Helpful Score: 2
Fosters dramatic skill is well-known in Londons West End theaters. So perhaps it wasnt so surprising when he was hired by an American newspaper publisher to cover the trial of Yordan Delchev for treason. Accused of membership in the sinister Officer Corps Brotherhood and of masterminding a plot to assassinate his countrys leader, Delchev may in fact be a pawn and his trial all show. But when Foster meets Madame Delchev, the accuseds powerful wife, he suddenly become enmeshed in more life-threatening intrigue than he could have imagined.
Eric Ambler is often said to have invented the modern suspense novel. Beginning in 1936, he wrote a series of novels that introduced ordinary protagonists thrust into political intrigue they were ill-prepared to deal with. These novels were touted for their realism, and Ambler established himself as a thriller writer of depth and originality. In the process he paved the way for such writers as John Le Carre, Len Deighton, and Robert Ludlum.
Judgment on Deltchev was in written in 1949. With the end of the Second World War, Facism had been defeated and the new spectre of Communism was beginning to fall over Eastern Europe. This tale is set in an un-named Eastern European country shortly after the end of World War Two. The Communist Party has recently seized power and they are putting the respected leader of an opposition party on trial. With the backdrop of a political show trial, an underground stuggle is taking place to determine who will really run the country. It is into this highly charged atmosphere that Foster, an English journalist covering the political trial arrives.
Eric Ambler is a master stylist. His writing is economical and he effortly produces a story of complicated political intrigue. Ambler's writing is a great example of how less can be more. There are many contemporary writers producing espionage tales set during the Second World War and the years immediately following it. Ambler was the first master of this genre and he set a very high bar.
Eric Ambler is often said to have invented the modern suspense novel. Beginning in 1936, he wrote a series of novels that introduced ordinary protagonists thrust into political intrigue they were ill-prepared to deal with. These novels were touted for their realism, and Ambler established himself as a thriller writer of depth and originality. In the process he paved the way for such writers as John Le Carre, Len Deighton, and Robert Ludlum.
Judgment on Deltchev was in written in 1949. With the end of the Second World War, Facism had been defeated and the new spectre of Communism was beginning to fall over Eastern Europe. This tale is set in an un-named Eastern European country shortly after the end of World War Two. The Communist Party has recently seized power and they are putting the respected leader of an opposition party on trial. With the backdrop of a political show trial, an underground stuggle is taking place to determine who will really run the country. It is into this highly charged atmosphere that Foster, an English journalist covering the political trial arrives.
Eric Ambler is a master stylist. His writing is economical and he effortly produces a story of complicated political intrigue. Ambler's writing is a great example of how less can be more. There are many contemporary writers producing espionage tales set during the Second World War and the years immediately following it. Ambler was the first master of this genre and he set a very high bar.
