One Monday, Robert Halliday receives a bomb threat in the mail.
Two days later, he receives the bomb — accompanied by an offer of employment from Karliss Zander, an international fixer. Unless Halliday agrees to help him edit the memoirs of a 19th century Russian terrorist and ghostwrite an exposé of modern terrorist governments, Zander will detonate the bomb. As Halliday discovers that Zander requires more than mere literary assistance, he wonders if it would have been less painful if the bomb had just gone off.

The Care of Time, Eric Ambler’s final novel, is a carefully constructed, utterly absorbing story of intrigue and suspense, one of the most acclaimed works of his more than sixty year career.

Reviews for Eric Ambler‘s The Care of Time –

A New York Times Notable Book

“A brilliant, polished performance in which all Mr. Ambler’s characteristic skills are on display. . . . The thinking man’s thriller of the year.” —Julian Symons, The New York Times Book Review

“The Care of Time is quintessential Ambler. . . : Ironic, cerebral, smooth as vintage port, he has created an all-too-familiar world of double-cross and blackmail where the heroes are unheroic and the villains almost likable.” —Time