DDC/MDS
| 823.912 |
Publication
London : Hodder & Stoughton, limited, 1939.
Original publication date
1939-08
Description
An early classic of espionage fiction. Through the cafes, trains and nighttime cities of Europe, Charles Latimer follows a twisting trail of drug-smugglers, thieves and assassins that will lead him to Dimitrios.
Status
Available
Call number
Series
Collection
User reviews
LibraryThing member smik
I have been aware that, though I have well over four decades of dedicated crime fiction reading behind me, there are a number of "classics" that I have never touched. Eric Ambler's THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS, aka A COFFIN FOR DIMITRIOS, aka THE DOSSIER OF DIMITRIOS, is one of those.
In the introduction
The Mask of Dimitrios is the work of a writer at the height of his powers. Saturated with the despairing mood of a world in rapid decay, it is also a manifesto for a new kind of crime novel, a bomb intended to blow up the vicarage whodunnit as decisively as the fifty tons of TNT that the eight-year-old Eric Ambler had watched devastate the Silvertown storage depot in 1917 in London's biggest-ever explosion.
Written in 1939, with World War II imminent, it is really a story on at least two levels, possibly even a little allegorical.
Charles Latimer, a successful murder mystery writer is shown the corpse of a villain in Istanbul. He spends the next three weeks investigating this corpse, travelling across Europe, and eventually becoming embroiled in committing a crime himself. Latimer is fascinated by how very different this reality is to his fictional world.
On another level THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS is about the guises of evil. Dimitrios is an arch criminal, an assassin, white slaver, murderer, drug baron, and yet it is difficult to judge this on first meeting, to see the evil that lies beneath.
A man's features, the bone structure and the tissue which covers it, are the product of a biological process; but his face he creates for himself. It is a statement of his habitual emotional attitude; the attitude which his desires need for their fulfilment and which his fears demand for their protection from prying eyes. He wears it like a devil mask;
...
It is a screen to hide his mind's nakedness. Only a few men, painters, have been able to see the mind through the face.
Latimer meets a number of people who have been sucked into the vortex that surrounds Dimitrios. The evil is contagious. They in turn become evil and commit crimes and other horrendous acts.
So there is a lot of social and political comment embedded in the novel, for those who want to see it. Ambler in a sense is using the novel as his vehicle for more than just a story. As Mazower pointed out, this is a relatively new path for crime fiction in 1939. I keep thinking of George Orwell's ANIMAL FARM not published till 1945 and, much more clearly to readers, also an allegory.
Ambler's writer Latimer realises the real world is much more sordid, violent, and dangerous than any fictional one that he can create. But will it change his attitude to his work or indeed the nature of his novels?
I felt Ambler's desire to make political points slowed the action down at times, and made me feel a bit ambivalent about whether I wanted to continue reading. There were times when I just felt that I wanted the plot to move faster, certainly in the first half. And yet there is no doubting the novel's power to make the reader think.
From here on... a SPOILER.
At the end it seems almost that Latimer has learnt nothing from the experience. He desperately wants to turn the clock back to a time when things were rosy.
But he, Latimer, would not know about those things. He would be writing a detective story with a beginning, a middle and an end; a corpse, a piece of detection and a scaffold. He would be demonstrating that murder would out, that justice triumphed in the end and that the green bay tree flourished alone.
.....
He needed, and badly, a motive, a neat method of committing a murder and an entertaining crew of suspects. Yes, the suspects must certainly be entertaining. His last book had been a trifle heavy. He must inject a little more humour into this one.
As for the motive, money was always, of course, the soundest basis. A pity that wills and life insurance were so outmoded. Supposing a man murdered an old lady so that his wife should have a private income. It might be worth thinking about.
The scene? Well,there was always plenty of fun to be got out of an English country village, wasnt there?
The time? Summer; with cricket matches on the village green, garden parties at the vicarage, the clink of teacups and the sweet smell of grass on a July evening.
That was the sort of thing people liked to hear about. It was the sort of thing that he himself would like to hear about.
In the introduction
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to this Kindle version Max Mazower wroteThe Mask of Dimitrios is the work of a writer at the height of his powers. Saturated with the despairing mood of a world in rapid decay, it is also a manifesto for a new kind of crime novel, a bomb intended to blow up the vicarage whodunnit as decisively as the fifty tons of TNT that the eight-year-old Eric Ambler had watched devastate the Silvertown storage depot in 1917 in London's biggest-ever explosion.
Written in 1939, with World War II imminent, it is really a story on at least two levels, possibly even a little allegorical.
Charles Latimer, a successful murder mystery writer is shown the corpse of a villain in Istanbul. He spends the next three weeks investigating this corpse, travelling across Europe, and eventually becoming embroiled in committing a crime himself. Latimer is fascinated by how very different this reality is to his fictional world.
On another level THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS is about the guises of evil. Dimitrios is an arch criminal, an assassin, white slaver, murderer, drug baron, and yet it is difficult to judge this on first meeting, to see the evil that lies beneath.
A man's features, the bone structure and the tissue which covers it, are the product of a biological process; but his face he creates for himself. It is a statement of his habitual emotional attitude; the attitude which his desires need for their fulfilment and which his fears demand for their protection from prying eyes. He wears it like a devil mask;
...
It is a screen to hide his mind's nakedness. Only a few men, painters, have been able to see the mind through the face.
Latimer meets a number of people who have been sucked into the vortex that surrounds Dimitrios. The evil is contagious. They in turn become evil and commit crimes and other horrendous acts.
So there is a lot of social and political comment embedded in the novel, for those who want to see it. Ambler in a sense is using the novel as his vehicle for more than just a story. As Mazower pointed out, this is a relatively new path for crime fiction in 1939. I keep thinking of George Orwell's ANIMAL FARM not published till 1945 and, much more clearly to readers, also an allegory.
Ambler's writer Latimer realises the real world is much more sordid, violent, and dangerous than any fictional one that he can create. But will it change his attitude to his work or indeed the nature of his novels?
I felt Ambler's desire to make political points slowed the action down at times, and made me feel a bit ambivalent about whether I wanted to continue reading. There were times when I just felt that I wanted the plot to move faster, certainly in the first half. And yet there is no doubting the novel's power to make the reader think.
From here on... a SPOILER.
At the end it seems almost that Latimer has learnt nothing from the experience. He desperately wants to turn the clock back to a time when things were rosy.
But he, Latimer, would not know about those things. He would be writing a detective story with a beginning, a middle and an end; a corpse, a piece of detection and a scaffold. He would be demonstrating that murder would out, that justice triumphed in the end and that the green bay tree flourished alone.
.....
He needed, and badly, a motive, a neat method of committing a murder and an entertaining crew of suspects. Yes, the suspects must certainly be entertaining. His last book had been a trifle heavy. He must inject a little more humour into this one.
As for the motive, money was always, of course, the soundest basis. A pity that wills and life insurance were so outmoded. Supposing a man murdered an old lady so that his wife should have a private income. It might be worth thinking about.
The scene? Well,there was always plenty of fun to be got out of an English country village, wasnt there?
The time? Summer; with cricket matches on the village green, garden parties at the vicarage, the clink of teacups and the sweet smell of grass on a July evening.
That was the sort of thing people liked to hear about. It was the sort of thing that he himself would like to hear about.
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LibraryThing member AnnieMod
Part old style spy novel, park caricature of one, part a portrait of Europe in the late thirties. I cringed every time when I saw a Bulgarian name, city or place mentioned (they were awfully mangled but that might be the way they had been known to the English world back then...). Somewhere mid book
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I actually flipped to check again if it was written in the 30s or in the 50s - Ambler's perception of what was going on in Europe was way too accurate to be pre-WWII. And yet it was. The big surprise is not really a surprise if you had read enough spy and/or mystery stories but then that does not even matter. Show Less
LibraryThing member Polaris-
An excellent and intelligent thriller depicting the crumbling mask of civilisation in the immediate pre-war era in continental Europe. Eric Ambler’s extremely atmospheric tale sees the English crime writer Charles Latimer travelling abroad in between novels. Witness to the corpse of a wanted
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criminal recovered from The Bosphorus, Latimer’s writerly curiosity gets the better of him as he sets out to discover the story that led the victim to his grisly end. Full of richly evocative period detail, international political intrigue, and a page-turning sequence of criminal revelations, Ambler succeeded in writing a belter of a novel that paved the way for many of the 20th century’s best regarded thriller and espionage authors. Show Less
LibraryThing member pgmcc
An intelligent murder mystery entangled with espionage and presented in a beautiful noir atmosphere. Written shortly before the outbreak of WWII this book includes all the confusion of a Europe still recovering from turmoil of WWI and of displaced people trying to build life for themselves amid the
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tenseness of national governments uncertain of what the future holds. This is the first Eric Ambler story I have read but it will not be the last. Show Less
LibraryThing member amaraki
This is the best detective novel I have ever read. Would have given it five stars in its genre. It had classic crime and detective novel features interspersed with more serious historical and social commentary, and quite often with tongue in cheek humour. A light touch on sombre subjects and
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characters. Ambler is such a fine author: his characters were so very vividly drawn they came alive -- I must admit I could hear Sydney Greenstreet speaking as Peters even though I remember nothing of the movie I saw as a child, also Peter Lorre though I don't know what he played. The plot involved you at every step and had unexpected twists. Even the novel's naive moral clarity, perhaps reflecting the era it was written in, was a plus for me. Let me add my kudos to the many Mr. Ambler already has been given. Show Less
LibraryThing member gaskella
When I saw that Penguin were reissuing five of Ambler’s novel in their Modern Classics series, the choice of which to read first was easy – I picked The Mask of Dimitrios. Apart from having been published during the same year as Chandler’s The Big Sleep, this novel is famous for being the one
“Bond unfastened his seat-belt and lit a cigarette. He reached for the slim, expensive-looking attaché case on the floor beside him and took out The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler and put the case, which was very heavy in spite of its size, on the seat beside him.”
The Mask of Dimitrios is a classic spy story. A mild-mannered crime novelist, Charles Latimer, is travelling in Europe and makes the acquaintance of Colonel Haki – an inspector in the Turkish secret police. Haki has read Latimer’s novels and has an idea for a plot for him, however Latimer finds real life to be much more fascinating. Out of professional interest, he goes with the Colonel to the morgue to see the body of a notorious criminal, who had ended up stabbed to death. Dimitrios was wanted all over Europe in connection with murders, assassination attempts and more, but had been too clever to be caught. Latimer’s interest is piqued and he feels that to do some real detection work into Dimitrios would be helpful to his novels. Haki tells him what he knows, and off goes Latimer, not knowing that he will become obsessed in his quest or that he is, as you might expect for an amateur detective, sailing into dangerous waters.
His journey takes him across Europe, making contacts and filling in the jigsaw puzzle piece by piece. In Sofia, he meets the translator Marukakis, who takes him to a club where the Madame knew Dimitrios:
“She possessed that odd blousy quality that is independent of good clothes and well-dressed hair and skilful maquillage. Her figure was full but good and she held herself well: her dress was probably expensive, her thick, dark hair looked as if it had spent the past two hours in the hands of a hairdresser. Yet she remained, unmistakably and irrevocably, a slattern.”
But others are also interested in Dimitrios. On one occasion after having been confronted by an intruder with a Luger, Latimer rues that he didn’t use force against the man; “That,” he reflected, “was the worst of the academic mind. It always overlooked the possibilities of violence until violence was no longer useful.” This sums up Latimer neatly – in the best tradition of the gentleman amateur sleuth.
I enjoyed this novel very much. It has much in common with those who followed – although Fleming, Ludlum and Le Carré Fleming, Robert Ludlum, and John Le Carré each take the espionage novel in differing directions. I liked the multiple locations around Europe; travelling between them is made easy by train. There is some tension generated by the political undercurrents and the general situation in the eastern Mediterranean countries – although not much is made of them here – WWII is yet to happen. The cast of shady supporting characters introduces much complexity, but sometimes, the long episodes when Dimitrios’ back-story is recounted slow the pace. Latimer however proves an amiable companion in this novel that is not quite a full-blooded thriller. As a lover of spy novels, I’ll be back to Ambler.
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that Ian Fleming nodded to, having Bond read it on a plane to Istanbul in From Russia With Love. “Bond unfastened his seat-belt and lit a cigarette. He reached for the slim, expensive-looking attaché case on the floor beside him and took out The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler and put the case, which was very heavy in spite of its size, on the seat beside him.”
The Mask of Dimitrios is a classic spy story. A mild-mannered crime novelist, Charles Latimer, is travelling in Europe and makes the acquaintance of Colonel Haki – an inspector in the Turkish secret police. Haki has read Latimer’s novels and has an idea for a plot for him, however Latimer finds real life to be much more fascinating. Out of professional interest, he goes with the Colonel to the morgue to see the body of a notorious criminal, who had ended up stabbed to death. Dimitrios was wanted all over Europe in connection with murders, assassination attempts and more, but had been too clever to be caught. Latimer’s interest is piqued and he feels that to do some real detection work into Dimitrios would be helpful to his novels. Haki tells him what he knows, and off goes Latimer, not knowing that he will become obsessed in his quest or that he is, as you might expect for an amateur detective, sailing into dangerous waters.
His journey takes him across Europe, making contacts and filling in the jigsaw puzzle piece by piece. In Sofia, he meets the translator Marukakis, who takes him to a club where the Madame knew Dimitrios:
“She possessed that odd blousy quality that is independent of good clothes and well-dressed hair and skilful maquillage. Her figure was full but good and she held herself well: her dress was probably expensive, her thick, dark hair looked as if it had spent the past two hours in the hands of a hairdresser. Yet she remained, unmistakably and irrevocably, a slattern.”
But others are also interested in Dimitrios. On one occasion after having been confronted by an intruder with a Luger, Latimer rues that he didn’t use force against the man; “That,” he reflected, “was the worst of the academic mind. It always overlooked the possibilities of violence until violence was no longer useful.” This sums up Latimer neatly – in the best tradition of the gentleman amateur sleuth.
I enjoyed this novel very much. It has much in common with those who followed – although Fleming, Ludlum and Le Carré Fleming, Robert Ludlum, and John Le Carré each take the espionage novel in differing directions. I liked the multiple locations around Europe; travelling between them is made easy by train. There is some tension generated by the political undercurrents and the general situation in the eastern Mediterranean countries – although not much is made of them here – WWII is yet to happen. The cast of shady supporting characters introduces much complexity, but sometimes, the long episodes when Dimitrios’ back-story is recounted slow the pace. Latimer however proves an amiable companion in this novel that is not quite a full-blooded thriller. As a lover of spy novels, I’ll be back to Ambler.
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LibraryThing member lucybrown
Poor Latimer. An English economics wonk with a successful career as a mystery writer, a stiff upper lip and button-upped tight shirt to go with his button-upped tight moral code falls in with one of the most slimy, unctuous grifters to grace literature. One Mr. Peters, a cherub of corruption with
It is Latimer's own doing. While on holiday in Turkey he meets a roguish member of the Turkish secret police, another delightful minor character. Hakkis is a fan of the English mystery novel, especially of Latimer's books. They drink coffee (much coffee is drunk in this book), then Hakkis takes Latimer to the morgue to see the catch of the day, the body of Dimitrios which was found floating in the Bosphorus. Dimitrios, fig packer (by the way, that isn't an odd euphemism; he actual worked as a fig packer) murderer, hustler, political operative, pimp, all-purpose bad guy with a heart of rusted out chrome and sinister eyes fascinates Latimer who as an academic exercise decides to build a dossier for the dead man. The police accounts shot through with gaps and holes.
If I were on holiday in Turkey on the eve of WWII, I would instead have had another cup of coffee, then sat on the shimmering sands. Perhaps fetched a camel and sojourned to Ephesus. Spent a pensive hour at the home of Our Holy Mother. I WOULD NOT drink coffee with the head of Turkish secret police to begin with. I certainly would not then decide as a lark to look into the life and death of a Greek-speaking Turkish super villain. Perhaps you remember the Levant and the Balkans was a murky quagmire of intrigue and death at that time. But, each to his own. That's what Latimer decides to do. I am glad he decides to because it makes for a fantastic story. With Latimer one globe trots about Southern Europe. Paris! Rome! Geneva! Athens! Izmir! Istanbul! Sofia! One meets a colorful Marxist journalist who delivers my favorite line of the book, "Of course I was exaggerating. But it is agreeable sometimes to talk in primary colors even if you have to think in greys." Oh, one meets such interesting people. Several who take a jabs at Latimer's English armor, he wears a full metal suit of priggishness. Much of the books humor comes from this.
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glowing false teeth. It is Latimer's own doing. While on holiday in Turkey he meets a roguish member of the Turkish secret police, another delightful minor character. Hakkis is a fan of the English mystery novel, especially of Latimer's books. They drink coffee (much coffee is drunk in this book), then Hakkis takes Latimer to the morgue to see the catch of the day, the body of Dimitrios which was found floating in the Bosphorus. Dimitrios, fig packer (by the way, that isn't an odd euphemism; he actual worked as a fig packer) murderer, hustler, political operative, pimp, all-purpose bad guy with a heart of rusted out chrome and sinister eyes fascinates Latimer who as an academic exercise decides to build a dossier for the dead man. The police accounts shot through with gaps and holes.
If I were on holiday in Turkey on the eve of WWII, I would instead have had another cup of coffee, then sat on the shimmering sands. Perhaps fetched a camel and sojourned to Ephesus. Spent a pensive hour at the home of Our Holy Mother. I WOULD NOT drink coffee with the head of Turkish secret police to begin with. I certainly would not then decide as a lark to look into the life and death of a Greek-speaking Turkish super villain. Perhaps you remember the Levant and the Balkans was a murky quagmire of intrigue and death at that time. But, each to his own. That's what Latimer decides to do. I am glad he decides to because it makes for a fantastic story. With Latimer one globe trots about Southern Europe. Paris! Rome! Geneva! Athens! Izmir! Istanbul! Sofia! One meets a colorful Marxist journalist who delivers my favorite line of the book, "Of course I was exaggerating. But it is agreeable sometimes to talk in primary colors even if you have to think in greys." Oh, one meets such interesting people. Several who take a jabs at Latimer's English armor, he wears a full metal suit of priggishness. Much of the books humor comes from this.
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LibraryThing member dougwood57
Eric Ambler pretty much invented the modern spy thriller and Coffin for Dimitrios (originally published in the UK as Mask of Dimitrios) is his best known work - perhaps in part because it was made into a movie in 1944.
Charles Latimer writes "detection novels" (romans policiers) and is slowly drawn
The storyline gets pretty complex - Dimitrios is involved in a couple assasination plots possibly with the backing of an international bank, but those events are mostly kept in the background. Latimer meets Mr. Peters who has his own plans regarding Dimitrios (Sydney Greenstreet is perfectly cast as Mr. Peters in the movie).
The highlight of the book is the lengthy description of Dimitrios' exploitation of a Yugolsavian bureaucrat's greed and sense of self-importance.
The best book by the guy who started noir.
Charles Latimer writes "detection novels" (romans policiers) and is slowly drawn
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into research on the story behind the murder of Dimitrios - who was Dimitrios and how did he end up floating in a Turkish harbor? Latimer begins to trace Dimitrios' known movements through Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Switzerland, France, and Croatia. What begins as mere professional curiosity eventually becomes deadly serious. The storyline gets pretty complex - Dimitrios is involved in a couple assasination plots possibly with the backing of an international bank, but those events are mostly kept in the background. Latimer meets Mr. Peters who has his own plans regarding Dimitrios (Sydney Greenstreet is perfectly cast as Mr. Peters in the movie).
The highlight of the book is the lengthy description of Dimitrios' exploitation of a Yugolsavian bureaucrat's greed and sense of self-importance.
The best book by the guy who started noir.
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LibraryThing member edwinbcn
The mask of Dimitrios is my second book by Eric Ambler this year, read, not because I am so interested in espionage, but as it was re-issued as a Penguin Modern Classics edition. It is a pity I could not get all four. The book is known in the US as A coffin for Dimitrios.
Published in 1939 it
The story is very exciting and is set against the back drop of the rise of Hitler in Europe. The book never feels dated, the reading experience is fully modern and contemporary, as opposed to the other book I read by Ambler earlier this year, Cause for alarm.
Published in 1939 it
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describes the search for the identity of a spy, across Turkey, Yugoslavia and Greece. The novel is reminiscent of Graham Greene's and probably Ian Fleming, although I have never read any of the latter's novels, and somewhat of Joseph Conrad's Under Western Eyes.The story is very exciting and is set against the back drop of the rise of Hitler in Europe. The book never feels dated, the reading experience is fully modern and contemporary, as opposed to the other book I read by Ambler earlier this year, Cause for alarm.
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LibraryThing member neurodrew
I bought this on the advice of the author of ""Night Soldiers"", Alan Furst, for its masterful treatment of the spy and intrigue genre prior to WWII. It lived up to its billing. It is complexly plotted, and highly atmospheric, with stops in Turkey, Bulgaria, France and Switzerland, and interviews
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with master spies and rogues. There was a bit too much narration of background history, but a good and tidy ending. Show Less
LibraryThing member cfink
Eric Ambler has taken the typical mystery story and flipped it on its head in a fantastic and engaging romp through pre-World War II Europe. Charles Latimer is a mystery writer who becomes obsessed with the real story of a notorious criminal who is found dead in Istanbul. He sets of to try his hand
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at "real detection" in an effort to learn more about Dimitrious, and try to put himself in the place of his characters. As the plot deepens Latimer finds himself caught up in an ongoing mystery with lots of shady characters and unexpected twists. Would this be a good plot for a real mystery story? Show Less
LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom
Charles Latimer, former lecture of political economy, quits the academic world and becomes a writer of crime fiction, with such titles to his credit as "A Bloody Shovel," "I, Said the Fly," and "Murder's Arms." He does all right as a novelist, and decides one day that he needs a change of scene.
An amazing story, I can definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of British crime fiction, or anyone who likes novels set just before WWII.
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Off he goes on vacation to Istanbul, where he meets a Turkish secret policeman, a Col. Haki. Haki contrives some reason to speak to Latimer, then invites him to view a corpse which has recently washed up onto shore from the Bosphorus. As it turns out, the body belongs to one Dimitrios Makropoulous, whose dossier is full of political machinations and other crimes. Latimer is convinced that if he could retrace the steps of Dimitrios, and find out how his body washed up on shore, that he could write his best book yet. Armed with the info provided by Col. Haki, he does his best to find out just who was Dimitrios Makropolous...and enters into a world of intrigue and into the life of a very dangerous individual.An amazing story, I can definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of British crime fiction, or anyone who likes novels set just before WWII.
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LibraryThing member chuckzak
A slim 1939 novel of intrigue, crime and mysterious identities following a too-curious American author who gets involved with real life murder and betrayal in Eastern Europe. Good characters and dialog, with sharp writing, a fun read with a dash of pleasantly Byzantine pre-war regional politics;
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the ending is a bit plain but no big deal, it was a good story nonetheless. Bonus points: my 1943 Pocket Book paperback has great (though uncredited) cover art depicting a shadowy figure peeking over jagged rocks at a pool of water below into which something has just been dropped, all washed in an awesome shade of pea-green that screams vintage cool. Show Less
LibraryThing member datrappert
This was my first Ambler, and it is a great introduction to his seductive work. He is one of those authors that you feel would have been a fascinating person to know. He's a great story teller and the intelligence comes through in every line. The book and its background may seem a bit dated -- and
If you are into stories of suspense or spies or detectives, put this one on your must read list.
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so many others have copied his story of an amateur who steps into a little deeper water than he was expecting, but no one has done it better than Ambler. There is a wry sense of humor that runs through all his work, no matter how dark it is. If you are into stories of suspense or spies or detectives, put this one on your must read list.
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LibraryThing member amnesta
It was mentioned in From Russia With Love
LibraryThing member annbury
One of the old master's masterpieces. Powerful plotting, compelling atmosphere, and characters who linger in the mind for years -- no, decades. This one, written just before WW!!, is set in the Balkans of the 1930's, with excursions to Switzerland and Paris. A terrific book, as readable as one
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written yesterday. Show Less
LibraryThing member Tendulkar01
A masterpiece of the espionage genre
LibraryThing member Bookmarque
Despite my going through an intense espionage thriller phase many years ago, I never even heard of Eric Ambler until the last few years. His books are often held up as some of the founding works of the genre. Before LeCarre, Fleming and Follett there was Ambler cooking up the memes that would
One thing that stood out was the novel’s construction. We do not follow a spy directly, nor do we interact with his handlers or agency. The man in question isn’t really a spy at all, but more of a mercenary for hire who isn’t too picky about the job. Need an assassin? Call Dimitrios. Smuggler? Ah, Dimitrios is your man. A spy? No problem, Dimitrios can get it done. It is the ever-changing nature of his activities that have kept him out of harm’s way for so long and part of the reason our protagonist, Charles Latimer, is fascinated by him. Often he says to himself that he really should give up the chase and go back to his detective stories, but he can't; he's obsessed.
Latimer isn’t a cop or a spy-chaser, he’s a novelist. At first I thought he was being deliberately hooked into Dimitrios’s story in order to ferret him out, but that wasn’t the case. He was just interested and wanted to see how much he could really do as opposed to just writing about detectives and how they get their men. From each bit of information, he discovers more and meets people connected with Dimitrios. He’s a bit bumbling and innocent, but he has flashes of cunning and capitalizes on lucky breaks very well.
Mixed in with the intrigue is a lot of interesting history that gets overshadowed by the two world wars on either side of the decade. The villainous politicians and the violence they wrought added a lot of flavor to the story and firmly cemented its time and place.
As I said, Ambler has created memes of the genre that are no longer surprising, so I wasn’t as shocked by the actions and outcomes as a reader in the 1930s would have been. Despite that, I liked Latimer and his obsession and stuck with him until the end.
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become so familiar. So I finally read one and it was good. Not entirely surprising since I’ve read a lot of what came after, but it held my attention quite well.One thing that stood out was the novel’s construction. We do not follow a spy directly, nor do we interact with his handlers or agency. The man in question isn’t really a spy at all, but more of a mercenary for hire who isn’t too picky about the job. Need an assassin? Call Dimitrios. Smuggler? Ah, Dimitrios is your man. A spy? No problem, Dimitrios can get it done. It is the ever-changing nature of his activities that have kept him out of harm’s way for so long and part of the reason our protagonist, Charles Latimer, is fascinated by him. Often he says to himself that he really should give up the chase and go back to his detective stories, but he can't; he's obsessed.
Latimer isn’t a cop or a spy-chaser, he’s a novelist. At first I thought he was being deliberately hooked into Dimitrios’s story in order to ferret him out, but that wasn’t the case. He was just interested and wanted to see how much he could really do as opposed to just writing about detectives and how they get their men. From each bit of information, he discovers more and meets people connected with Dimitrios. He’s a bit bumbling and innocent, but he has flashes of cunning and capitalizes on lucky breaks very well.
Mixed in with the intrigue is a lot of interesting history that gets overshadowed by the two world wars on either side of the decade. The villainous politicians and the violence they wrought added a lot of flavor to the story and firmly cemented its time and place.
As I said, Ambler has created memes of the genre that are no longer surprising, so I wasn’t as shocked by the actions and outcomes as a reader in the 1930s would have been. Despite that, I liked Latimer and his obsession and stuck with him until the end.
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LibraryThing member CarltonC
This is an interesting thriller written just before the second world war and to me, most of its interest came from the insight into how the European continent was portrayed. The story is about Charles Latimer is a British University professor who has retired once he discovered that he can make a
Latimer travels from Turkey to Greece, Bulgaria, Switzerland and France in search of background information and it is the description of these places that is of most interest. It was also interesting to realise that drugs and the sex trade would be mentioned in a book of this age – I haven’t come across what feels like relatively contemporary topics in a book of this age before.
There is mention of historical and political events of which I was only partly aware, like the Great Fire of Smyrna, which may require a little background reading. However, as others have mentioned, there is little real mention of the threat of the second world war (other than that hopefully one character will be able to get in winter skiing before the war breaks out!), which is interesting given its publication date.
I read a beautiful Folio Society edition of the novel, with some atmospheric illustrations by Paul Blow that added to my enjoyment and the cover is really fitting for the novel.
Overall, the novel does feel dated and its plot is relatively predictable, but it was an enjoyable read.
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better living writing detective stories. The novel starts with Latimer on holiday in Istanbul, where he makes the acquaintance of a Turkish police inspector, Colonel Haki, who is an admirer of Latimer's work. Latimer is invited to Haki's office and whilst there is invited to join the officer in viewing the body of a master criminal, Dimitrios, who has just been fished out of the Bosphorus. Latimer, fascinated by the few lurid details of Dimitrios criminal career that Haki relates, decides to trace Dimitrios’ steps in the hopes that he will obtain new material for a future detective story. Latimer travels from Turkey to Greece, Bulgaria, Switzerland and France in search of background information and it is the description of these places that is of most interest. It was also interesting to realise that drugs and the sex trade would be mentioned in a book of this age – I haven’t come across what feels like relatively contemporary topics in a book of this age before.
There is mention of historical and political events of which I was only partly aware, like the Great Fire of Smyrna, which may require a little background reading. However, as others have mentioned, there is little real mention of the threat of the second world war (other than that hopefully one character will be able to get in winter skiing before the war breaks out!), which is interesting given its publication date.
I read a beautiful Folio Society edition of the novel, with some atmospheric illustrations by Paul Blow that added to my enjoyment and the cover is really fitting for the novel.
Overall, the novel does feel dated and its plot is relatively predictable, but it was an enjoyable read.
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LibraryThing member TheWasp
Charles Lattimer, a mystery writer, is intrigued with the story behind the man in the morgue who, in the past, had been linked to multiple crimes in several countries. He sets off to find out about him and finds himself involved in a real life spy novel and all is not what it seems.
I enjoyed the
I enjoyed the
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style of writing and the nuances of a 1930s spy story. Show Less
LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
Ambler has an elegant, quote-worthy prose style and a gift for characterization, not just in inventing distinct, memorable characters, but a real ear for the telling detail in expression or feature that brings a place or person vividly to mind. Speaking of which, this was one of my favorite bits:
A
That comes from the chapter "The Mask of Dimitrios." Dimitrios is the book's subject, although not the point of view character or protagonist. That role is filled by Charles Latimer, a former economics professor turned mystery writer--and a decent man, which is probably why I was able to enjoy the novel so much. Because otherwise this novel is squarely within the noir tradition, which is a genre I'm not by and large enamored of. Too dark, too cynical.
Latimer is in Istanbul where he meets a Turkish intelligence officer who tells him of the mysterious Dimitrios, who had just wound up on a mortuary slab. Intrigued by Dimitrios' dossier, Latimer decides to try his hand at investigating this man in his various roles of assassin and spy, drug smuggler and dealer, thief, pimp and murderer. He travels to Greece, Bulgaria, Switzerland and France in search of information about Dimitrios and soon finds that tracing a dangerous man is very dangerous indeed.
There were some really powerful and suspenseful parts of this book. The most memorable to me being the cat and mouse game played with drawing Mr and Mrs Bulic into espionage and the depiction of the heroin trade and addiction. The books is set in 1938 and published in 1939 and I thought the novel rendered a fascinating and complex portrait of a Europe on the brink of war--and even a bit of a gentle twitting of the mystery genre. This was a great read.
A
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man's features, the bone structure and the tissue which covers it, are the product of a biological process; but his face he creates for himself.... It is a screen to hide his mind's nakedness.That comes from the chapter "The Mask of Dimitrios." Dimitrios is the book's subject, although not the point of view character or protagonist. That role is filled by Charles Latimer, a former economics professor turned mystery writer--and a decent man, which is probably why I was able to enjoy the novel so much. Because otherwise this novel is squarely within the noir tradition, which is a genre I'm not by and large enamored of. Too dark, too cynical.
Latimer is in Istanbul where he meets a Turkish intelligence officer who tells him of the mysterious Dimitrios, who had just wound up on a mortuary slab. Intrigued by Dimitrios' dossier, Latimer decides to try his hand at investigating this man in his various roles of assassin and spy, drug smuggler and dealer, thief, pimp and murderer. He travels to Greece, Bulgaria, Switzerland and France in search of information about Dimitrios and soon finds that tracing a dangerous man is very dangerous indeed.
There were some really powerful and suspenseful parts of this book. The most memorable to me being the cat and mouse game played with drawing Mr and Mrs Bulic into espionage and the depiction of the heroin trade and addiction. The books is set in 1938 and published in 1939 and I thought the novel rendered a fascinating and complex portrait of a Europe on the brink of war--and even a bit of a gentle twitting of the mystery genre. This was a great read.
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LibraryThing member richardderus
Excellent between-the-wars spy story that sets the bar for later entries into the genre. The tale has also given numerous parts of itself to other writers. A solid bit of Charade, that delightful 1963 Cary Grant-Audrey Hepburn spies-in-Paris story, came from this 1939 tale.
But the main thing about
The book unfolds, if not slowly, then at a steady pace and one that simply could not be filmed in that time. Now it would be a 4-hour miniseries, and that would work well. The story's action takes place by reports and in flashbacks, yet such is Ambler's gift with the gab that it doesn't...didn't to me, anyway...feel draggy or reported.
Skip the three-star film, read the five-star book, and never look back.
But the main thing about
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reading the book, the primary pleasure unavailable to viewers of the 1944 film The Mask of Dimitrios, is that the movie timeframe makes the story more or less a highlight reel. It also seemed a bit off to me to make this interwar story in the midst of WWII...not a great time for the Balkan/Parisian/Greek dealings or the staunchly anti-bankster tone of the book to be filmed. So, quite naturally, they were left out.The book unfolds, if not slowly, then at a steady pace and one that simply could not be filmed in that time. Now it would be a 4-hour miniseries, and that would work well. The story's action takes place by reports and in flashbacks, yet such is Ambler's gift with the gab that it doesn't...didn't to me, anyway...feel draggy or reported.
Skip the three-star film, read the five-star book, and never look back.
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LibraryThing member clue
Charles Latimer is a writer of detective novels. Grappling for a plot for his next book, he is intrigued wth a story a Turkish colonel tells him about an actual criminal, Dimitrios Marrukakis. The story of Marrukakis is not totally known, he operates in different countries and changes names as
Latimer decides to investigate Marrukakis and travels over the next weeks in Turkey and Greece as he trails his suspect. His interest becomes an obsession and he puts himself at great risk when he begins to circulate among treacherous people as if he were one of them.
Ambler is credited with raising the thriller to a literary level and based on this one book, published in 1939, I can see how that would be true. Although the plot is complex it flows smoothly and I thought it was quite easy to follow. The murky atmosphere, the delivish characters and Latimer's naivete are deliciously done. The one criticism I have is that I would have liked for the ending to have a bigger bang but overall for me it was great reading.
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needed. Certain to be the leader of a large drug gang operating in Eastern Europe it is likely there are many crimes that could be attributed to him.Latimer decides to investigate Marrukakis and travels over the next weeks in Turkey and Greece as he trails his suspect. His interest becomes an obsession and he puts himself at great risk when he begins to circulate among treacherous people as if he were one of them.
Ambler is credited with raising the thriller to a literary level and based on this one book, published in 1939, I can see how that would be true. Although the plot is complex it flows smoothly and I thought it was quite easy to follow. The murky atmosphere, the delivish characters and Latimer's naivete are deliciously done. The one criticism I have is that I would have liked for the ending to have a bigger bang but overall for me it was great reading.
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LibraryThing member karatelpek
A disappointment. Often cited by Alan Furst and many others as the best novel to that covers the pre-war atmosphere of continental Europe. It starts off that way, but I never connected with the protagonist and found his motivation weak. The end of the novel is much more a dialogues between him and
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Mr. Peters, with little action or intrigue. Ambler's other pre-war novels are better. Show Less
LibraryThing member nina.jon
This novel, with its film noir atmosphere, inspired no less than Graham Greene, John le Carre, Alfred Hitchcock and Ian Fleming (who described it as James Bond’s favoured reading material).
It opens with Charles Latimer, a mystery writer, naïvely accepting an assignment to discover who ended the
This is a taut, gripping espionage thriller, with lashings of intrigue, paranoia and double-dealing, which has held up well this past seventy years. Containing certain parallels to today’s uncertain times, I feel this novel may well be set for a revival.
A definite recommend for people who enjoy character driven tension.
Nina Jon is the author of the newly released Magpie Murders, a series of short murder mysteries with a Cluedo-esque element.
She is also the author of the Jane Hetherington's Adventures in Detection crime and mystery series, about private detective Jane Hetherington.
It opens with Charles Latimer, a mystery writer, naïvely accepting an assignment to discover who ended the
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life of criminal mastermind, Dimitrios. In doing so, he gets drawn further and further into the murky, corrupt world of the deceased: a man for whom war offered so many opportunities, he had no objection to helping start one. As our narrator crisscrosses World War II Europe, reconstructing the life and death of the great manipulator, he quickly learns that everyone who knew Dimitrios, is even less savoury than was the man himself. By now he knows he's been set up, and that he'll be lucky to escape with his life, but what he doesn't know is why.This is a taut, gripping espionage thriller, with lashings of intrigue, paranoia and double-dealing, which has held up well this past seventy years. Containing certain parallels to today’s uncertain times, I feel this novel may well be set for a revival.
A definite recommend for people who enjoy character driven tension.
Nina Jon is the author of the newly released Magpie Murders, a series of short murder mysteries with a Cluedo-esque element.
She is also the author of the Jane Hetherington's Adventures in Detection crime and mystery series, about private detective Jane Hetherington.
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Subjects
Awards
Haycraft Queen Cornerstones (1939)
Physical description
319 p.; 19 cm
Local notes
6th printing, Ambler's signature on ffep
!Pronzini-Muller 18 "*"
!Haycraft cornerstone
!Pronzini-Muller 18 "*"
!Haycraft cornerstone
Other editions
A coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler (Paperback)