The Mask of Dimitrios

Writer Eric Ambler was the British spy guy in the mid 20th century and The Mask of Dimitrios is a good example of what he was about – sinister people in exotic locations doing dastardly things. Ambler followed John Buchan’s lead in that respect – don’t trust a foreigner. It took until John LeCarré – who’d actually been a spy – for portrayals of fictional foreign spies to come in human shape, though Graham Greene was a useful warm-up act. The oddballs and gooks are out in their droves in this not entirely gripping but highly flavoured meta-fiction about crime writer Cornelius Leyden, played by Peter Lorre, chasing across Europe in search of … Read more