Uncommon Danger (1937)

Uncommon Danger is the second novel by British thriller writer Eric Ambler, published in 1937. It was published in the United States as Background To Danger. In his autobiography, Here Lies Eric Ambler, Ambler explains that "Background To Danger" was the original title, but his British publisher disliked the word 'background', so it was published in all English-speaking countries except the US as Uncommon Danger.

Plot

Bessarabia has been a contested area between Russia and Romania since the Great War. It contains important oil fields. A Russian double-agent (Borovansky) has stolen Russian plans for a possible attack on Bessarabia. If these are made public it will whip up anti-Russian feeling in Romania and help the Fascist Iron Guard to power, and help them make an alliance with Nazi Germany. The spy is taking them by train south into Austria.

Russian spies Andreas Zaleshoff and his sister Tamara are tipped off and commission a Spaniard, Ortega, to pursue Borovansky on the train, follow him to his hotel in Austria, and get the plans back.

Mr Balterghen of the British-based Pan-Eurasian Petroleum Company (PEPC) wants the question of the Romanian Concessions, i.e. which external oil companies can exploit Romania's oil, to be re-opened so that PEPC can bribe its way to new concessions. He commissions one 'Colonel Robinson' to do this. Zaleshoff realises that 'Robinson' is the assassin and propagandist-for-hire Stefan Saridza, accompanied by his henchman Captain Mailler.

So, as the story begins, two separate sets of men are on the track of Borovansky and his photos.

The protagonist of the novel is Kenton, a down-at-heel freelance journalist who loses money gambling and takes the train to Vienna to borrow money from a man he knows there, Rosen, a Jew he helped escape Germany after the Nazis came to power. He is befriended on the train by a shifty foreigner, Sachs, who asks him to carry a package through customs on the Austrian border and who seems to be being followed on the train. When they arrive at Linz, Sachs asks Kenton to carry the envelope off the train and bring it to him at a particular hotel later that night. Kenton agrees for a price of 600 Marks.

When he arrives at the run-down hotel to hand over the envelope, Kenton finds Sachs murdered. He goes through Sachs's pockets and takes his wallet, but leaves his fingerprint on the crime scene. One of Saridza's gang comes up the stairs, and Kenton escapes out the back.

The reader realises that Sachs is Borovansky and Kenton is now in possession of photographs of military plans which could alter the course of European history. The police are informed of Sachs's death and Kenton finds himself wanted for murder.

Kenton leaves the photographs at a café, but is captured by Saridza's men. He is tortured at Saridza's house, but is rescued by Zaleshoff. However, Saridza's men retrieve the photographs from the café. Kenton leaves Zaleshoff's safe house and crosses into Czechoslovakia by tunneling under the border fence. Kenton and Zaleshoff attempt to raid another Saridza house to retrieve the photographs, but Saridza is expecting them and they are captured. They are tied up with wire and taken to an electrical cable factory, where they are imprisoned in a vulcanising chamber. They manage to cut through their restraints and escape before the oxygen runs out.

Surmising that Saridza would have a copy made of the photographs at a private photography studio, they bluff their way into a newspaper office known to be linked to Saridza's cause. The editor calls the police, but they destroy the photographic negatives and escape. They pursue Saridza's car, and in a final gun-fight, Mailler is killed and Saridza gives up the photographs. Kenton lets Saridza go free.

Context

Kenton is a typical Ambler protagonist, an amateur hero who is out of his depth. The novel features real details from anti-Fascist refugees Ambler had met in Paris.

The characters of Zaleshoff and his sister Tamara - also a Soviet agent - also play a significant role in Ambler's novel Cause for Alarm.

Ambler's pre-war novels contain numerous passages criticising big business and capitalism. This, combined with the prominent and friendly role played by KGB agents, led to suggestions that he was himself a left-wing sympathiser, claims he was later at pains to play down.