Chasing a Crooked Shadow: Eric Ambler's Dimitrios

Colonel Haki was slowly turning the pages inside the folder, and on his way was a look that Latimer had not seen there before. It was the look of the expert attending to the business he understands perfectly. There was a sort of watchful repose in his face that reminded Latimer of a very old and experienced cat contemplating a very young and inexperienced mouse.

What a way to start the New Year! Right with a BANG!!

I had heard about Eric Ambler's A Coffin for Dimitrios. It'd crop up on many of those 100 top crime/ mystery/ suspense lists of all time. These lists are not always trustworthy. I have had quite a few disappointments, but in this case, yes the praise is well-deserved.

Combining elements of the thriller with the academic mystery, Ambler writes a gripping narrative of a man's obsession. Charles Latimer, erstwhile lecturer in political economy, and a professional writer of mysteries ("one of the shamefaced few who could make money at the sport"), is enjoying a short break from his writing engagements at Istanbul, Turkey, when he first hears of a man called Dimitrios. A man who might be in the Turkish Secret Police tells him that a body which had been fished out of the river Bosphorus
might be of a notorious criminal Dimitrios Makropoulos whose litany of criminal activities ranges from Murder, espionage, drugs... to assassination.

Latimer shows an interest in having a look at the corpse. From then on, he embarks on a journey which will take him to the various haunts of Europe: Smyrna, Sofia, Geneva, Paris as he tries to reconstruct Dimitrios' life of crime. Relying on state records, police reports, court proceedings, newspaper articles, interviews, Latimer tries to add flesh and bone to this rather shadowy figure who always remains elusive.

But for a little dragging towards the end, the book is a fast-paced read though it is handy to bookmark the note that Latimer (so obligingly) prepares in chapter 4. As must be clear, I enjoyed the book tremendously. As a reader I too got involved with Latimer in reconstructing Dimitrios' life. And the recreation of the third decade of the twentieth century is marvellous. Europe is both old- having experienced a war - and young -  revolutions, regime changes, shifting population. One meets Greek refugees as well as Mensheviks. Reading about people like Kemal Ataturk not as some half-forgotten historical figures but as coevals added an extra thrill to the reading of the book.


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First Line: A Frenchman named Chamfort, who should have known better, once said that chance was 
                a nickname for Providence.

Title: A Coffin for Dimitrios

Original Title: The Mask of Dimitrios

Author: Eric Ambler

Publication Details: New York: Vintage Books, 2001

First Published: 1939

Pages: 304

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Any other book read by the same author: None


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Book(s) with similar theme(s):



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Copies of the book are available on the Net. I was lucky enough to receive this from Bev Hankins @ My Reader's Block after successfully completing the Vintage Mystery Challenge last year. If you want, you can participate in the challenge this year @

http://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2011/10/vintage-mystery-reading-challenge-2012.html


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Submitted for the following challenges: AZRC, British Book, European Reading, Find the Cover, Free Reads, Merely Mystery, Mount TBR, Mystery and Suspense, New Author, Unread Book, Vintage Mystery