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The Ministry of Fear

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

For Arthur Rowe the charity fête was a trip back to childhood, to innocence, a welcome chance to escape the terror of the Blitz, to forget twenty years of his past and a murder. Then he guesses the weight of the cake, and from that moment on he's a hunted man, the target of shadowy killers, on the run and struggling to remember and to find the truth.

© Graham Greene 1973 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

 Classics Crime Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Suspense Thriller & Suspense War & Military Crime Military Mind-bending War

Critic reviews

Opening a new book by Graham Greene is like settling into a gran turismo car. Nothing will go wrong
One of the finest writers of any language
Greene was a force beyond his books (Melvyn Bragg)
The most ingenious, inventive and exciting of our novelists
No serious writer of this century has more thoroughly invaded and shaped the public imagination than did Graham Greene
All stars
Most relevant
I thought the story gripping and liked that it wasn't clear whether it was meant to be realistic or surreal.

surreal or real

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The Ministry of Fear, later adapted into a film noir directed by Fritz Lang starring Ray Milland, is a wonderfully labyrinthine wartime adventure driven by paranoia and guilt. In a Blitz-battered world where the truth is stranger than fiction, Graham Greene presents a jaded protagonist, Arthur Rowe, who’s unwittingly caught up in a murderous espionage plot. But he has some dark secrets of his own. I first read the novel as a student - and key scenes have stayed with me. The audio version is well-narrated, though at times I wondered whether I should have re-read this in hard copy. Towards the end, I did lose track of certain characters and plot lines. Nonetheless, the story arc is cleverly constructed and relatively easy to grasp. Most memorable of all is the sense of dread and menace in a world turned upside down.

Novel Noir

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Drew me in from the start. Intriguing psychology of main character. Powerful prose. I don't know how I overlooked this gem from Graham Greene . Very well read. I much recommend this audiobook.

Immensely enjoyable .

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This WW2 tale functions at local level rather than at the level of governments, armies etc. The Blitz is a big part of it but the concerns of most of the characters for most of the time are local and personal. As with many Greene novels, there are moments where he zooms out for a second to make a general, thought-provoking observation on the human condition. Even although you may not agree with all of them, they certainly get you thinking.
Hats off to Oliver Chris for a wonderful narration. He skilfully captures the essential elements of location and class in accents but also a much less common one - era. The 1940s accents featured are not so common now and Oliver's ability to summon them plays a huge part in setting this story in its time and mood.

Wartime story at local level

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I thought I had read all Graham Greene’s work, but somehow this one had slipped through the net. What gem! Classic Greene and beautifully narrated to.

Excellent listen

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