Uncommon Danger [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Eric Ambler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 1979

Kenton's career as a journalist depends on his facility with languages, his knowledge of European politics and his quick judgement. Where his judgement sometimes fails him, however, is in his personal life. When he travels to Nuremberg to investigate a story about a top-level meeting of Nazi officials, he inadvertently finds himself on a train bound for Austria after a bad night of gambling. Stranded with no money, Kenton jumps at the chance to earn a fee helping a refugee smuggle securities across the border. Yet he soon discovers that the documents he holds have far more than cash value - and that they could cost him his life!

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A crackerjack spy story, jammed with action, intrigue, thrills and super-villainy' Saturday Review 'If you want to experience the feel of the Continent in the 1930s, you will find few better guides' - Robert Harris --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Eric Ambler (1909-98) was one of the most fascinating British writers of the late 1930s. His novels retain a remarkable sense of the dread and terror that filled Europe as world war broke out. Some were made into films (not least Orson Welles' superb version of Journey into Fear), all were bestsellers, inventing a new, more realistic form of spy novel, where the main protagonist is not so much a hero as a victim, pursued by malevolent Fascist forces of overwhelming power. These are paranoid stories, but written at a time when paranoia was disturbingly close to common sense. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: C.Chivers; Large type edition edition (March 29, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0859973980
• ISBN-13: 978-0859973984
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,838,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Ambler is the recipient of four Gold Dagger Awards and one Silver. In 1975, he was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Thriller, August 18, 2010

By 

An admirer of Saul "Mr Wobble" (uk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Uncommon Danger (Penguin Modern Classics) (Kindle Edition)

Kenton, a free lance journalist is in need of cash and travels from Nuremburg to Linz to get it. On the train he meets Sachs, who claims he is a Jew, fleeing Nazi Germany with bonds and securities. He says a nazi spy is after him and will pay Kenton handsomely to carry the bonds over the border and more when he hands them back at the Hotel Josef.When Kenton arrives,Sachs has been brutally murdered and the story really begins....
Written in 1937, it is the political background as much as the thriller itself that absorbs. Amber, at the time, sympathized with communism, and in the story his sympathies are very much against fascism and brutal capitalism,though Amber airs his first doubts-doubts that led him to abandon the communist party-over the 1936 show trials.
As a thriller, this has it all! Spies,intrigue, car chases and what I always call the 'Batman Moment'. When it would have been simpler to shoot Kenton and Zaleshoff dead and be done with it, our arch villians opt to shut them in a hermetically sealed vulcanizing tank to suffer an agonizing death by affixiation! Will they survive?
I'm not a thriller 'fan' or reader,but I really did enjoy this romp! Great entertainment.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intrigue in the pre-Bond world!, December 23, 2006

By 

Mario Pollacchi "Gorgon_Leader" (ARMADALE, Western Australia Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Uncommon Danger (Paperback)

Eric Ambler has built up a reputation for creating what is today considered the espionage story 'stereotype': men meeting on dim cobbled street corners, late at night, in a central European locale dressed in suits under belted trenchcoats and fedoras, smoking cigarettes after ever third syllable uttered ... or the rank amateur, caught up in a situation far larger than they are equipped to handle and -- somehow -- managing to hold their own against the professionals.

This novel has elements -- and first-time stereotypes -- like these within its pages. Desmond Kenton is strapped for cash and accepts a small job from a strange man he meets on-board a train. Simple put, he is to deliver a parcel -- which this man will give him -- to the man on the train! Although it sounds ludicrous, the payment certainly does not and Kenton accepts. The problem starts when Kenton tries to deliver the parcel and he soon learns not to trust strangers.

Ambler is a master storyteller and weaves a fast-paced plot with an eye for detail and a desire to mislead. There are times when the reader feels like Kenton and cannot distinguish friend from foe.