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Summary: The Light of Day
Review: Having been to the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, I can say that Erich Ambler's book is geographically accurate. It is also breathtaking. I had read it years before, but find it even more interesting now.
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Summary: A pleasant surprise
Review: I usually don't go in for thrillers, but I had heard good things about Eric Ambler. So I thought I'd give this book a try. At first I was a bit disgusted by Arthur Simpson, the narrator and main character, who is a small time thief with a nasty disposition. And when he is caught in the act of theft, I was quite happy. His being caught leads in an unexpected direction, and I was fascinated by how adroitly Ambler handles the twists and turns of the plot. And then something rather extraordinary happened: I began to like Arthur. Yes, he's a creep. Yes, he deserves to go to jail for his crimes. But he has his good side as well. It reminds me of Humbert Humbert: you like him in spite of his reprehensible behavior because you realize that even given his faults, he is still at heart a fairly decent person, more decent than most of the other characters in the story. I won't go so far as to call this literature, but it comes very close.
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Summary: Lively thriller by a genre master
Review: Not least among the delights of this splendid book is that,until quite late in the day,the reader is never quite certain what type of book it is going to be.It hints at a spy story,it could easily turn out to be a political thriller with a coup at its centre In the event,it is a caper-heist story wih a gang of criminals intent on a daring museum robbery.(It was the source for the Peter Ustinov movie "Topkapi")
The other great achievement of the novel is its narrator,"Arthur Abdel Simpson".He is the son of an Anglo-Egyptian couple,educated in a minor English private school and a man of dubious honesty and an ex-con into the bargain ,having served time for the dissemination of pornographic magazines.When the book opens he is eking out a living as an Athens taxi driver/tourist guide/pimp.He is interrupted in the act of robbing an American tourist,"Harper",who blackmails him into delivering a car from Athens to Turkey neglecting to mention the illegal cargo concealed in the vehicle .When the Turks discover this they force the reluctant coward to act as their agent within the gang to whom he is delivering the car and its contents
The gang are intent on robbing the Topkapi museum and the robbery forms the climax of the novel.Arthur is a masterly creation-cowardly,quick witted,oleaginous,and physically unprepossessing,yet strangely likeable
You end up caring for him and this transforms a well written thriller into something a little bit more memorable.The other characters are more sketchily drawn but this a minor caveat Recommended!
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Summary: Thriller from 1962 - still great even today.
Review: The Light of Day has all the elements of great crime fiction: heavy on suspense, rife with mysterious characters and fortified with plot twists. Although this novel is over 30 years old, it still holds up pretty well today. The story (winner of the Best Mystery Edgar 1964) is about a Greek lowlife who's blackmailed into driving a limousine from Greece to the Middle East. Things get ugly when the Turkish border guards arrest him for arms smuggling.
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Summary: The Light of Day - Possibly Best Novel by Eric Ambler
Review: The Light of Day is an exceptionally good story that involves a rather unusual protagonist for a suspenseful thriller, a petty crook named Arthur Abdel Simpson. The setting is Athens and Instanbul in 1962. The book was a best seller, and it was adapted into a successful movie, a lighthearted caper titled Topkapi (1964). Peter Ustinov received an academy award for his portrayal of Arthur Simpson. Arthur, as the protagonist in The Light of Day, is disagreeable, dishonest, and disreputable. He blames others for his failings, he cheats his clients, and he has served a short sentence for distributing pornographic material. Arthur is caught stealing and is blackmailed into driving a car from Athens to Istanbul. The bumbling Arthur is arrested for smuggling at the Turkish border and now finds himself working unwillingly for the Turkish secret police. Neither Arthur nor the reader quite understands the situation. Is he mixed up with a political plot, arms smuggling, drug trafficking, or something else? Despite my misgivings, I found myself becoming sympathetic to Arthur. Had he conned me too? I highly recommend this suspenseful novel by Eric Ambler. I enjoyed (and reviewed) both Ambler's A Coffin for Dimitrios and Journey into Fear, but The Light of Day is even better. This book would be a good starting point for anyone new to Eric Ambler.
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Summary: Intrigue, Adventure and a Curiously Appealing Anti-Hero
Review: The Light of Day is one of the finest crime thrillers ever written. It continues to serve as a model for all those who wish they could write a great crime novel. The story is taut, surprising and intriguing. The story's background is as rich for stimulating the imagination as anyone could wish. But what makes the book truly great is the protagonist, Arthur Simpson, who is both a fresh and indelible character. He is a weak man who preys on those around him, but is curiously appealing in his foibles and follies. For those who are movie fans, Topkapi was adapted from this book. Arthur Abdel Simpson is a journalist by profession, but doesn't make much money at it. So he's temporarily earning his living as a driver for hire with his own car. As the story opens, he persuades Harper to hire him at the Athens airport. Keeping an eye out for the main chance, Simpson leaves Harper at a maison de rendezvous called Madame Irma's and beats it back to burgle Harper's hotel room where Harper surprises him in the act. Harper blackmails him with a threat to complain to the Greek police, and Simpson agrees to do a little job of driving a car into Turkey. No fool, Simpson takes the car apart on the way to Turkey to see what he's smuggling. Finding nothing, he proceeds overconfidently to the border to an unpleasant meeting with the Turkish police. It seems he's overlooked a little something. From there, he finds himself pressured to help the Turks capture Harper in the act while trying to get the blackmail evidence back from Harper. It makes for many delicious complications as he fails to understand the true nature of Harper's intent until he finds himself in the middle of it! One of the delights of this book is the way that Simpson's true personality and character are exposed by others as they test him with their own investigations, tasks and questions. Gradually, the self-serving history that he shares in the book's beginning is exposed for the fraud that Simpson himself is. Yet, he's really more of a good guy than a bad guy. What makes him a fraud is that he overindulges in the all-too-human qualities of self-righteousness, vanity, greed, laziness and self-pity. You will find yourself identifying with Simpson and caring about how he handles his many dangerous tasks. If you enjoy Simpson as a character, you can read more about him in another Eric Ambler masterpiece, Dirty Story. I suppose that the ultimate appeal of all Eric Ambler's many fine books is that his characters are ordinary people who rise to the occasion to deal with very difficult situations in admirable ways, displaying courage, ingenuity and honesty under fire. Since Simpson is the weakest reed you could ever imagine playing such a role, he makes Ambler's point that there is a hero in all of us in a remarkable effective way. After you read and enjoy this marvelous story, think about how you could rise to the occasion to play a hero's or a heroine's role for others. You can do it!
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