A Coffin for Dimitrios (Charles Latimer Series #1) » (~)

Eric Ambler is often said to have invented the modern suspense novel. Beginning in 1937, he wrote a series of novels that were touted for their realism, in which he introduced ordinary protagonists who are thrust into political intrigue they are ill prepared to deal with. In the process he paved the way for such writers as John Le Carr?, Len Deighton, and Robert Ludlum. He was awarded four Gold Daggers and a Diamond Dagger from The Crime Writers Association, named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers Association, and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth. In addition to his novels, Ambler wrote a number of screenplays, including Rebecca, which he collaborated on with his wife, Joan Harrison. Eric Ambler died in 1998.

A chance encounter with a Turkish colonel with a penchant for British crime novels leads mystery writer Charles Latimer into a world of sinister political and criminal maneuvers throughout the Balkans in the years between the world wars. Hoping that the career of the notorious Dimitrios, whose body has been identified in an Istanbul morgue, will inspire a plot for his next novel, Latimer soon finds himself caught up in a shadowy web of assassination, espionage, drugs, and treachery.

Gale Research

"To say he is held in high esteem by his writing colleagues would be an understatement," Symons remarks in an article for the London Times. At a lunch held in honor of Ambler, Symons reports, such writers as John le Carre, Frederick Forsyth, Gavin Lyall, and Lionel Davidson were in attendance. Le Carre said that Ambler's novels "were the well into which everybody had dipped," while Graham Greene cabled a greeting: "To the master from one of his disciples."