Eric Ambler would have been 100 years old this year. To celebrate, Penguin have published five of his pre-war thrillers, novels that influenced many subsequent writers, including John Le Carré. Epitaph for a Spy is an endearingly naïve addition to the genre. A Hungarian teacher holidaying on the French Riviera goes to pick up some photographs he’s taken and is unexpectedly arrested by the police.
It turns out that he’s somehow picked up the wrong camera, of the same make as his own, but on the film he’s had developed – not his own – there are photographs that only a spy would be interested in.
This being a rather camp spy story, our hero – Josef Vadassy – is required to play an increasingly bizarre role as the police’s eyes and ears in the hotel he’s staying at. The novel is narrated in the first person by Vadassy, and he’s kept in the dark about the police’s plans in case he reveals them to the real spy, all of which establishes a narrative framework that allows Ambler to keep us in the dark about what’s really going on. There’s a distinct Agatha Christie feeling to the story, with its strictly limited cast of characters, all of who seem to have been bussed in from central casting.
Epitaph for a Spy is a pleasing enough diversion, but it’s far too silly to take at all seriously. The writing is likeable enough, but to modern readers the plot is probably a little too predictable and lacking in thrills and spills. At its core is a fierce anti-fascism that was certainly in advance of its time, but the genteel setting removes it from the source of this anti-fascist anger, and robs it of the life-or-death conflict that is at the centre of the most compelling spy stories.
Possibly related posts: