 First edition (US) | |
| Author | Eric Ambler |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Weidenfeld & Nicolson (UK) Atheneum Books (US) |
Publication date | 1969 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | 9780307950062 |
| OCLC | 24642 |
| Preceded by | Dirty Story |
| Followed by | The Levanter |
The Intercom Conspiracy is a novel by British thriller writer Eric Ambler, first published in 1969. [1] It was adapted for television as A Quiet Conspiracy.
Two senior military officers from unnamed minor north European countries are sent as liaison officers to the NATO Headquarters. Both have a distinguished record in the WWII Anti-Nazi Resistance and are highly regarded in their own countries, but they discover that at NATO they are complete non-entities and the Americans never bother to listen to anything they say. Increasingly fed up and angry, the two hatch a scheme whereby they would be avenged on the arrogant Americans and at the same time gain a tidy sum for their approaching retirement. When the owner of an extreme right-wing weekly magazine, Intercom, dies, they buy the company which publishes it. Acting through a fictional intermediary, they start sending the surprised editor "articles", which consist of highly sensitive information about the weapons systems of the USA, USSR, Britain and NATO. Before the fourth "article" has even been published the magazine's lawyer is contacted by a potential buyer. The two intelligence heads have correctly calculated that the security services of the nations they're mentioning in their "articles" will pay handsomely to close the magazine down. To the magazine's lawyer's amazement, the buyer is prepared to pay $500,000. The sale is quickly carried through, the magazine closed down, and all its assets mysteriously removed. The intelligence heads divide their takings and start planning for a comfortable retirement.
The text takes the form of notes for a book about the affair which a publisher has commissioned from the noted historian-turned-thriller writer, Charles Latimer. Latimer has mysteriously disappeared and the reader is left to read through the notes of his interviews with various people and officials involved in the affair, their telegrams and letters, as well as his imaginative "narrative reconstructions" of important scenes.
The majority of the events are seen through the eyes of Intercom's editor, Theodore Carter. For years he had worked for the magazine's founder and owner, a retired American general who was a rabid Cold Warrior, translating whatever new conspiracy theories The General thought up into more or less coherent articles and sending them to an eclectic mailing list. When Carter starts publishing articles from the new owners, soon finds himself in trouble. He receives mysterious phone calls, then an intimidating visit from two "journalists" who he thinks are from the CIA. He is then kidnapped, taken to an apartment and threatened by unknown agents, before being released. Returning to his office to retrieve the key documents, Carter disturbs burglars and is knocked out with some kind of nerve gas. When he regains consciousness, he leaves the office only to encounter the CIA agents coming up the stairs. He barges past them, jumps into his car and drives off in such a panic that he crashes and ends up in hospital. The authorities refuse to believe his account of events just long enough for the magazine sale to be completed and the two security chiefs to get their money.
In the final chapter, Carter, now recovered, visits the Majorca home of the missing Latimer and discovers that one of the intelligence chiefs had become his neighbour, living in a fine villa, driving a new sports car and accompanied by an attractive young woman. He pieces together what must have happened: over sociable drinks the chief let slip a little too much to Latimer who, with his scholarly and literary skills, began to piece together the true story of the Intercom conspiracy. The other intelligence chief, not yet retired and suffering from illness, decides to eliminate Latimer. He is never seen again, leaving behind the folder of notes and texts which we have just read.
The character Charles Latimer also features in The Mask of Dimitrios .
The book's structure was described by The Guardian as "postmodern". [2]
The novel was adapted for television in 1980 as the Italian "Ricatto internazionale". In 1989 it was adapted for television as "A Quiet Conspiracy", a four-part series for the UK's ITV network, starring Joss Ackland as Theodore Carter. [3] [4]
Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligence agencies. It was given new impetus by the development of fascism and communism in the lead-up to World War II, continued to develop during the Cold War, and received a fresh impetus from the emergence of rogue states, international criminal organizations, global terrorist networks, maritime piracy and technological sabotage and espionage as potent threats to Western societies. As a genre, spy fiction is thematically related to the novel of adventure, the thriller and the politico-military thriller.
Passage of Arms is a 1959 novel by Eric Ambler.
Eric Clifford Ambler OBE was an English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels, who introduced a new realism to the genre. Also working as a screenwriter, Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books co-written with Charles Rodda.
Jason Bourne is the title character and the protagonist in a series of novels and subsequent film adaptations. The character was created by novelist Robert Ludlum. He first appeared in the novel The Bourne Identity (1980), which was adapted for television in 1988. The novel was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 2002 and starred Matt Damon in the lead role.
A Very British Coup is a 1982 novel by British Labour politician Chris Mullin. The novel has twice been adapted for television; as A Very British Coup in 1988 and as Secret State in 2012.
Theodore George "Ted" Shackley, Jr. was an American CIA officer involved in many important and controversial CIA operations during the 1960s and 1970s. He is one of the most decorated CIA officers. Due to his "light hair and mysterious ways", Shackley was known to his colleagues as "the Blond Ghost".
David Corn is an American political journalist and author. He is the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for Mother Jones and is best known as a cable television commentator. Corn worked at The Nation from 1987 to 2007, where he served as Washington editor.
Operation Gladio was the codename for clandestine "stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (WU), and subsequently by NATO and by the CIA, in collaboration with several European intelligence agencies during the Cold War. Although Gladio specifically refers to the Italian branch of the NATO stay-behind organizations, Operation Gladio is used as an informal name for all of them. Stay-behind operations were prepared in many NATO member countries, and in some neutral countries.
Lionel Davidson FRSL was an English novelist who wrote spy thrillers. He received Authors' Club Best First Novel Award once and the Gold Dagger Award three times.
The Ambler Warning is a Robert Ludlum spy thriller set in part on Parrish Island, a restricted island off the coast of Virginia. Left as an incomplete manuscript by Ludlum's death in 2001, the author's estate hired an author and an editor to finalize the manuscript for publication in October 2005. Early sales placed it on The New York Times Best Seller list within a month of its release.
The Manchurian Candidate is a novel by Richard Condon, first published in 1959. It is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy. The novel has twice been adapted into a feature film with the same title: the first was released in 1962 and the second in 2004.
Rosalind Sarah Myers is a fictional character from the BBC television series Spooks, which follows the exploits of Section D, a counter-terrorism division in MI5. She is portrayed by British actress Hermione Norris. The character was a former MI6 officer who joins MI5 in the fifth series.
The Wreck of the Mary Deare is a 1959 Metrocolor British-American thriller film directed by Michael Anderson and starring Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston, and featuring Michael Redgrave, Cecil Parker, Richard Harris and John Le Mesurier. The screenplay by Eric Ambler was based on the 1956 novel of the same name by Hammond Innes.
The Vicious Circle is a 1957 British thriller film directed by Gerald Thomas and starring John Mills, Noelle Middleton, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Lionel Jeffries. The screenplay concerns a leading Harley Street specialist who is forced to work with the police to nail a gang of international criminals, after being falsely accused of murder. It was based on My Friend Charles (1956), a TV serial written by Francis Durbridge.
The CIA Kennedy assassination is a prominent John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory. According to ABC News, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is represented in nearly every theory that involves American conspirators. The secretive nature of the CIA, and the conjecture surrounding the high-profile political assassinations in the United States during the 1960s, has made the CIA a plausible suspect for some who believe in a conspiracy. Conspiracy theorists have ascribed various motives for CIA involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy, including Kennedy's firing of CIA director Allen Dulles, Kennedy's refusal to provide air support to the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy's plan to cut the agency's budget by 20 percent, and the belief that the president was weak on communism. In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that the CIA was not involved in the assassination of Kennedy.
Command Authority is a techno-thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and co-written with Mark Greaney, and published on December 3, 2013. It is Clancy's last major work of fiction and was released two months after his death. Set during the Cold War and after the events of Threat Vector (2012), the novel features President Jack Ryan and The Campus as they must deal with Russian dictator Valeri Volodin, a character widely noted as similar to real-life Russian president Vladimir Putin. The book debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list.
The Mask of Dimitrios is a 1939 novel by Eric Ambler. In the United States it was published as A Coffin for Dimitrios.
Wormwood is a 2017 American six-part docudrama miniseries directed by Errol Morris and released on Netflix on December 15, 2017. The series is based on the life of a scientist, Frank Olson, who worked for a secret government biological warfare program at Fort Detrick, Maryland. It focuses on the events leading up to and following his controversial death, which the US government originally claimed was a tragic accident, but later admitted was likely a suicide, caused by a mental breakdown brought on after being unknowingly dosed with LSD, while at a meeting with colleagues from the CIA who were involved in Project MKUltra. It also follows Frank Olson's son in the present day, and discusses his belief that his father may have been murdered due to being perceived as a potential security risk. Interspersed between interviews and archival footage, are live action reenactments of the final days of Frank Olson's life and the various theories involving his death.
Epitaph for a Spy is a 1938 spy novel by Eric Ambler.