Uncommon Mysteries is the heading I’m using for brief notes I’ve made about mysteries I found odd, or especially good, or memorable in some other way. Some of these notes were broadcast as fillers on a public radio station, WKMS, in Murray, Kentucky, a decade ago. Others are new.
In Istanbul, Charles Latimar sees the body of a man the police tell him is that of the notorious criminal Dimitrios Makropoulos. His quick view of the body makes Latimer of value to one of Dimitrios’s former gang members, and it also puts him in danger. He follows the history of Dimitrios through various cities on the Aegean and in the Balkans. Finally, it takes him to Paris. His interest, he tells himself, is professional: knowing about a criminal such as Dimitrios will help him in writing his mystery novels—or perhaps he will write a biography of Dimitrios.Latimer is naïve, and much dimmer than the people he encounters. Among them is Frederik Petersen, and Ambler’s portrait of him is that of a complete moral imbecile. For Petersen, the main problems with white slavery are its expense and trouble, while the bad actor in drug trafficking is the addict. Dimitrios, on the other hand, who from his youth has known that he wanted only money and power—for Demetrios no moral categories apply, any more than they would for a shark, a creature designed to do one thing, to feed.
Only the fact that Ambler has dropped hints (“When Latimer looked back at this time later….”) can reassure us that his main character will not come to a sticky end. Latimer survives in a dramatic ending. Ambler is an elegant stylist who reminds me at times of Graham Greene, but though his element is similar here to some of Greene’s books, Ambler strikes a more optimistic note. The Mask of Dimitrios makes most of the lists of 100 best mysteries, thrillers, and crime novels.
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