Background to Danger [Paperback]

Eric Ambler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2001

Kenton's career as a journalist depended on his facility with languages, his knowledge of European politics, and his quick judgment. Where his judgment sometimes failed him was in his personal life. When he finds himself on a train bound for Austria with insufficient funds after a bad night of gambling, he jumps at the chance to earn a fee to help a refugee smuggle securities across the border. He soon discovers that the documents he holds have a more than monetary value, and that European politics has more twists and turns than the most convoluted newspaper account.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] crackerjack spy story, jammed with action. Intrigue, thrills, and super-villainy."
--The Saturday Review

From the Inside Flap

Kenton's career as a journalist depended on his facility with languages, his knowledge of European politics, and his quick judgment. Where his judgment sometimes failed him was in his personal life. When he finds himself on a train bound for Austria with insufficient funds after a bad night of gambling, he jumps at the chance to earn a fee to help a refugee smuggle securities across the border. He soon discovers that the documents he holds have a more than monetary value, and that European politics has more twists and turns than the most convoluted newspaper account.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (October 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037572673X
• ISBN-13: 978-0375726736
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #447,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Adventures of a Journalist, May 9, 2005

By 

Acute Observer (N. Jersey Shore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Background to Danger (Paperback)

The strength and effectiveness of a nation's armed forces depends on the supply of petroleum and other raw materials. Pan Eurasian Petroleum wants to get concessions from the Rumanian government, but its plans were exposed by a leftist newspaper and were suspended. PEP will hire an expensive agent to fix this problem. Kenton, an English free-lance journalist, is on a train to Vienna in search of money. A stranger on this train offers him money to carry an envelope across the border from Germany. The author's knowledge of engineering is shown by his comments in Chapter II: "vertical borers, milling machines and turret lathes", "all-geared head, straight bed S.S. and S.C lathe". When Kenton goes to the hotel to deliver the envelope, he finds the stranger has been stabbed dead. The envelope contained photographs and military secrets.

Kenton was followed, and captured by Colonel Robinson's men. Beaten and threatened unless he surrenders the secret papers. Kenton knew that Big Business pulled the strings of Government statesmen. "Follow the money" is always the clue to politics. But a near miracle occurs when Andreas appears and frees Kenton. They escape through the woods. During a talk, Andreas explains why Big Business needs somebody like Colonel Robinson: to do their dirty work, and to be expendable if caught (Chapter X). Zaleshoff explains why War Plans are secret, even if prepared for a contingency. Kenton tells them where the secret papers are hidden; but there are problems. Kenton is wanted for the murder, and, masked men stole the envelope with the secret papers. Kenton leaves for Prague. He gets on a tour bus and is befriended by a British salesman, who gives his opinion on western Europeans (Chapter XII).

The book describes Kenton's escape across the border into Czechoslovakia. After he arrives by train in Prague, he is escorted away by two plains-clothes policemen. They are Zaleshoff's men. Exciting adventures and events follow. The incriminating secret papers are retrieved, then destroyed. Kenton returns to his post in Berlin by train, but no longer plays poker-dice. Ambler knew how to create a story that holds your interest until the end. You can compare this story to those of Buchan or Oppenheim.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "For many men that stumble at the threshold, July 20, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Background to Danger (Paperback)

Are well foretold that danger lurks within." Henry VI, Part III.

When down-on-his-luck British journalist Kenton boarded an Austria-bound train at Nuremberg he likely had no idea what danger lurked within. Strapped for cash after losing virtually all his money in a dice game, Kenton agrees to smuggle an envelope across the Austrian border for an old man claiming to be a refugee from Hitler's Germany. This was the point at which Kenton stumbled at the threshold of danger in Eric Ambler's spy thriller "Background to Danger".

Long before Fleming's James Bond, 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). Typically, Ambler would take an unassuming, unsuspecting spectator and immerse him in a world of mystery and intrigue in pre-World War II Europe, a world of shadows and shades of grey. The result was a series of highly entertaining and satisfying books that many believe set the stage for the likes of Fleming (who read Ambler's "A Coffin for Dimitrios" while writing "From Russia With Love") le Carre, Deighton, and, most recently, Alan Furst. "Background to Danger" is an excellent example of Ambler at work.

Kenton's absorption into the world of intrigue begins shortly after taking possession of the documents on the train. It quickly becomes clear that the man is no refugee and the envelope contains documents that foretell danger for anyone unlucky enough to have them. The documents are sought by ruthless interested parties that include Soviet agents (a brother and sister who make appearances in a number of Ambler's books) and industrial spies hired by an English munitions company that belies possession of the documents will enable it to enhance its sales of arms to Eastern Europe. As these parties close in on him Kenton is forced to think on his feet and make life and death decisions about who he can and cannot trust. Kenton knows his life is in danger and he must flea Austria for the relative safety of Czechoslovakia. The story follows Kenton's escape attempt until a climactic scene in which the few remaining loose ends are tied up.

As with all his best work Ambler is a great scene-setter. You get a real feel for the many geographic settings he uses as the book progresses. Ambler is also good at character development. His writing is terse and to the point yet the characters nature is revealed slowly and in a non-hackneyed manner. There are no saints or starkly painted devils in Ambler's books but ultimately Ambler's protagonists (and the reader) are provided with enough information to make a choice between good and evil or, sometimes, a hard choice between the lesser of two evils.

Background to Danger is an excellent book and makes for a worthy introduction to Ambler's work for anyone not familiar with his work. For fans of Ambler, I'd say this is among the upper end of his stories. They are all good, but I'd say that Background to Danger is close to the top of the heap.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting and quick-paced, February 11, 2009

By 

A. Williams - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Background to Danger (Paperback)

I'm am surprised I enjoyed this as much as I did! It's not the typical type of story I read. The mysteries I'm used to reading are far more "fluffy" than this. However, the characters in "Background to Danger" were so intriguing and - oddly enough, warm - that I found myself sucked into the characters as much as the mystery.

I've only given this four stars because, really, of my own personal tastes and lack of knowledge on the countries and foreign relationships the story deals with. I'm sure the book is worthy of 5 stars for anyone who knows more about this era, and is more used to this kind of mystery.

Being the squimish person that I am, I was very pleased that the book isn't very graphic. Yes, people get killed, but, happily, Ambler doesn't go into much detail.

I also appreciated the good guy/bad guy, somewhat blurred lines of right and wrong... the story presents interesting circumstances that place our protagonists in situations where what would appear to be "wrong" is, perhaps, actually "right." This said, the story focuses on the mystery and the "messages" aren't overly apparent and really just a subtext for those wishing to seek them.

This is a very interesting read and I'd be more than happy to read it again and partake of another Ambler adventure.