Background to Danger - Expresso Bagdad-Istambul

Eric Ambler

Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

2001

288 páginas

9h 36m

ISBN-13: 9780375726736

Uncommon Danger (1937), US title: Background to Danger '-'
Ankara in neutral Turkey : World War Two. A town of intrigue and of provocateurs -- A German spy ring plans to publicize a false rumor that Russia, who is fighting Germany, plans to invade neutral Turkey in order to ally them with the Nazis!

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. Also made into a movie with Sydney Greenstreet/Peter Lorre in 1943. Warner was trying to repeat the success of Casablanca.
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http://mytwothousandmovies.blogspot.com.br/2015/07/o-expresso-bagdad-istambul-background.html?m=1
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/eric-ambler/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Ambler
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncommon_Danger
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"(...) 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. Kenton is rescued by the Andreas and Tamara Zaleshoff, KGB agents, who manage to spirit him out of the country."

"[A] crackerjack spy story, jammed with action. Intrigue, thrills, and super-villainy." -- The Saturday Review.

[About the Author]: Eric Ambler is often said to have invented the modern suspense novel. Beginning in 1937, he wrote a series of novels that were touted for their realism, in which he introduced ordinary protagonists who are thrust into political intrigue they are ill prepared to deal with. In the process he paved the way for such writers as John Le Carre, Len Deighton, and Robert Ludlum. He was awarded four Gold Daggers and a Diamond Dagger from The Crime Writers Association, named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers Association, and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth. In addition to his novels, Ambler wrote a number of screenplays, including Rebecca, which he collaborated on with his wife, Joan Harrison. Eric Ambler died in 1998.