Ambler, Eric. A Coffin for Dimitrios (in the UK: The Mask of Dimitrios), Vintage Books, New York (first published in the USA by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1939) paperback, 304 pages  

Rating: 6/10 

“A Frenchman named Chamfort, who should have known better, once said that chance was a nickname for Providence.” A Coffin for Dimitrios begins with this quote, and in the first few pages the author tells us how chance plays a predominant role in human affairs.

Charles Latimer, an English crime writer while holidaying in Istanbul meets a Turkish

Colonel, visits a morgue with him simply due to curiosity, sees a dead body- dead body of a notorious criminal named Dimitrios.  Again, merely out of a crime writer’s curiosity Mr Latimer begins to reconstruct the life of Dimitrios by travelling to places where he was known to have spent his life. Every succeeding city brings him into contact with more data, more people who had dealt with Dimitrios and more intrigue.

This suspense novel was described as a masterpiece by my cousin who had read it thirty years ago. The problem with that is the book is now older by thirty years and I am older by thirty years. Like portraits and still life have become outdated and replaced by abstract paintings, this novel first published in 1939 is old-fashioned. In an age where authors wrote with hand, and the words were processed exclusively by humans, this book might have been a masterpiece, not today. It has enough predictability to match an average Hollywood movie. Structurally, it is not well drafted. The voice is that of an omniscient narrator. But suddenly one chapter is a long letter. Then couple of chapters have only dialogue. In a novel, those chapters jar. From a writer’s viewpoint, the word count moves dramatically when writing dialogue, and slowly when writing descriptions. There are times and moods when writers resort to writing long dialogue to fill up pages. Good when necessary, but it wasn’t in this novel. Those chapters bring the overall level down.

With the British council library in Mumbai closed, my reading is getting skewed towards American writers. It was refreshing to read a good early twentieth century British writer.(Read preview here if you wish)

Verdict: If you accept the ageing of the book like you accept the ageing of black & white films, this book can be taken on a train or flight.