Customer Reviews

The Light of Day

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The Light of Day is an exceptionally good story that involves a rather unusual protagonist for a suspenseful thriller, a petty crook named Arthur Abdel Simpson. The setting is Athens and Instanbul in 1962. The book was a best seller, and it was adapted into a successful movie, a lighthearted caper titled Topkapi (1964). Peter Ustinov received an academy award for his portrayal of Arthur Simpson.

Arthur, as the protagonist in The Light of Day, is disagreeable, dishonest, and disreputable. He blames others for his failings, he cheats his clients, and he has served a short sentence for distributing pornographic material. Arthur is caught stealing and is blackmailed into driving a car from Athens to Istanbul. The bumbling Arthur is arrested for smuggling at the Turkish border and now finds himself working unwillingly for the Turkish secret police. Neither Arthur nor the reader quite understands the situation. Is he mixed up with a political plot, arms smuggling, drug trafficking, or something else? Despite my misgivings, I found myself becoming sympathetic to Arthur. Had he conned me too?

I highly recommend this suspenseful novel by Eric Ambler. I enjoyed (and reviewed) both Ambler's A Coffin for Dimitrios and Journey into Fear, but The Light of Day is even better. This book would be a good starting point for anyone new to Eric Ambler.

The Light of Day is one of the finest crime thrillers ever written. It continues to serve as a model for all those who wish they could write a great crime novel. The story is taut, surprising and intriguing. The story's background is as rich for stimulating the imagination as anyone could wish. But what makes the book truly great is the protagonist, Arthur Simpson, who is both a fresh and indelible character. He is a weak man who preys on those around him, but is curiously appealing in his foibles and follies. For those who are movie fans, Topkapi was adapted from this book.

Arthur Abdel Simpson is a journalist by profession, but doesn't make much money at it. So he's temporarily earning his living as a driver for hire with his own car. As the story opens, he persuades Harper to hire him at the Athens airport. Keeping an eye out for the main chance, Simpson leaves Harper at a maison de rendezvous called Madame Irma's and beats it back to burgle Harper's hotel room where Harper surprises him in the act. Harper blackmails him with a threat to complain to the Greek police, and Simpson agrees to do a little job of driving a car into Turkey. No fool, Simpson takes the car apart on the way to Turkey to see what he's smuggling. Finding nothing, he proceeds overconfidently to the border to an unpleasant meeting with the Turkish police. It seems he's overlooked a little something. From there, he finds himself pressured to help the Turks capture Harper in the act while trying to get the blackmail evidence back from Harper. It makes for many delicious complications as he fails to understand the true nature of Harper's intent until he finds himself in the middle of it!

One of the delights of this book is the way that Simpson's true personality and character are exposed by others as they test him with their own investigations, tasks and questions. Gradually, the self-serving history that he shares in the book's beginning is exposed for the fraud that Simpson himself is. Yet, he's really more of a good guy than a bad guy. What makes him a fraud is that he overindulges in the all-too-human qualities of self-righteousness, vanity, greed, laziness and self-pity. You will find yourself identifying with Simpson and caring about how he handles his many dangerous tasks.

If you enjoy Simpson as a character, you can read more about him in another Eric Ambler masterpiece, Dirty Story.

I suppose that the ultimate appeal of all Eric Ambler's many fine books is that his characters are ordinary people who rise to the occasion to deal with very difficult situations in admirable ways, displaying courage, ingenuity and honesty under fire. Since Simpson is the weakest reed you could ever imagine playing such a role, he makes Ambler's point that there is a hero in all of us in a remarkable effective way.

After you read and enjoy this marvelous story, think about how you could rise to the occasion to play a hero's or a heroine's role for others. You can do it!

if he will be in all respects a good subject of the Turkish government." Henry David Thoreau

In many respects, Eric Ambler was to the modern British suspense novel what Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett were to the American detective novel. Ambler transformed the suspense novel from a simplistic black and white world of perfect good guys versus nefarious bad guys into a far more realistic world where sometimes the difference between good and evil is not all that great. Typically, Ambler takes an unassuming, unsuspecting civilian and immerses him in a world of mystery and intrigue in pre and post-World War II Europe. The result was a series of highly entertaining and satisfying books that many believe set the stage for the likes of Ian Fleming, John le Carre, Len Deighton, and, most recently the highly acclaimed Alan Furst. The Light of Day finds Eric Ambler at the top of his game.

The protagonist and narrator is one Arthur Abdel Simpson who may, if his luck holds, grow rich in Turkey. Unlike his typical protagonists Simpson is far from an innocent person. Simpson is something of a hustler. Part English and part Egyptian Simpson makes a living hustling tourists arriving at the Athens airport. He drives a car for hire and passes himself off as a tour guide. Simpson has no aversion to fleecing those tourists he runs into at the airport. He first spots Harper in the Athens airport and thinks he has found a new source of ill-gotten funds. However, it quickly becomes clear that Simpson has met his match in Harper. Harper quickly sees through Simpson and almost before you can say "taxi, sir?" Harper has caught Simpson trying to rob him. Rather than have him arrested, Harper blackmails Simpson into working with Simpson on some sort of mysterious and quite unlawful plan. Simpson is directed to drive a fancy new American car cross the Greek border into Turkey and to await further instructions once he arrives in Istanbul. Simpson is quickly caught by Turkish secret agents who then blackmail him again into reporting on Harper's activities. As Simpson continues to narrate the actions of Harper and his gang on the one side and the Turkish authorities get ever closer to each other. Simpson is forced to walk a tightrope (literally and figuratively) that may just keep him from death or jail and may just net him a few thousand dollars in ill gotten gains if he plays his cards right.

Ambler is masterful when it comes to setting up a plot. He is not ham-handed or overly verbose but he does manage to convey a good sense of the inner workings of the principal characters in his stories. Ambler writes with a light touch when it comes to violence. It is more implicit than explicit. Yet the reader can sense violence `in the air' or at least the threat of violence as the plot thickens. He also has a keen eye for the various geographic settings in which his stories are set. You invariably get a feel for the streets and alleyways his characters come across. The Light of Day is no exception. Simpson is, as noted, no angel. He is a hustler and something of a con-man. Yet Ambler portrays him in such a clever way that you cannot help but hope he gets himself out of the mess he made for himself.

There was a critically acclaimed film version of The Light of Day made in 1964. Peter Ustinov won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Simpson.

I am a great admirer of Ambler's work and highly recommend any of his books to anyone not familiar with his work. They make for a nice read on hot summer days or long winter nights. The Light of Day is as good a place to start for anyone interested in discovering the author who shares no small bit of `genetic code' with le Carre, Fleming, Deighton, and Furst.

Highly recommended. L. Fleisig

In my opinion, Eric Ambler is at his very best when writing about the intersection of politics and crime. Unlike many writers of his time, he understood the danger of first facism and then later communism. He best books were written before the Second World War "A Coffin for Dimitrios" and just right after "Judgment on Deltchev". His books about the end of Colonialism in Southeast Asia, "State of Seige" and "Passage of Arms" are also gems written while these events were happening.

Eric Ambler created the modern espionage novel and this is the genre where he shines. His crime novels like "The Light of the Day" are very good but in my view are second tier works. I can see why many reviewers gave this novel five stars. Ambler's writing style is so strong and Athens and Instanbul are exotic locations. While Ambler's lead character is very interesting, I found the plot to be too formulaic. He systematically goes from point A to point B and then to point C. There are none of the great plot twists which the best Ambler novels are known. Although a superior stylist, Ambler plods his way through this novel.

Vintage Crime/Black Lizard seems to be re-releasing all of Eric Ambler's novels. If you are new to Eric Ambler, he is defintely worth reading. He is a master of the espionage genre. However, start with another one of his more political novels. "The Light of Day" should be read after all the really great novels have been consumed.

Not least among the delights of this splendid book is that,until quite late in the day,the reader is never quite certain what type of book it is going to be.It hints at a spy story,it could easily turn out to be a political thriller with a coup at its centre In the event,it is a caper-heist story wih a gang of criminals intent on a daring museum robbery.(It was the source for the Peter Ustinov movie "Topkapi")
The other great achievement of the novel is its narrator,"Arthur Abdel Simpson".He is the son of an Anglo-Egyptian couple,educated in a minor English private school and a man of dubious honesty and an ex-con into the bargain ,having served time for the dissemination of pornographic magazines.When the book opens he is eking out a living as an Athens taxi driver/tourist guide/pimp.He is interrupted in the act of robbing an American tourist,"Harper",who blackmails him into delivering a car from Athens to Turkey neglecting to mention the illegal cargo concealed in the vehicle .When the Turks discover this they force the reluctant coward to act as their agent within the gang to whom he is delivering the car and its contents
The gang are intent on robbing the Topkapi museum and the robbery forms the climax of the novel.

Arthur is a masterly creation-cowardly,quick witted,oleaginous,and physically unprepossessing,yet strangely likeable
You end up caring for him and this transforms a well written thriller into something a little bit more memorable.The other characters are more sketchily drawn but this a minor caveat

Recommended!

This story was very good for a number of reasons. The best is probably the introduction of the despicable scoundrel, Arthur Ahmed Simpson. Peter Ustinov was a very good choice to play this charlatan. Unfortunately, the movie didn't follow the book that closely, and this detracted from my enjoyment of the book, as I focused on what was different in the movie. Since the book came first, the fault is obviously with the movie. Simpson is a great character, up there with Flashman and Fenwick Travers. The hard-to-find "Dirty Story" follows up Simpson's activities, and is also very good.

I usually don't go in for thrillers, but I had heard good things about Eric Ambler. So I thought I'd give this book a try. At first I was a bit disgusted by Arthur Simpson, the narrator and main character, who is a small time thief with a nasty disposition. And when he is caught in the act of theft, I was quite happy. His being caught leads in an unexpected direction, and I was fascinated by how adroitly Ambler handles the twists and turns of the plot. And then something rather extraordinary happened: I began to like Arthur. Yes, he's a creep. Yes, he deserves to go to jail for his crimes. But he has his good side as well. It reminds me of Humbert Humbert: you like him in spite of his reprehensible behavior because you realize that even given his faults, he is still at heart a fairly decent person, more decent than most of the other characters in the story. I won't go so far as to call this literature, but it comes very close.

This is the first Eric Ambler book I have read and I found it to be an enjoyable read.
This story is good but a tad hard to believe. I won't summarize the story as other reviewers have
already done a nice job of that. The book is very well written and suspensful. Some of the
other reviews mention that the story has a humorous quality. I didn't find this
to be the case - yes, some of the dialog is told in a joking manner, as occurs in normal
conversation. However, I wouldn't consider this to be a humorous story or one that
contains humorous characters.
It is not action-packed, it is more of a mystery than a thriller. Nevertheless I would
certainly read other books by the author.

Arthur Abdel Simpson leads an undistinguished, monotonous life as a car driver and abusive tourist guide in Athens. He fancies himself a journalist but we'll soon learn he's little more than a small-time crook. But the next client he tries to swindle traps him in his own game...a very risky and mysterious game, in which our anti-hero will be revealed in all his human failings and resourcefulness. Albeit of little morals, Arthur learn to play his cards in this international game between turkish espionage services and international criminals, and earns the respect, if not the sympathy, of the reader.The art of Ambler of creating suspense reaches his peak, here. Think what Hitchcock could have made of this story.

A well put together thriller about a 2 bit criminal named Arthur who is drawn into the scheme of German thieves to rob jewels from the Seraglio in Turkey. All the while he is continually informing a paranoid government officer about the plan. It would be a skeleton sketch of modern thriller writing... ...but that is what makes it so good. A good story need not occupy 3 weeks of a persons time to finish. I'm looking to more Ambler to fill in my days in the near future.