Why are Eric Ambler's novels so popular? Why are they timeless and even now, more than half a century after they were written, are read with unflagging interest? It’s not so much the style of these works, but the unusualness of their heroes. They are not “James Bonds”, not supermen, not super spies and often not even professional intelligence officers, but the most ordinary people who happened to live in the era of the pre-war decade. Such as the curious English writer Charles Latimer, who began at his own risk in Istanbul investigation into the circumstances of the death of international adventurer Dimitrios.