930's the loosely defined adventure/spy genre was not much advanced from the earlier works of Erskine Childers (Riddle of the Sands) and John Buchan (Thirty Nine Steps). Ambler set out to write a book that added a small bit of realism to the good guy v. bad guy model. The result was a series of highly entertaining and satisfying books that many believe set the stage for the likes of le Carre, Deighton, and, most recently, Alan Furst. Epitaph for a Spy is an excellent representative sample of Ambler's work.

In a footnote written in 1951 Ambler states that he "wrote Epitaph for a Spy in 1937 and it was a mild attempt at realism". 1937 was certainly a good year for realism in Europe and Ambler does an excellent job setting a realistic mood for a continent on the brink of another major war.

The story begins with an itinerant language teacher, Josef Vadassy, returning to Paris from his summer holidays. Vadassy stops off at a little town, St. Gatien, on his return journey. An amateur photographer, Vadassy drops off a roll of film at the local chemists for development. When he goes to pick up the photographs he finds himself under arrest by the French authorities. His film contains photos of a top secret French naval installation. Vadassy has no idea how the photos got there. One of the French agents, recognizing that he did not take the pictures advises Vadassy that he will be free to leave town if he goes back to the hotel and finds out which of the guests is the actual photo-taking spy. Vadassy, a stateless Hungarian traveling on a Yugoslav passport has no choice but to play along.

The rest of the book is devoted to Vadassy's efforts to uncover the spy. In rather traditional fashion, Vadassy hotel is peopled by a diverse but limited group of`suspects'. There is the couple that runs the hotel, an American brother and sister, an English major and his Italian-born wife, a couple enjoying a romantic getaway with someone other than their spouses, a German businessman and a Swiss couple. Vadassy is not a particularly good spy. He has been thrust into a situation for which he is woefully unprepared. In fact he is rather inept. I thought of Vadassy as Hercule Poirot as played by Inspector Clousseau of Pink Panther fame.

As the story progresses, Ambler does a very nice job of fleshing out the underlying personalities of his cast of characters. Not every is quite as it seems of course and Vadassy stumbles from one suspect to the next. By the time the book has reached its conclusion the reader has had an opportunity to assess each character enough to make a guess as to who the real spy is. It is to Ambler's credit that the spy is not readily apparent, at least not to this reader.

Epitaph for a Spy was an excellent read and I look forward to reading more of his work.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Old-Fashioned Fun, 20 Nov 2001

By	A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Classic post-WWI spy tale wherein a Hungarian teacher/translator with no national status is vacationing in the south of France and is accused of being a spy. A misunderstanding involving his camera lands him in jail and he's all set for extradition unless he helps the police capture the real spy, who must be one of the guests at his hotel. With this as the set-up, this is very much a mystery of the type set on an English country manor with a houseful of guests. Here, the guests are of varying nationalities, and may not be what they seem. The hero manages to bungle a number of situations, which gets annoying but certainly raises the tension. Some of the plot is rather forced, but it's still good old-fashioned fun.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Compelling mix of old-fashioned fluff and modern grit, 9 Jan 2001

By	Robert G Cook - See all my reviews

Harris's introduction paints Ambler as an icon, the thriller writer's thriller writer, and it's not hard to see why. The coolly detached challenge of the opening sentence ensures you won't give up early, the descriptions of the Riviera are beautifully done (you can feel the languid heat radiating off the cheap paper), and the hero (although anti-hero might be more appropriate) is engagingly self-effacing and wilfully pig-headed throughout. He is also very much afraid, not in a craven way, just in a normal fear of screwing-up-his-life-and-possibly-dying kind of way, and it's this broad portrait of a thouroughly average man caught way out of his depth that propels the reader through the occasionally tedious goings-on at the beachfront pension. It's Vadassy's terrible normalcy that also makes the revelations of the other character's true selves that much more compelling, and in one case genuinely moving. In one courageous and defeated man's description of life in a concentration camp, Ambler thrusts what appears to be a by-the-numbers holiday crime caper into the realm of vital political humanist writing. It came as a genuine surprise when I remembered afterwards that he wrote this in 1938. The man was clearly ahead of his time. Add a cracking finale reminiscent of A Touch of Evil, and you pretty much have a must-read on your hands. Perfect for anyone with a sense of nostalgia coupled with an acute awareness of the essential uncosiness of life.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Amateur Efforts
To read or not to read the great spy novels of Eric Ambler? That is the question most people ignore because they are not familiar with Mr. Read more

Published on 25 Jun 2004 by Professor Donald Mitchell

5.0 out of 5 stars The Amateur Counter-Spy and His Bungles!
To read or not to read the great spy novels of Eric Ambler? That is the question most people ignore because they are not familiar with Mr. Read more

Published on 3 May 2004 by Professor Donald Mitchell

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	70% buy the item featured on this page: Epitaph for a Spy 4.2 out of 5 stars (5)
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