Journey into Fear

(Also posted to Amazon)
Few books that call themselves "thrillers" actually thrill, mistaking extravagant action scenes and prodigious gouts of violence for suspense; but this book is a redeeming and gripping exception. It is marvelously effective, sinking its hooks into the reader's emotions as viscerally as a book could do. One feels genuinely afraid for Graham, the out-of-his-depth protagonist who must survive a trip from Istanbul to London just as World War II is breaking out, despite hostile agents who will stop at nothing to prevent him from carrying dangerous knowledge home.

Ironically, the tension is never stronger than when Graham thinks he has figured his situation out and is confident of his chances; for anyone who has read show more Ambler knows that he cannot have seen farther ahead than his experienced, professional and resourceful enemy. As Graham repeatedly sees his naïve reasoning undone, the reader experiences the same tightening of the guts that he must. Throughout, Ambler's narrative skill is superb, as when Graham observes his enemy "inspecting him: secretly, as the hangman inspects the man whom he is to execute the following morning; mentally weighing him, looking at his neck, calculating the drop."

The plot is very well done, and deceptively complex: though at first it appears to be merely a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek, Ambler does a beautiful job of choosing exactly the right moments to reveal that there has been quite a lot more going on than met the eye. The emotional tension of the story makes these revelations all the more effective.

My only complaint is that there is a point, fairly early in the book, where Ambler masks his intentions just a bit too much; all indications are that Graham has escaped danger, and the reader's only clues to the contrary are the fact that there are still very many pages remaining, and the frustratingly inappropriate spoilers given on the book's back cover (avoid reading this if you can). However, this is soon made up for, and eventually it becomes impossible to put the book down. Highly recommended. show less

My second Ambler, this one published in 1940 and set in 1939. The Second World War has begun. Graham is a munitions engineer in Turkey, heading back to the UK with important information for his company so they can improve the Turkish navy’s guns. The Germans want to stop him.

The Germans make an attempt on his life in Istanbul, and the Turkish security services persuade Graham to travel by ship to Italy instead of the train he’d planned to take. Unfortunately, he discovers soon after departure that the German intelligence chief after him is aboard the ship; and later, the assassin who failed to kill him in Istanbul joins the ship. Fortunately one of the other passengers – there are only a dozen or so – proves to be an agent of show more Turkish security services.

The German offers Graham a deal: pretend to be ill at a sanatorium controlled by the German, and stay there until the information Graham knows is no longer useful to the Allies. With no way to escape the ship, Graham agrees to the deal, intending to escape as soon as he can.

Ambler keeps up the tension well, but the urbane Nazi spymaster has long since become a cliché, and even if this is the trope’s first appearance that history spoils it. Graham, on the other hand, is a good mix of effectiveness and fear, neither trained nor experienced in what he needs to do to escape his trap but smart enough to figure out a way to get out. There’s a femme fatale, of course, a dancer Graham is introduced to in a club, and she too is on the ship. Graham is drawn to her–and she openly admits to accepting engagements from men–but is faithful to his wife back in England. The most interesting character is a Frenchman, who presents as a socialist simply to annoy his wife but is beginning to find his own arguments compelling.

There’s not much to Journey into Fear, but its brevity and tightness is chiefly why it works so well. I’d like to read more of Ambler’s novels. show less

Although a spy thriller, Journey Into Fear has many elements of the classic "locked door" mystery. Graham is an engineer, on his way back to Britain after a work assignment with the Turkish Navy. In Istanbul, a potential assassin takes pot shots at him. The Turkish Chief of Secret Police informs him that it was not, in fact, a bungled attempt at robbery, but an attempt on his life. The Turks have already foiled one such attempt, unbeknowst to him.

His plans to return home by train are overruled; he will now be travelling on a cargo boat to Genoa, a boat who's small passenger list has been vetted and approved as harmless. And thus, the locked door component of the story begins. Which of his fellow passengers wishes Graham ill? Which are show more potential allies? Is it the beautiful dancer Josette - or is she simply interested in an affair? Is it her oafish husband / business partner Jose? Is it the engimatic Turkish tobacco dealer, the garrulous elderly archaelogist, the quarrelsome French couple or even the silent Italian woman and her young son? And then, as the boat makes a short stop in Piraeus, another passenger boards....

Its a great story and for me captures the spirit of the "Phoney War" at the beginning of 1940, perfectly. Whilst some of the language Ambler uses - and that his characters use - may be "of its time", for me that just sets it in its time and place. Highly recommended show less

3.5 stars rounded up. I don't know what it is but despite the fact that this thriller had many elements I like, as a whole it didn't quite work for me. Maybe it was the personality of the main character... Maybe it was just my mood right now. Even though it was missing some ingredient to make it a great book for me, it was still a good example of the "innocent person caught up in intrigue" type of thriller & the setting was wonderful.

Set during the "Phoney War," Journey Into Fear captures completely those opening moments of World War II before the Fall of France and the entry of Italy into the war on the side of Hitler. Nobody really had an idea where the war would lead, and certainly nobody could imagine the outcome and devastation that would be the result five years later. Yet Ambler somehow seems to have a premonition of it all. And in this straight forward linear thriller, his characters all seem immersed in the moment. Because the moment is all you have. At book's end, the threat is literally on the horizon.

For this tale, Ambler creates a sinister pair of Nazi agents, an English moralist under the siege of temptations towards both lust and fear, and set of show more quirky Spaniards, surprising French, and woe begotten Italians, all encompassed by clever Turkish policemen.

The latter point is especially important. For Ambler specialized in bring Turkey and Greece into the picture of his crime settings. He does so again, here. And he also goes one better, incorporating a Romanian member of the Iron Guard into the action. I believe this is actually the second or third time Ambler used a member of the Iron Guard. That is fairly notable. Rarely do they figure into the fiction of pre-war or war fiction. In fact, rarely do they make it into fiction at all. That is one of the joys of Ambler, seeing him stake out territory that others miss or don't have the background to understand.

Oh, by the way, the story is the usual excellent Ambler style thriller. A page turner that will not loosen its grip on your interest. show less

I read this a long time ago and remember absolutely nothing. As an early example of the modern suspense novel, Ambler really does a masterful job. Graham is an English munitions engineer working with the Turkish government on a time-sensitive project with the specter of WWII looming. Nazi agents have other ideas. Graham's panic is palpable as he realizes that he is in extreme danger. There is a blowsy love interest that makes it feel even seedier and darker. Excellent characters, excellent plot, excellent atmosphere.

As I finish each of Ambler's books it's like saying goodbye to old friends. The great take-away from Journey Into Fear for me was the author's description of Graham's resolution of self-preservation as he found himself in an untenable position. A universal story of courage and fortitude told beautifully and simply.