Edgar Award Best Novel Winner
The Light of Day
by Eric Ambler
Summary
A small time crook and tour guide in Athens is blackmailed into driving a car to Istanbul, only to be caught by the police and forced to spy on the very gang using him. Eric Ambler narrates through this hapless, cowardly antihero as a robbery scheme unfolds around him in a foreign city. The novel mixes wry humor with tension and a wonderfully reluctant everyman at its center.
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Historical Context & Significance
It was filmed in 1964 as Topkapi, the heist movie that won Peter Ustinov an Academy Award.