THE LIGHT OF DAY

An impeccable international intrigue shadows Arthur Simpson, a ""journalist"" of sorts (Simpson has many, rather discreditable means of trying to earn a living in Greece) from the time when he hires out as a guide to a man called Harper, not as susceptible a sucker as he had thought. Asked, or rather forced, to drive a Cadillac to Istanbul, he is stopped at the border where a check reveals that the car is an arsenal of ammunition, and Simpson is allowed through only in order to keep a line on his contacts, believed to be political subversives. Arthur's opinion, at first ignored, that they are just ordinary crooks is substantiated; so is his excellent talent for surveillance which finds him in some awkward, some humiliating, some exciting situations capped by the robbery of the Treasury Museum jewels in the Seraglio Palace... Not to avoid absolutes, Ambler is probably the best operative in this business of the shady, sinister deal, and this is a suave, scapegrace and often very funny entertainment.