16 April 2008
Epitaph for a Spy
Posted by Mick (SplaTT) Stanic under: Books .
On Monday night i started reading one of my favourite books and managed to finish it in two sittings…though when i first bought it i couldn’t put it down and did manage to read it in one hit ;)
Anyway…back during the 1990’s i was going through a huge book collecting phase and managed to put together quite a decent collection of spy and thriller novels (amongst other genres), including some first editions, published between 1930 and 1960, and this particular book is still one of my favourites.
“Epitaph for a Spy” was written in 1938 by the one of the most talented authors of the spy genre, Eric Ambler.
It was his third novel and it followed the story of one Josef Vadassy;
From the back cover…
Josef Vadassy was an ordinary man - ordinary, that is, for a refugee. There had been troubles in his past, and there would undoubtedly be troubles in his future. But nothing he had encountered had prepared him to cope with the charge of espionage being levelled at him by the authorities in the South of France.To prove his innocence Vadassy, inevitably, was forced to prove someone else’s guilt. But with few people eager to believe him, and more than a few seemingly eager to watch him sink quietly into enforced obscurity, he found himself forced to play the game according to rules that could never have been labelled clean.
The book is a classic and not only has a great spy and espionage plot running through it, but it can also be quite humourous…
I was about to argue that the apology, if any was due to Roux, when Mademoiselle Martin, who had been having hysterics in the background, created a diversion by flinging her arms around her lover’s neck and exhorting him to kill. She was removed in floods of tears by Frau Vogel and Mary Skelton. By this time, however, Roux had found tongue and was hurling insults at all and sundry.
‘Species of monkeys !’
Mosieur Duclos’s calm deserted him. He leaped into the breach. ‘Species of impotent goat !’ he retorted hotly.
Mademoiselle Martin screamed. Roux, incensed, focused his attention once more on his enemy.
‘Species of diseased camel !’ he bawled.
‘Misbegotten cretin!’ roared Monsieur Duclos.
Roux licked his lips and swallowed hard. For a moment I thought he was beaten. Then I saw that he was gathering his forces for the coup de grace. His lips worked. He drew a deep breath. There was a fraction of a second’s silence. Then, with the full force of his lungs, he hurled the word in Monsieur Duclo’s face.
‘Communiste !’
Given the appropriate circumstances almost any word denoting a political or religous creed can become a deadly insult. At a conference of Moslem dignitaries the word ‘Christian’ could no doubt be used to devestating effect. At a gathering of White Russians the word ‘Communist’ would probably be reckoned a virulent term of abuse. But this was not a gathering of White Russians.
For a moment there was not a sound. Then someone giggled. It was, I think, Mary Skelton. It was enough. We started to laugh.
Brilliant :)
So…if you like the spy and espionage genre you can’t go wrong picking up a few of Eric Ambler’s books.
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