Judgment on Delchev

Zusatztext “The maestro is back again! with all his sinister magic intact.” – The New York Times Book Review “Genuine excitement . . . neat! brisk and altogether admirable.” – The New Yorker “ Judgment on Deltchev is a haunted manse–and you’ll venture in at your peril. Once you’re there! you’ll stay till the end.” – The New York Times “Vintage Ambler . . . readers of intrigue can settle under their reading lamps with a contented sigh.” – Chicago Tribune Informationen zum Autor Eric Ambler is often said to have invented the modern suspense novel. Beginning in 1936, he wrote a series of novels that introduced ordinary protagonists thrust into political intrigue they were ill-prepared to deal with. These novels were touted for their realism, and Ambler established himself as a thriller writer of depth and originality. In the process he paved the way for such writers as John Le Carré, Len Deighton, and Robert Ludlum. Klappentext Foster's dramatic skill is well-known in London's West End theaters. So perhaps it wasn't so surprising when he was hired by an American newspaper publisher to cover the trial of Yordan Delchev for treason. Accused of membership in the sinister Officer Corps Brotherhood and of masterminding a plot to assassinate his country's leader, Delchev may in fact be a pawn and his trial all show. But when Foster meets Madame Delchev, the accused's powerful wife, he suddenly become enmeshed in more life-threatening intrigue than he could have imagined.CHAPTER ONE Where treason to the state is defined simply as opposition to the government in power, the political leader convicted of it will not necessarily lose credit with the people. Indeed, if he is respected or loved by them, his death at the hands of a tyrannical government may serve to give his life a dignity it did not before possess. In that event his enemies may in the end be faced not by the memory of a fallible human being but by a myth, more formidable than the real man could ever have been, and much less vulnerable. His trial, therefore, is no formality, but a ceremony of preparation and precaution. He must be discredited and destroyed as a man so that he may safely be dealt with as a criminal. Sometimes he is induced to confess abjectly to the crimes of which he is accused; but unless he has himself been a member of the party that now seeks to destroy him, such confessions are not always believed by the people; and when, for example, he is the leader of an unliquidated opposition party, it is better to observe outwardly the old legal forms, to bring witnesses, produce evidence, and let him try to defend himself. So it was with Nikolai Petkov in Bulgaria, with Julius Maniu and Ion Mihalache in Rumania, and with many other liberals in Eastern Europe. Petkov they hanged. Maniu and Mihalache were condemned to solitary confinement for life. When Yordan Deltchev's trial took place, the pattern for such occasions had been already set. The charges against him were of 'treason and the preparation of a terrorist plot to assassinate the head of the state'. The trial began before a People's Court on the 11th of June. He was described in the indictment as 'president of the Agrarian Socialist Party and formerly a member of the Provisional Government of National Unity'. In fact, he had been head of that government and also its Foreign Minister. He was still the leader of the only effective opposition to the People's Party regime that remained. I had been asked to attend the trial and write a series of articles about it by an American newspaper publisher whom I had met once or twice when he had been visiting London. The request had surprised me. I had never written anything of that kind before and had thought at first that my name had been mistaken for someone else's. There had been no mistake, however, and I had decided to accept. At some time ...

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Ambler, Eric Ambler
• Editore: Vintage USA
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 03.12.2002
• EAN: 9780375726750
• ISBN: 978-0-375-72675-0
• Pagine: 288
• Dimensioni: 132 mm x 202 mm x 18 mm
• Serie: Vintage crime/Black Lizard; Vintage crime/Black Lizard
• Categoria: Narrativa > Gialli