What do You think about Judgment On Deltchev (2002)?
This is the first book I've read by Eric Ambler, and it was terrific. British playright Foster has been asked to report on a show trial in a Balkan country in the late 1940s. The previous head of government is being tried as a traitor. The evidence against him is flimsy and apparently trumped up, and Foster digs around a bit, trying to find some small bits of the truth. As he himself puts it, he doesn't so much blunder into trouble as walk into the wrong part of town, and once he realizes the danger, he can't find his way out again.The book is hardly full of slam-bang attraction but it commands your attention from the very first page. Foster is the narrator, but most of the focus is on the other characters, and their agendas. A really terrific political thriller that I would recommend to anyone.
—Graham Powell
Found by chance on a second-hand bookstall: it has been really a nice surpriseAmbler is the father of the modern spy story. His post-war anti-Communist novel Judgment on Deltchev (1951), is based on the Stalinist purge-trials in Eastern Europe without referring to the country in which it is settled. With a simple way of writing he defines his characters and a peculiar political situation where nothing is what it appears to be.It is an extremely enjoyable reading. As for the story it is not out of date at all because it could be applied to any current political party “working for its own régime”.
—Barbara Ab
