The Schirmer Inheritance (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

Eric Amber Graham Greene (Our man in Havana!) Robert stone (Damascus gate) + Len deighton are my preferred . Intelligent, convincing detail, well.written, round characters, focussed narrative. Schoenberg declines a bit in Greece owing to chauvinist stereotyping of southern Europeans but otherwise excellent

Ambler starts this tale at the beginning of the 19th century, in order to set the stage for a twentieth-century problem: finding an heir who may or may not exist. From this, as always, he has constructed an engrossing tale that moves along briskly to its satisfying (and to me unexpected) end.

Written in 1953, this novel features an ambitious young attorney whose first assignment, after being hired at a prestigious white shoe Philadelphia law firm, is to review the estate file of a wealthy female decedent--the Johnson-Schneider file--to see whether anyone has credibly claimed heirship, or whether the fortune should be allowed to escheat to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the case made the papers, and several hundred spurious "heirs" came forward to try to claim the fortune. It will take weeks, possibly months, to plow through all the files of people who claimed to be this woman's relative and heir, and the overwhelming likelihood is that she died without a lawful heir. Our young lawyer is appalled that his first assignment is such pointless drudgery, until, after three weeks of plowing through the spurious claims, he finds the private file of another lawyer who previously worked on the case, just before the outbreak of WW2. The papers show that he had a lead on a legitimate heir, but the last part of his memo to the file was written in some sort of a code. From there, the novel becomes a chase through Europe, looking for the heir, a German soldier who may or may not have survived the war. Ambler was an outstanding writer. This thing reads like a true story; there is nothing incredible or hard to swallow in the whole tale. Understand that there isn't the level of sex and violence that you see in modern "thrillers" and other fiction. But that just made it more readable and more believable.

The story builds slowly wanders on for longer than it needs. And just as you think there might be a conspiracy afoot to gain the inheritance illicitly, the plot turns along a different path with a twist that seems to me to be less probable.

The "prologue," and last 50 pages, are among the best-written, most skilled and entertaining--and unpredictable. The "middle" sometimes slows, but all is done for good purpose and the quality never lapses. Yes, lead character George Carey is dull, especially for a WWII bomber pilot, but after all, he's now a Philadelphia corporate lawyer. One can chuckle at the dullness, though, and enjoy the roller-coaster ride as Carey travels a perilous, vividly-drawn post-WWII Europe, in the company of enigmatic, suspect and all-too-human characters of remarkable diversity. By the end, Carey also experiences a transformation. So too, fellow reader, will you. Highly recommended.

I am a fan of all Amblers works. The Schirmer Inheritance I found particularly well written with a very good plot. A twisting story with surprises that continue to the end. This book is one of my favorites from Ambler. Ambler avoids the sensationalism that is prevalent in todays spy novels. His heroes are commonplace citizens who do not have super powers and the fate of the world is not at stake. You are transported into the European world with an explanation of how it was during the 30's and 40's with the Nazi's rampaging the land Their inhuman brutality keeps you hoping for a good outcome for the "good" characters. He handles the troubled and mysterious Miss Kolin especially well.

One of my two personal favorites from the Ambler ouvre. It starts off with a Prussian deserter in 1806, moves on to the peaceful precincts of a Philadelphia law office, and proceeds to the affairs of another Prussian deserter, this one wandering through the chaos of post-WW2 Europe. The story is fascinating, and the characters unforgettable (if not always likable). Moreover, the book is at times very funny, in an understated way.

An extremely well crafted and researched thriller with believable characters.