The Care of Time (1981) is the last novel by British spy fiction writer Eric Ambler.

It deals with the theme of international terrorism, using fictional unpublished memoirs of Russian terrorist Sergey Nechayev as a plot device.

Halliday soon discovers that Zander and his daughter are themselves threatened by a Middle Eastern terrorist group.

Kirkus Reviews wrote that the book is "elaborately farfetched" and "doesn't quite triumph by the more conventional criteria for suspense".

[3] The book was adapted for television in 1990, directed by John Davies, with Michael Brandon as Robert Halliday and Christopher Lee as Karlis Zander.