Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Uncommon Danger / Background to Danger | 1937 | Eric Ambler | Buy |
| 2 | Cause for Alarm | 1938 | Eric Ambler | Buy |
The Valeshoff series consists of two prewar spy novels. Uncommon Danger (1937) and Cause for Alarm (1938) feature a Russian agent operating in the tense political landscape of late-1930s Europe, where fascism and communism competed for influence.
Uncommon Danger (published in the US as Background to Danger) follows a journalist who stumbles into an espionage plot and encounters Valeshoff along the way. Cause for Alarm sends an English engineer to Fascist Italy, where Valeshoff reappears in a different role. Both novels treat their amateur protagonists as ordinary people caught in events beyond their control, a hallmark of Ambler’s early work.
Ambler is widely credited with reinventing the spy novel by replacing the upper-class gentleman hero with working professionals who fall into danger by accident. The Valeshoff books belong to his remarkable run of six novels between 1936 and 1940, a period that also produced The Mask of Dimitrios and A Coffin for Dimitrios.