398. Cause for Alarm

Cause for Alarm
Eric Ambler
1938
Around 305 pages

I am surprised I've never heard of Eric Ambler, usually old spy novels are my jam. I don't demand much from these stories. It's enough for me to have a fun adventure, even if no new ground is covered. This novel was familiar terrain, and I'm surprised Hitchcock never made a movie out of it.

Nicholas Marlow is just an ordinary fellow. He's engaged to a doctor, which might be the first female doctor that has ever appeared on the List, and she's not even in it. Anyway, he's desperate for money so he takes a job as a representative for a company that manufactures machines for shell production. He is soon embroiled in a complicated plot involving the Italian secret police and Yugoslavian spies. 

It's odd that we are only a few books away from The Big Sleep, and we have another protagonist with the last name Marlowe. It does have a hunky ring to it. I didn't find Nicholas particularly compelling as a character, he was pretty much your prototypical hapless protagonist thrust into a situation way out of his depth. The context of the novel was interesting and the pacing was good.

I enjoyed the touch of Kafka in his exploration of the unchecked power of the Italian authorities. But still pretty run of the mill, spy novel wise.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Many authors of international thrillers have acknowledged a debt to Ambler, including Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, and John le Carré.

UP NEXT: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. An old favorite.