Here Lies

In his Edgar Award–winning autobiography, the "father of the modern crime thriller" reveals the eventful life that inspired his classic works (CrimeReads).

Eric Ambler's Here Lies invites readers inside the mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest thriller writers. In this work the famously recalcitrant author peels back the layers of experience that affected his life with the same skill he uses to unfold the plots of his novels.


Ambler candidly describes his South London childhood; his brief engineering career, which he gave up to work in theater; and his time as an advertising copywriter. He details the publication of his revolutionary spy novels in the 1930s and '40s, including such early classics as A Coffin for Dimitrios and Journey into Fear. He also tells of his service in the film division of the British War Office during World War II, which allowed him to write his first screenplays; and his postwar renown as the leading writer in the genre on both sides of the Atlantic.