The lady of the night – was dead before morning.Michael Kells is a British secret agent waiting for his next assignment in France and when he comes across a beautiful woman – almost too beautiful to be true – who seems extraordinarily interested in him. This launch Kells on an intoxicating trail of intrigue, murder, and deadly romance through the bistros and boudoirs of the world’s worst underground!* * *During the short period of fifteen y...

Peter Cheyney is perhaps best known for his short stories and novels about agent/detective Lemmy Caution. Caution was first portrayed as a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent, and in later stories as a private detective.Another popular creation was the private detective Slim Callaghan who also appeared in a series of novels and subsequent film adaptations. He was constructed as a British response to the more hardboiled detectives of American fiction such as Sam Spade and Phi...

WHEN Callaghan came into the office, Effie Thompson stopped typing. She said: "Good morning, Mr. Callaghan. There have been a few telephone calls, and your letters are on your desk."Callaghan said: "Right, Effie. Has Fallon or Craske been through?"She shook her head. Callaghan went into his office. She followed him with her notebook.She said: "You're expecting a call from Fallon or Craske? If either of them come through while you're out what shall I do about it?"...

Nikolls held out two glasses.'Which is it goin' to be?' he said. 'Seltzer or the hair of the dog?'Callaghan took the whisky.Slim Callaghan, private detective, is drawn into a particularly dubious case - even for him. A Mrs Paula Denys says she paid a man to steal the priceless Denys Coronet from her husband's safe. Now the thief won't hand over the goods and is attempting to blackmail her.Callaghan solves the problem for his client...

Callaghan was five feet ten and thin. He had sevenpence halfpenny and a heavy smoker's cough. His arms were a little too long for his height and his face was surprising.Slim Callaghan had been hired by beautiful Cynthis Meraulton to stop her cousins getting her step-father's money. But when the old man is murdered, the only suspect with no alibi and a giant motive is Cynthis.Slim always played his cases the way they came, but it turned out the Meraulton job had mor...

Kane looked at her appreciatively. 'I don't know whether anybody's ever told you, but you've got the swellest pair of legs I've ever seen,' he said. Valetta looked at him sideways along her dark eyelashes. He thought she was very beautiful; her mouth delicate, sensitive, almost tremulous. He could look at it for hours on end. It was that sort of mouth . . .'The British, once they take the gloves off - once they forget to play cricket, to be English gentlemen - they are the...

Callaghan awoke and looked at the ceiling. His lips were dry and his tongue felt like a yellow plush sofa. Outside he could hear the rain pattering on the windows. He looked at his wrist-watch. It was eight o'clock.Vivacious Mrs. Riverton has hired Slim to find her missing stepson, whom she admits she hates.A dame has to have more than beauty and breeding to stop Slim Callaghan doing things his way. Mrs. Riverton has plenty of both, but when she begins to interfere...

All sorts and conditions of ladies and gentlemen found their way into the expensively furnished, well-appointed Ventura Club. You could get anything you liked there if you knew how to ask for it.Slim Callaghan is called to Devonshire to investigate a burglary at Margraud Manor, where valuable jewels - heirlooms of the Vendayne family insured for £100,000 - have disappeared.With his assistant, Windemere Nikolls, he discovers some startling facts - particularly about...

KALEIDOSCOPIC pictures of last night's party presented themselves between myself and the ceiling. One or two faces— one of them was certainly Sammy's face, the other that of an attractive woman— flashed across my memory. I felt a little sick and did not want particularly to think about them. In fact I did not want to think about anything.You wouldn't get any funny ideas about me, would you? You wouldn't come to the conclusion that I was just another of those people who've become bor...

Effie said: 'You're expecting trouble?' She felt scared.Callaghan said: 'I've been expecting trouble all my life, Effie, and I usually get it.'Slim Callaghan, of Callaghan Investigations, the world famous detective and connoisseur of women, is at work again. Ruthless, tough, cynical, Slim was just getting wise to the game of Nicky Starata, an overly-smooth poker player, when he got involved in the mysterious Admiral Gardell case.No one asked Slim C...

"It's about that dame. I thought I oughta tell you. Somebody's bumped her."It's wartime London. Inspector Gringall of the Yard, long-time friendly rival of private detective Slim Callaghan, sends Slim on a mission to meet Doria Varette, a torch singer at Ferdie's Place.Callaghan knows Gringall has something up his sleeve. And when, backstage, Doria asks him to take on a job - to find her boyfriend Lionel Wilbery, a poet with the wrong friends and a drug problem - C...

A Secret Service thriller of double-cross and double double-cross! As exciting as only Cheyney can make it.The Second World War has just ended and the Secret Service discover that two lists of German war criminals have vanished. Peter Quayle is the head of the responsible department, and he is now tasked with the recovery of the lists. Instead of sharing the job with his usual agents he calls in a special group of people who operated behind enemy lines during the war....