Passage of Arms in Espionage Aficionados

Dec 23, 2020 Sam Reaves rated it really liked it

Eric Ambler covered a lot of territory in his career. The books that made his reputation in the thirties were set in Turkey and the Balkans; when he resumed his career after the Second World War it was with Judgment on Deltchev, set in Communist eastern Europe, and The Schirmer Inheritance, which starts in Philadelphia and winds up in Greece. Ambler then evidently got interested in Southeast Asia, because his next two books, State of Siege and this one (published in 1959), were set there.
The ar Eric Ambler covered a lot of territory in his career. The books that made his reputation in the thirties were set in Turkey and the Balkans; when he resumed his career after the Second World War it was with Judgment on Deltchev, set in Communist eastern Europe, and The Schirmer Inheritance, which starts in Philadelphia and winds up in Greece. Ambler then evidently got interested in Southeast Asia, because his next two books, State of Siege and this one (published in 1959), were set there.
The arms referred to in the title are a cache of rifles and submachine guns smuggled into Malaya by communist guerillas and securely stored in the jungle near a rubber plantation. After the rebel cell is wiped out in an ambush by the army, the arms are discovered by an enterprising Indian manager at the plantation, who figures out a way to monetize his find by bringing in a local Chinese wheeler-dealer who arranges to sell them to insurgents in Sumatra, just across the strait. The only problem is that they need an intermediary to make the transaction look legit; enter Greg Nilsen, an American businessman on an Asian cruise with his wife. Approached in Singapore by a member of the Chinese merchant's extended family, he agrees to serve as the nominal seller of the arms for customs purposes, for a tidy cut of the proceeds.
As you might expect, things do not go according to plan, and Nilsen is quickly in over his head. The appeal of an Ambler novel lies in the look he gives us at the way things work in the real world-- the calculations, the gamesmanship, the navigation of bureaucracies and military hierarchies, the cautious dealings with men who cannot be trusted. The social background is richly depicted, from the Indian laborers on the plantation to the wide-ranging Chinese diaspora with its family intrigues. And of course the physical environment is vividly there-- the heat, the bugs, the cool drinks on the hotel terrace, the adrenaline shock of sudden violence. And, as always, Ambler's wry understated humor.
Ambler was a master, and this is an entertaining look into the shady business of arms trafficking in a fascinating part of the world. ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Jan 03, 2018 Philip rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: indonesia-philippines-png, 4-stars, malaysia-singapore, fiction-standalone, 1950s, pocket-books, kiss-kiss-bang-bang, mckays, southeast-asia

In the late 1950's, Graham Greene and William Lederer gave us two classic novels of the Cold War in Southeast Asia, The Quiet American and The Ugly American. In Passage of Arms, Ambler in effect completes the trilogy with what could be called "The Stupid American," about an in-over-his-head Delaware businessman who gets sucked into an illicit arms deal between Malaya and Indonesia.

This is frankly an odd little book, neither spy story nor thriller, although it's been classified as both. In reali ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Apr 14, 2008 Dfordoom rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crime-mystery, spy-fiction

Although it appears as part of Pan’s Classic Crime series it’s really more spy thriller than crime thriller. Although Ambler was English the mood is closer to the cynicism and corruption of Hammett and Chandler than to English crime writers of that time. The British writer to whom Ambler is sometimes compared is Graham Greene, and the world Ambler scribes in this novel has more than a hint of Greeneland about it. While Hammett and Chandler focused on cynicism and corruption at the level of city ...more

Like · see review