Books

Hodder and Stoughton Limited [1939]., London, 1939. Octavo, pp. [1-8] 9-319 [320], rare in first edition, only a handful of copies exist in dj, this copy was custom bound in full black crushed Levant morocco by Alan Grace of Grace Bindery once of Surrey UK, later St. Simons Island Georgia and is signed by Eric Ambler, on a note tipped onto the title page. This is a chilling and compellilng mystery so well written, it shall capitvate its reader. Ambler like Chandler was a genius of the genre Most copies of this UK edition were lost when Nazi bombs destroyed the Hodder & Stoughton warehouse. Published later in the U.S. as A COFFIN FOR DIMITRIOS. Basis for the 1944 film featuring Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre;and Faye Emerson and Zachary Scott with a screenplay credited to Frank Gruber. A Haycraft-Queen cornerstone. Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights, pp. 18-9. To this day, the 1944 film is a noir classic, with Peter Lorre a mystery and crime novelist on the trail of the mysterious Dimitrios. Sydney Greenstreet is fabulous as well.

Considered one of Ambler's best works, this novel features the mystery writer Charles Latimer, who stumbles upon the life story of criminal Dimitrios Makropoulos.