Dark Duet

Dark #1

by Peter Cheyney

IMPORT. Collins White Circle #86. (Toronto). FIRST 1944. 25 cents cover price.

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Born Reginald Evelyn Peter Southouse Cheyney, he trained as a lawyer before getting tired of legal office work and joining the Army. He fought at the second Battle of the Somme in World War I and was wounded but when he returned to England he wrote songs, poems and short stories for various newspapers and magazines and used many pseudonyms.

He also turned his hand to journalism, was a newspaper editor and also owned a detective agency, Cheyney Research Investigations.

His first published novel was This Man Is Dangerous and this began his prolific novel writing career. Thereafter he averaged two mystery novels a year with his best known characters being Slim Callaghan and Lemmy Caution and he became one of the best known and most successful of British crime novelists. His success also brought with it financial rewards and he was recognised as one of the richest authors of the time.

There have been many film versions of his works, which helped spread his popularity, particularly to the United States.

His life-style, one of hard-living, much like his characters, and hard work eventually took their toll and he died at age 55. He was buried at Putney Vale Cemetery.

Michael Harrison published a biography in 1954 entitled Peter Cheyney Prince of Hokum and there have been a number of biographical essays over the years.

Gerry Wolstenholme
December 2010

Reviews

[Michael Keyton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Peter Cheyney books are, by today's standard 'badly written' but I will give each of them 5 stars because they capture a flavour of the age, like all good 'pulp' novels. In this particular case it is the world of espionage in a war torn Europe. You accept it strays from reality, but it taps into what people at the time wanted to believe - especially the men. It is a world of water-boarding with whiskey - A man takes a drink every second page - a world seen through a blue haze of cigarette smoke - and beautiful dames, treacherous or decorative, every one of them has their clothes meticulously described as if Cheyney is dressing a doll.
Cheyney was a prolific writer, often dictating his books in his dressing gown and indulging in mimicry as his secretary looked on and scribbled with fury. I've just read eight in one go and they will be listed in order. This review basically applies to all eight books, usually referred to as 'The Dark' series. For the ultimate site on Peter Cheyney you need to check out
http://www.petercheyney.co.uk/

[Eddie Graves · Rating 5 out of 5]

First published in 1942, it takes you to wartime London, Lisbon and Ireland, and proves a really enjoyable spy thriller with great characters throughout, especially the assassins Kane and Guelvada. I found it good to imagine being a contemporary reader; I'm guessing this was quite edgy for its day. Pacy, and an easy read.

[Paul Adler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Cheyney was one of my late father’s favourite authors. This is the 1st of his books I have read, and can see why Dad liked reading them. The action was not as fast and furious as today’s thrillers but there were plenty of twists and turns. Peter Cheyney died in 1951 and many younger people may not have heard of him and many of his books I would imagine are now out of print, but are available as e.books. Give one a try I am sure you will enjoy as I did.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: a thriller starring British agent Michael Kane. It follows his encounters with Nazi spies.

[Two Envelopes And A Phone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really gripping, sometimes brutal WWII spy stuff - from that era. The book appears to be a novel - and I suppose it's all threaded together - but what we have here are three novellas, and then a fourth and final chapter that wraps up one loose end. The book stars a pair of spies, generally very good at their job, who function as a sort of 'dark duet'.

Official missions blurred by revenge. Sanctioned assassinations are part of the program, as is anything that will stop, or even slow down, the Nazis. Big cloaks - metaphorical ones - and a few real daggers. Eventually, German Counter Intelligence becomes aware of the two spies who are best at shutting down their operations and liquidating their agents and assets, male or female...and the hunters become the hunted.

Perhaps the duo have it a little too easy at times, but I suppose that any spy fiction coming right out of 1940-1945 is partly propaganda, and so the heroes will be smarter and better than the Nazis (thank goodness), rather than, say, various scenarios where the good guys are battling an evil that could actually win (could have happened, in the real world). Keep the spirits up, stiff upper lip, and all that. Anyway, there are some tricky moments for our pair; I did think they would have a somewhat harder time in the Third Act, but all the adventures on display were quite lively, and twisty. Women characters are very prominent throughout the whole book, and I thought no one devolved to the status of boring or insulting card-board cut-out. This was fun to discover, after Ashenden, Drink to Yesterday, by Manning Coles.

[Michael Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book thinking it was going to be a mystery (it was in a series of Red Badge Detective books) but knowing nothing else about it. It was an original edition from 1943 in library binding, so there were no book cover blurbs and no book flap summary to go by. Reading blind like that is interesting, but it took me some 50 pages to get my bearings. In fact, this is not a mystery but a spy story, and actually it's more like three spy novellas connected as one. The main characters are British agents Kane and Guelvada (though they are also known by other names on occasion) who are not above killing women in cold blood (or having them killed) if the women are Nazi spies. Overall, it felt more like an anthology than a tightly knitted single narrative, but it was enjoyable, and I would probably read more about Kane and Guelvada.

[Babete]

(Oferta )