Arthur Simpson #1 - The Light of Day (1962) - Eric Ambler Audiobook

Written by Eric Ambler
Read by Gareth Armstong
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 56 Kbps
Unabridged

Arthur Simpson is a petty thief who is discovered stealing from a hotel room. His victim, however, turns out to be a criminal in a league well above his own and Simpson is blackmailed into smuggling arms into Turkey for use in a major jewel robbery. The Turkish police, however, discover the arms and he is further ‘blackmailed’ by them into spying on the ‘gang’ - or rot in a Turkish jail. However, agreeing to help brings even worse danger…

Eric Clifford Ambler OBE (1909-1998)

Influential British author of thrillers, in particular spy novels, who introduced a new realism to the genre. He also worked as a screenwriter. Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books co-written with Charles Rodda. These are now published under the ‘Ambler’ umbrella.

Although born into a family of entertainers he initially chose engineering as a full time career but this quickly gave way to writing. In World War II he entered the army and looked likely to fight in the line, but was soon commissioned and ended the war as assistant director of the army film unit and a Lieutenant-Colonel. This experience translated into civilian life and Ambler had a very successful career as a screen writer, receiving an Academy Award for his work on “The Cruel Sea” by Nicolas Monsarrat in 1953.

Many of his own works have been filmed, the most famous probably being “The Light of Day”, filmed as “Topkapi”. He established a reputation as a thriller writer of extraordinary depth and originality and received many other accolades during his lifetime, including two Edgar Awards from The Mystery Writers of America (best novel for “The Light of Day” and best biographical work for “Here Lies Eric Ambler”), and two Gold Dagger Awards from the Crime Writer’s Association (”Passage of Arms” and “The Levanter”).

Often credited as being the inventor of the modern political thriller, John Le Carre once described Ambler as ‘the source on which we all draw.’ A recurring theme in his works is the success of the well meaning yet somewhat bungling amateur who triumphs in the face of both adversity and hardened professionals.

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Original MP3 audio (32kbs@22,050Hz mono) extracted and split into chapters without re-encoding by inAudible 1.75.