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  • Published: 6 July 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141190310
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $29.99

Epitaph for a Spy




'Ambler is a phenomenon' Alfred Hitchcock

Josef Vadassy, a Hungarian refugee and language teacher living in France, is enjoying his first break for years in a small hotel on the Riviera. But when he takes his holiday photographs to be developed at a local chemists, he suddenly finds himself mistaken for a Gestapo agent and a charge of espionage is levelled at him. To prove himself innocent to the French police, he must discover which one of his fellow guests at his pension is the real spy. As he desperately tries to uncover the true culprit's identity, Vadassy must risk his job, his safety and everything he holds dear.

  • Published: 6 July 2009
  • ISBN: 9780141190310
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $29.99

About the author

Eric Ambler

Eric Ambler (1909-98) was one of the most fascinating British writers of the late 1930s. His novels retain a remarkable sense of the dread and terror that filled Europe as world war broke out. Some were made into films (not least Orson Welles' superb version of Journey into Fear), all were bestsellers, inventing a new, more realistic form of spy novel, where the main protagonist is not so much a hero as a victim, pursued by malevolent Fascist forces of overwhelming power.

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Praise for Epitaph for a Spy

A genuine classic

The Times

If you want to experience the feel of the Continent in the 1930s, you will find few better guides

Robert Harris

A sly variation on the traditional English country-house murder mystery

Guardian

An uncommonly good story of international intrigue

Atlantic

Unquestionably our best thriller writer

Graham Greene

The source on which we all draw

John le Carré