The Intercom Conspiracy

Charles Latimer is back. Thirty years after Eric Ambler introduced the world to unlikely hero, academic and novelist Charles Latimer in The Mask of Dimitrios, Latimer returns in The Intercom Conspiracy. Now a bestselling author promoting a new book, Latimer steps in to help Theodore Carter, the hapless, hard-drinking editor of international political newspaper Intercom. A small paper suddenly publishing big secrets, Intercom has recently been purchased and the once frivolous publication is causing a stir. Carter suspects something is amiss and sets about investigating his mysterious new bosses and the sources of the suddenly serious secrets he’s publishing. As Latimer and Carter get closer to the truth, they realise they’re jeopardising more than just their careers. Reviews ‘Effortless narrative… informed with a sense of how things actually work. The Intercom Conspiracy might fairly be described as a conscienceless send-up of the whole idea of secret intelligence.’ – The Sunday Times ‘Much wry humour and a great knowledge of the spy racket. To be read slowly, enjoyably.’ – Evening Standard “More than mere amusement... Ambler is not writing about the tug of war between virtue and evil. He is writing about small people struggling for survival in the cracks between the massive organizations that mainly run the world.” - Washington Post “Absorbing and convincing.” - The New York Times "Everything reads as quite current to the point that one wonders which misery could again break up in the Middle East." - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on The Mask of Dimitrios

About the Author :
Eric Ambler began his writing career in the early 1930s, and quickly established a reputation as a thriller writer of extraordinary depth and originality. He is often credited as the inventor of the modern political thriller and John Le Carre once described him as ‘the source on which we all draw.’ Ambler began his working life at an engineering firm, then as a copywriter at an advertising agency, while in his spare time he worked on his ambition to become a playwright. His first novel was published in 1936 and as his reputation as a novelist grew he turned to writing full time. During the war he was seconded to the Army Film Unit, where he wrote, among other projects, The Way Ahead with Peter Ustinov. He moved to Hollywood in 1957 and during his eleven years there scripted some memorable films, including A Night to Remember and The Cruel Sea, which won him an Oscar nomination. In a career spanning over sixty years, Eric Ambler wrote nineteen novels and was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award for Passage of Arms in 1959. He was married to Joan Harrison, who wrote or co-wrote many of Alfred Hitchcock’s screenplays – in fact Hitchcock organized their wedding. Eric Ambler died in London in October 1998.

Review :
The source on which we all draw Unquestionably our best thriller writer Today Ambler’s influence remains strong and his writing is as fresh as ever. I urge you to read the books of the man who lit the way for us all. More than mere amusement. . . . Ambler is not writing about the tug of war between virtue and evil. He is writing about small people struggling for survival in the cracks between the massive organizations that mainly run the world. Realistic and carefully worked out. Too many modern spy stories read like fantasies. Mr. Ambler is too good and much too clever to fall into this trap.