Eric Ambler: Father of the Modern Thriller

More than any other writer in the 20^th century, British author Eric Ambler brought gritty realism and literary respectability to the thriller novel.

Eric Ambler

According to a New York Times article published after his death, Ambler is quoted as once saying: “Dorothy Sayers had taken the detective story and made it literate. Why shouldn’t I do the same with spies?”

He did much more. He defined the genre as we know it. Six of his novels published between 1936 and 1940 feature ordinary people unprepared for the dangerous political intrigues they become entangled with during the Nazi era in Europe. His heroes are believable, his villains multi-faceted, and his settings, such as Austria and Turkey, evoke the nervous atmosphere of the time.
The six novels that cemented Ambler reputation as a master thriller writer include A Coffin for Dimitrios, his most well-known work, Background to Danger, Cause for Alarm, The Dark Frontier, Epitaph for a Spy and Journey into Fear. Check out any one of these for suspense, intrigue and a front seat to the dangerous world of Nazi Europe.

Literary Heirs to Ambler's Ground-breaking Novels

Both Graham Greene and John LeCarre are consummate storytellers who can trace the roots of their thrillers to Ambler’s work. Greene’s The Quiet American (1955) and his screenplay for the 1949 film The Third Man depict the moral struggles of his protagonists within settings of danger, crime, and political chaos. The Third Man is viewed by critics as a masterpiece of film noir.

LeCarre, who worked for British Intelligence, created spy novels with intricate plots, vivid detail, and ever-present treachery. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963); Tinker, Tailor Soldier Spy (1974); and Smiley’s People (1979), which are among his best, reveal the grim, sordid realities of what it was like for those who fought the Cold War.

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 film North by Northwest also appears to pay homage to Ambler. The main character is an apolitical advertising executive whose life is turned upside down when he is mistaken for a spy.

Today, Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series follows in the Ambler tradition. Kerr pits his lone hero against the corrupt, paranoid and murderous Nazi regime. Gunther struggles to maintain his own moral code while he tries to stay alive, or at least out of a concentration camp. The first three books in the series are March Violets, The Pale Criminal, and A German Requiem. Kerr has written eleven Bernie Gunther novels so far.

Readers and writers of suspense thrillers tend primarily to seek out new authors and the latest novels. I do as well. But I also recommend reading ground-breaking authors of the past. Ambler’s novels are far from outdated. In fact, his stories deal with issues that continue to resonate today. Not unlike Ambler’s world, we live in an era of tense geopolitics, violent regional conflicts, asylum-seeking refugees and overall global uncertainty.

“Thrillers are respectable now,” Ambler said in a 1981 New York Times interview. They say more about the way people think and governments behave than many of the conventional novels.”