A Coffin for Dimitrios

“The situation in which a person, imagining fondly that he is in charge of his own destiny, is, in fact, the sport of circumstances beyond his own control, is always fascinating.”Thus, it is with a certain Charles Latimer, a novelist who specializes in crime fiction. In Eric Ambler’s novel, Latimer gets a real taste of what makes up the mind of a criminal.I think one of the most engaging angles of this novel is simply the notion of the everyman in Latimer seemingly “in over his head” as he progresses throughout the novel. Latimer is introduced to a glimpse of the life of a notoriously infamous criminal named Dimitrios by a stroke of circumstance when a body washes ashore in Istanbul. His fascination piqued, Latimer goes to great lengths to seeks out and formulate a timeline for the criminal’s career, including some of his most notorious deeds. To do this, Latimer not only does some research on the side through court documents and newspaper archives, but even digs deeper by encountering some of those who knew the criminal in some capacity. But, at what point is Latimer crossing the line and threshold into Dimitrios’ life and past at his own peril? An obsession of sorts consumes and takes hold of Latimer, and he feverishly pursues his quest for knowledge of this man.I thought this was an amazingly effective thriller and spy type novel. It has all the make up and elements that engage the reader throughout: assassination attempts, espionage and spy tricks, duplicity and deception, treachery, and murder. Ambler puts us right into Latimer’s shoes and we experience the events upfront as an innocent bystander. The pacing of the novel is quite epic as it builds with a momentum of tension layer by layer as we move along through each chapter. In this way, I think Ambler plots this novel so succinctly and effectively to reach the utmost intrigue as we become embroiled in the mystery along with its main character. And the final chapters are as intense as I have read and had me on the edge of my seat as I plowed through to see how things concluded.In short, there is a definite expert level of storytelling here from Ambler, with twists, shocking revelations, and mystery at every corner. A very fascinating read, and I look forward to more works from this author.

Author Eric Ambler thrilled an earlier generation of readers with his espionage and crime novels and screenplays. His work has held up remarkably well as a reading experience. "A Coffin for Dimitrios" is generally considered one of his best, first published in 1939. It is the story of an Englishman named Latimer, a writer of crime fiction who becomes involved in the pursuit of a real Greek criminal named Dimitrios. The setting of the novel, in a tumultuous Europe between the World Wars, is now a bit dated, but Ambler's brisk prose and flair for interesting characters and intrigue should carry the modern reader through the twisting and turning plot, as Latimer follows a thin trail of clues to a surprising discovery and to an understanding of his target. The settings of the novel, in Turkey, Eastern Europe, and France, sound authentic and add to the flavor of an exotic story. Ambler is generally considered to have laid the groundwork for later writers such as LeCarre, Len Deighton, and Robert Ludlum. Recommended.

For the sake of accuracy, the version of the book under review is the 1976 hardback reprint (by American Reprint Co.) of an Alfred A. Knopf edition, presumably the one copyright 1943, of A Coffin for Dimitrios. There is no dust cover; the hardback cover contains only the title and the author's name on a plain, light-grey binding. It is a well-made, though modest volume: serviceable but no collector's item.There are many excellent reviews on Amazon of this outstanding early spy novel in a paperback version. Please read them to enjoy much literate and amusing opinion about it. Suffice it to say that I, like the others, thoroughly enjoyed it.I reveled in the very correct demeanor, but delightfully ironic language, of the narrator, who tells the story of Latimer (note play on "Ambler"), an obscure professor at a minor English university turned writer of detective stories, "... one of the shamefaced few who could make money at the sport." One occasionally emerges from following along into the accelerating gyre into which Latimer allows himself to be led, stopping while coming up for air to reflect on what great sport the author is having with the reader, leading one into ever more improbable, but thoroughly absorbing adventures. What a tour de force, that he can carry off this wild and exuberant trail of strange encounters, yet maintain his very British sang froid. One certainly wonders why seek, at such peril, for Dimitrios, who takes ever more formidable shape, despite being dead, apparently, almost from the outset. The author nails together the coffin, plank by plank, but who will wind up in it?

What a strange and improbable book. It is difficult to characterize as either a mystery or spy thriller. Or is it a profound meditation on the nature of evil in a terrible time. Mostly set in the Balkans in the inter-war period, its author tells a complex tale of murder, double crossing and sets it against a period of immense strife. Normally I do not read mystery novels but there was a mention of this work by Mark Mazower whose historical writings are some of the most brilliant that I have ever read, hence the decision to purchase THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS. Eric Ambler its author never travelled to the Balkans according to Mazower who wrote the brief introduction but the work is imbued with the seedy sense of those countries during a period of intense political upheaval. It is a novel/mystery/thriller that must be read carefully and with attention. The reader will be rewarded with a portrait of a decadent society on the verge of collapse forever caught through the words of this author.

I've just finished "The Mask of Dimitrios", by Eric Ambler. A very enjoyable thriller set in 1930s Europe, where the movers and shakers of money and politics are drug dealers, assassins, and jet-set low-lives who operate above the law.Easy reading because of brilliant writing that leads the reader along a trail of "whodunnit" cum "what the hell really happened", mystery.Eric Ambler's thriller writing abilities are legendary, his writing is perfect for a cold and windy night.

Unglaublich spannend, abwechslungsreich und spannend, da hat Ian Fleming wohl ein paar Inspirationen bekommen. Leider lässt das Buch im vorletzten Kapitel stark nach, aber dennoch ein grandioses Werk. Unbedingt im englischen Original lesen.

A crime story told in a different way. A bit cynical, with interesting background information about Greece and Turkey between the wars.

Charles Latimer, an academic and author of detective stories, makes the acquaintance of a Turkish police inspector while on holiday. Embracing the opportunity to learn more about real police procedurals Latimer tags along when the body of Dimitrios, a criminal with a colourful past, is fished out of the Bosphorus. The Turkish police inspector, seeing the body, shrugs his shoulders - Dimitrios is dead, case closed - but Latimer becomes fascinated with the criminal career of the dead man and so begins a search back through Dimitrios's life, taking in his low-life escapades and making the acquaintance of various people from his colourful past. But why is Latimer being pursued by the flabby, sinister and twistedly-pious Mr Peters? And why does the name 'Dimitrios' continue to instill fear in so many of the people he meets even after the man's death?The Mask of Dimitrios is a fabulous novel. It rattles along at a terrific pace; contains several brilliant character sketches (Colonel Haki of the Turkish police is a delight with his casual approach to wrapping up loose-ends and Madame Preveza, owner of a nightclub / brothel is a beautiful portrayal of a woman still in thrall to the man who betrayed her) and continually confounds the reader's expectations as to where the plot is heading. The book also has interesting things to say about the nature of crime and also crime fiction. Latimer writes his detective novels in a typically cosy 1930s style with isolated communities in small villages finding one of their number has been bumped off while on a visit to the vicarage. A policeman then turns up and neatly solves the case leaving no curious plot element unexplained. In the real world of Dimitrios and Haki however such cosiness does not exist. The crimes are brutal, drug-fuelled, money-motivated and squalid. The detectives who attempt to solve them are often only one shade of grey lighter than the criminals they are trying to apprehend and even Colonel Haki, a basically decent man, is content to file the case of Dimitrios as solved as soon as the body is identified - mysterious nagging doubts and loose-ends can be dismissed as irrelevant with a casual shrug of the shoulders. There are plenty more live criminals to catch. The dead can keep their mysteries.Eric Ambler is often compared to John le Carre and Len Deighton but, in terms of his characters at least, the comparison that most frequently sprang to my mind was with Graham Greene. Mr Peters with his religious convictions twisted perversely to meet his own ends; Colonel Haki with his decent but casual approach to crime and death, Madame Preveza with her blousy charms and bitterness and Latimer himself - the small man out of his depth in the criminal underworld - would all be at home in one of Greene's novels. It's a comparison that says much about Ambler's fine qualities as an author. The Mask of Dimitrios is the first of Eric Ambler's novels that I have read but I've already bought a second so as to discover more of his work. Recommended - a terrific novel by an underrated author.

Bought for my husband. He is enjoying it. He read the Mask of Demetrius first and said he you don't need yo read this book before Demetrius, but that depends on you.