Uncommon Danger
First edition
|
|
| Author | Eric Ambler |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton |
|
Publication date
|
1937 |
Uncommon Danger is the second novel by British thriller writer Eric Ambler, published in 1937. In his autobiography, Here Lies, Ambler explains the original title was Background To Danger, but his British publisher disliked the word 'background', so it was published in all English-speaking countries except the US as Uncommon Danger.
Bessarabia has been a contested area between Russia and Romania since the Great War. It contains important oil fields. A Russian double-agent (Borovansky) has stolen Russian plans for a possible attack on Bessarabia. If these are made public it will whip up anti-Russian feeling in Romania and help the Fascist Iron Guard to power, and help them make an alliance with Nazi Germany. The spy is taking them by train south into Austria.
Russian spies Andreas Zaleshoff and his sister Tamara are tipped off and commission a Spaniard, Ortega, to pursue Borovansky on the train, follow him to his hotel in Austria, and get the plans back.
Mr Balterghen of the British-based Pan-Eurasian Petroleum Company (PEPC) wants the question of the Romanian Concessions ie which external oil companies can exploit Romania’s oil, to be re-opened so that PEPC can bribe its way to new concessions. He commissions one ‘Colonel Robinson’ to do this. Zaleshoff realises that ‘Robinson’ is the assassin and propagandist-for-hire Stefan Saridza, accompanied by his henchman Captain Mailler.
So, as the story begins, two separate sets of men are on the track of Borovansky and his photos.
The protagonist of the novel is Kenton, a down-at-heel freelance journalist who loses money gambling and takes the train to Vienna to borrow money from a man he knows there, Rosen, a Jew he helped escape Germany after the Nazis came to power. He is befriended on the train by a shifty foreigner, Sachs, who asks him to carry a package through customs on the Austrian border and who seems to be being followed on the train. When they arrive at Linz, Sachs asks Kenton to carry the envelope off the train and bring it to him at a particular hotel later that night. Kenton agrees for a price of 600 Marks.
When he arrives at the run-down hotel to hand over the envelope, Kenton finds Sachs murdered. He goes through Sachs's pockets and takes his wallet, just as someone comes up the stairs. Kenton escapes out the back, bumping into one of the gang searching for him, but managing to escape.
The reader realises that Sachs is Borovansky and Kenton is now in possession of military plans which could alter the course of European history. Worse, the police are informed of Sachs's death and Kenton finds himself wanted as a murderer with a price on his head. He is the classic Ambler protagonist, an innocent man on the run from the police while being shot at, kidnapped and beaten up by hard men from both sides.
...
Wikipedia