Eric Ambler (1909-1998) was considered one of the masters of the thriller novel involving international intrigue and espionage. Of the six novels he wrote before World War II, four have been adjudged outstanding examples of the genre.

Eric Ambler was born in London on June 28, 1909. In 1927 and 1928 he served as an engineering apprentice, providing background material for the engineer-protagonists who appear in many of his novels. He left engineering to become an actor and then an advertising copywriter, a position he held until 1937, when he became a full-time writer.

Ambler's first novel, The Dark Frontier, was published in 1936, and the second, Background to Danger, the following year. In his third novel, Cause for Alarm, published in 1938, he utilized many of the themes that were to recur in his later works. It is the story of Nicholas Marlow, a British production engineer who is sent to Italy as his...