Time is an Ambush

Time is an Ambush by Francis Clifford

The only book I've ever judged by its cover, my edition is a hardback with a yellow and brown dust jacket that appealed to me 15 years ago when I bought it for 35p from a junk shop. It's a crime novel - a man meets a girl on the beach, they start an affair, her husband is a brute who soon turns up dead. I thought it rather well written.

Francis Clifford was successful in the UK in the Sixties, he's pretty much forgotten now - I had never heard of him when I bought this book - he had two novels filmed including Naked Runner which starred Frank Sinatra. The book is very much of its time, especially in the attitude of its protagonist, an English writer working on his novel in Franco's Spain in the early show more sixties. His superior attitude to the locals and his casual assumption of the rights that are due to him as an Englishman seem quaint and dated now.

I'd happily read another book by him, but I doubt he'll ever be re-discovered by the wider world. show less

Kriminální příběh ze Španělska není jen vzrušujícím dramatem, ale i varovným vykřičníkem nad zločiny proti lidskosti.
Po několika dnech je Němec nalezen mrtvý a policie konstatuje násilnou smrt, přičemž jako první podezřelý přichází do úvahy spisovatel. Pro své ospravedlnění i pro vztah k milované ženě začíná spisovatel pátrat po možných motivech zločinu. Ze začátku beznadějné pátrání nakonec odhalí motiv ve válečné minulosti.