Meet Theodore Carter, the hard-living roustabout editor of a newspaper,
Intercom, which focuses on intelligence matters. When the new owners
of the paper begin to make available to Carter real classified
information things spin out of control. The paper increasingly comes to
the wrong type of attention, and so follows the introduction to A
Coffin for Dimitrios crime writer anti-hero Charles Latimer. Latimer
wants to spill the beans and go public. And then he disappears without
warning. Ambler carries us along into an extraordinary journey....
Eric Ambler was born into a family of entertainers and in his early
years helped out as a puppeteer. However, he initially chose engineering
as a full-time career, although this quickly gave way to writing. In
World War II he entered the army and looked likely to fight in the line,
but was soon after commissioned and ended the war as assistant director
of the army film unit and a lieutenant-colonel. This experience
translated into civilian life and Ambler had a very successful career as
a screenwriter, receiving an Academy Award for his work on The Cruel
Sea, by Nicolas Monsarrat, in 1953.
