ERNIE GUELVADA

Full Name:	Ernie Guelvada
Nationality:	Belgian
Organization:	British Secret Service
Occupation	Agent

Creator:	Peter Cheyney
Time Span:	1942 - 1952

ABOUT THE SERIES

Ernie Guelvada is an agent with the British Secret Service.

More specifically, he is an operative working under the direction of renowned spymaster Peter Quayle who, during the Second World War was in charge of a small cadre of highly dedicated and extremely deadly field agents.

Guelvada's employment by Quayle is interesting in that Guelvada is not a British citizen by birth - he would be given citizenship and the freedom to travel wherever he chose in a war-centric and foreigner-wary United Kingdom but he was born a Belgian citizen and only moved to England when things got too hot for him on the Continent due to his run-ins with Nazis. Some refer to him as a Belgian refugee but he proudly corrects them stating he is a "Free Belgian" helping out the Brits.

A fascinating description of Guelvada is given when we first meet him:

"Ernie was disquieting. Definitely disquieting. It was impossible to sit and talk to Ernie, or even to look at him or be in the same room with him, without experiencing a sense of vague discomfort. When you were not with him you wondered about this; concluded that you were suffering from nerves or imagination; that you were stupid. You became certain about the nerves or imagination until the next time you saw Mr. Guelvada, when you noted that the effect of discomfort became greater as you got to know him better.

"Of course you did not get to know him better. No one ever did. Except Kane. Kane knew him, and about the worm that lived in Mr. Guelvada and spent its time wandering from the mind to the guts. When it was in the mind Ernie made people uncomfortable. When it descended to the stomach other-and possibly more interesting-things happened."

In another adventure when Guelvada is instructed to work with a different agent, that man had his own recollection of the Belgian: "Guelvada was as tough as hell, had a peculiar charm-all his own-and no scruples. He'd worked with Kane, stalking and knocking off enemy agents in Lisbon for years. A very bright one-Guelvada-with a hate for anything German that would be hard to beat. The story was that a Panzer Officer had tortured his girl friend in the early days of the war. She died and after that Ernie had only one idea-killing Germans. He actually liked it and took a great pride in his work."

!!Good Lines:
- Guelvada explains that trying to ward off female advances by pretending to be married never works for him because "all women believe that stolen fruit is the sweetest".

BOOKS

Number of Books:	5
First Appearance:	1942
Last Appearance:	1950

The adventures of Ernie Guelvada all take place in what I refer to as the Quayle-verse, i.e., the universe in which spymaster Peter Quayle runs his squad of highly efficient operatives.

In addition to the five books mentioned below, Guelvada is also mentioned briefly in another book: Dark Street.


1			Dark Duet aka The Counterspy Murders Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: 1942 The book contains four stories in adventures of counterespionage with two of Quayles' operatives, Michael Kane and Ernie Guelvada. The locations vary from the U.K. to Ireland and Lisbon, Portugal. It Doesn't Hurt Much Sweet Conga You Can Always Duck Souvenir

2			Sinister Errand aka Sinister Murder Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: 1945 "Agent Michael Kells is in pursuit of Nazi spies in London, who have been tasked with the job of pinpointing the actual landing places of V1 bombs to improve their accuracy. Through the strange byways of Kells's sinister errand flit the mysterious 'Auntie', the alluring Janine, the beautiful Mrs Vaile and the delightful and unfortunate Alison Fredericks." Working closely with him and ofttimes off on his own is fellow operative Ernie Guelvada.

3			Dark Interlude Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: "Shaun Aloysius O'Mara, intelligence agent for the British 'second bureau', has been ordered by his superiors to go to Paris to obtain information that will lead to the capture of the lone survivor of the Nazi espionage system. So when Shaun arrives in Paris he becomes a crude and shiftless drunkard and entangles himself with a clever and ruthless spy, Tanga de Sarieux, who is as brave as the men that surround her . . ." Assisting him in this assignment is very deadly fellow operative Ernie Guelvada.

4			Dark Wanton aka The Case of the Dark Wanton Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: 1948 There exists two lists of war criminals, second tierred but wanted nevertheless. Both lists have gone missing and Quayle sends his people out to find who has taken them and for what purpose. One of the most deadly of these operatives is the lethal Ernie Guelvada.

5			Dark Bahama aka I'll Bring Her Back Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: 1950 The death of a man from sharks while deep-sea fishing off Dark Bahama, one of the smaller islands in that chain, may have been murder and it looks like espionage played a part so Quayle sends Ernie Guelvada to investigate, working in conjunction with private investigator Johnny Vallon.

NOVELLAS AND SHORT STORIES

Number of Stories:	4
First Appearance:	1942
Last Appearance:	1942


1			It Doesn't Hurt Much novelette Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: 1942 1st of 4 adventures collected in Dark Duet. The Norwegian rich woman named Mrs. Marques has just arrived in England as a refugee seeking asylum. She is most definitely not a couple of those things (Norwegian or rich or a refugee) but it will fall to Michael Kane and Ernie Guelvada to handle her. And by handle, they mean to kill her.

2			Sweet Conga novelette Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: 1942 2nd of 4 adventures collected in Dark Duet. Michael Kane and Ernie Guelvada are in Lisbon. They have not been told why they have come to a city filled with German spies but they are certain at least one of those enemy agents is involved in something the pair of operatives are supposed to stop.

3			You Can Always Duck novella Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: 1942 3rd of 4 adventures collected in Dark Duet. The German SS is very upset as they lose more and more agents to Michael Kane and Ernie Guelvada. They have come up with a plan to use several imbedded spies in Ireland to go on the homicidal offensive.

4			Souvenir short story Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: 1942 4th of 4 adventures collected in Dark Duet. Having stopped the German plan to kill the pair of them in the previous adventure, Michael Kane and Ernie Guelvada have hatched a plan to capture the high-ranking German liaison who had started the whole plan of elimination, someone that it turns out Guelvada has a particularly strong reason to kill the man.

MOVIES

Number of Movies:	1
First Appearance:	1952
Last Appearance:	1952

Only one of Peter Cheyney's 'Dark' series of espionage adventures made it tot he silver screen. Being Hollywood and making the film initially for American audiences, they changed the main character to American and had him working for the State Department. At least they kept the names of the two operatives, Kells and Guelvada, untouched. Quayle apparently became Cagle.


1			Diplomatic Courier Director: Henry Hathaway Writers: Casey Robinson, Liam O'Brien, Peter Cheyney Actors: Tyrone Power as Mike Kells, Patricia Neal as Joan Ross, Stephen McNally as Col. Cagle, Karl Malden as Ernie Guelvada Released: 1952 Film adaptation of Sinister Errand but with both Kells and Guelvada becoming American and Kells working for the State Department. Mike Kells, a courier for the Department of State, is coerced by the Military Police to get deeper into an assignment than he ever expected. Helping out along the way is Ernie Guelvada. "A US State Department courier tangles with Soviet agents and seductive women in post WW2 Europe."

MY COMMENTS

Of all the characters that author Peter Cheyney created in his fascinating 'Dark' series of World War II adventures, there is none more fascinating and downright scary (IMHO) as Ernie Guelvada. The man had a major case of vengeance to work off and he worked at it with gusto. This makes for very gritty and often chilly scenes in which the reader (well, me) never knows how the man is going to behave. Of course, we have a pretty good idea it will be violent - other than that there is room for uncertainty.

Since Guelvada wants to smack down any and all Nazis, his work does not stop when the War ended and the regime fell. There were a lot of war criminals to go after. Cheyney could have continued Guelvada's mission for several more books but obviously felt that he or the readership wanted to let the man rest.

GRADE

My Grade: B

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