PETER QUAYLE

Full Name:	Peter Quayle
Nationality:	British
Organization:	British Secret Service
Occupation	Spymaster

Creator:	Peter Cheyney
Time Span:	1942 - 1952

ABOUT THE SERIES

Peter Quayle is the head of a British counter-espionage agency.

This middle-aged man, said to be very tall and broad but with a swiftness and grace that seemed surprising, is an expert in the hunting and stopping of enemy agents, something he has done for several years prior to the start of the series.

As might seem reasonable for a man responsible for sending men and women into danger, Quayle is friendly towards but seldom friendly with most of those close to him. It is said in one of the recorded adventures, paraphrasing from another notable earlier, that Quayle have no real enemies but most of his friends didn't like him that much. If this bothered him, he never lets on as he was too busy defending his country. Besides, he had once been an agent himself and is not asking anything of his people he was not ready to give himself, which, considering what he does in fact ask of his people is a lot says quite a bit about the kind of agent he was.

In his role as leader of this unnamed sub-agency, Quayle has the assistance of several experience and able agents such as Ernie Guelvada, a Belgian who is given British citizenship after years of service and Michael Kane, a laughing, hearty man who would gladly buy you a drink if he didn't have to shoot you, not to mention Shaun O'Mara who has a couple of adventures under Quayle's command, and Michael Kells who also has a pair of missions though he likes to call his boss the Old Man.

The series was mainly taking place during the Second World War and dealt, naturally, with spies trying to infiltrate the U.K. to learn secrets and perform sabotage. These enemy agents are all German. After the war, the first book deals with war criminals but after that, the scope started to change as the author branched the characters out further.

BOOKS

Number of Books:	8
First Appearance:	1942
Last Appearance:	1951


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, Kane and Guelvada. The locations vary from the U.K. to Ireland and Lisbon, Portugal. Note: Quayle is never specifically mentioned with that name but Guelvada receives a phone call from someone named 'Peter' who is no doubt his boss and who gives him orders to work with Kane on these missions.

2			The Stars Are Dark aka Dark Days, aka The London Spy Murders Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: 1943 When a British officer is caught for helping smuggle people into England, he is given a chance by Quayle to redeem himself. Quayle knew the man would be approached by the Germans to make even more use of him and Quayle wanted an inside man.

3			The Dark Street aka The Dark Street Murders Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: 1944 More action in the streets of London as German infiltrators try to damage the British war effort and Quayle must use all of his resources to defend the island. The main operative working for Quayle is Shaun O'Mara and it is he that drives the action though considerable help is provided by fellow agent Ricardo Kerr.

4			Sinister Errand aka Sinister Murder Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: 1945 Standard counter-espionage fare fighting German saboteurs, featuring the introduction of a new agent working for Quayle, Michael Kells. In the movie version, the Germans were replaced with Russians. Note: Peter Quayle is not mentioned specifically by name but a man that Kells refers to often as the "Old Man" is his boss and is the one that orders Kells to work with fellow agent Quelvada from a previous adventure who is almost certainly working for Quayle.

5			Dark Interlude aka That Terrible Night Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: 1946 With the War just having ended, Quayle and his people are assisting the Maquis in hunting down and stomping out the little pockets of continued action where determined Germans refuse to surrender.

6			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.

7			Ladies Won't Wait aka Cocktails and the Killer Written by Peter Cheyney Copyright: 1951 "Michael Kells is a British secret agent hanging out in France and waiting for his next assignment when he comes across a beautiful woman—almost too beautiful to be true—who seems extraordinarily interested in him. When he finally has a chance to sidle up beside her, he’s a bit surprised when she works the current code phrase into her conversation. “Ladies won’t wait.” They arrange a less public rendezvous, but Kells arrives to find his fellow agent dead. Following up what few leads he has, he discovers links to the disappearance of another agent, a possible German defector who has been working for the Russians, a highly-sought scientist, and a deadly female agent who will stop at nothing to get what the Russians want. . ."

8			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 Guelvada to investigate.

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

Quayle would be an extremely hard man to like. In one book, he is awakened by a phone call and told that a mission has concluded successful but one of the two agents was killed. Quayle thanked the caller and then went back to sleep musing that it was a "shame about" the dead agent. That's cold.

And that is how the series runs. Cold. You don't get a sense of any feeling in the characters. They just go through the standard motions doing standard things. There is a hollowness to the series that is unpleasant.

That being said, as a record of attitudes and mores from that time, these are excellent reads.

A mixed bag, then.

GRADE

My Grade: B+

Your Average Grade: A+

YOUR OPINIONS

David	A+	4/19/2014 7:59:20 PM	Quayle and Cheyney are the forerunners of Bond as much as Ambler, Buchan Rohmer, and Dornford Yates, and much of the mood of Casino Royale is taken from Cheyney's spy novels which in omnibus edition were introduced by none other than the great mystery critic Anthony Boucher. It's true there is a great deal of melodrama in Cheyney, but there are also some of the genre's best females and the wonderfully murderous Ernie Guelvada, Quayle's genial girl crazy hitman.

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