Peter Cheyney's Dark Duet

Dark Duet is a 1942 spy thriller by Peter Cheyney. It was the first of his “Dark” series of spy novels.

Peter Cheyney (1896-1951) was an Englishman who from 1936 to 1951 enjoyed great success with his American-style pulp thrillers. Cheyney hadn’t been to America but that didn’t matter. He knew the America of the movies and the pulps and he correctly assumed that that was the America his readers wanted. Some of his books were set in the United States, others were not, but most had that American pulp style.

His Lemmy Caution and Slim Callaghan novels were lightweight energetic fun but it’s immediately obvious that Dark Duet is going to be something much darker and more serious, and much more gritty.

I generally dislike wartime spy thrillers because there’s too much propaganda but while this book suffers a little from this flaw it has lots of compensating strengths.

It starts out with a man named Fenton sitting in an office. He has a problem to solve. He deals with the problem by making use of two hitmen, Kane and Guelvada. He needs a woman murdered. It has to be done discreetly and it has to look like an accident. The twist is that Fenton works for the British Government. It’s the British Government that wants the woman murdered. Kane and Guelvada are British Government assassins.

Readers in 1942 would have reacted differently to this setup compared to readers today. In 1942 most readers would probably have considered that since there was a war on there was no problem with the government having its enemies liquidated. Readers today might find this concept slightly uncomfortable.

Shortly afterwards the two assassins are in Lisbon, awaiting instructions for their next hit. They are about to discover that the hunters can easily become the hunted. One of the strengths of this story is the way the hunters and the hunted exchange roles frequently.

Portugal is neutral but every second person in Lisbon is either a German or a British agent. Some of the local police and officials are pro-German and some are pro-British. It is not a good idea to trust any of the local officials.

Kane and Guelvada are very skilful hitmen but they are also somewhat cerebral. They think quite a bit about the nature and the psychology of their work. Guelvada thinks a lot about women - women play a vital part in all their missions. If you’re going to be involved in intelligence or espionage work you’re going to be dealing with women. Sometimes as targets, sometimes as innocent victims, sometimes as useful tools (as honey traps for instance), sometimes as allies and often as dangerous unpredictable factors. In this case a woman is going to become involved in a way that the two assassins were not expecting.

Kane and Guelvada are rather complex and rather interesting characters. They are two very different men which is why they’re such an effective team. Kane is coldly logical and calculating. Guelvada is imaginative. He thinks of himself as an artist. Murder can be done with style and artistry.

Cheyney builds the suspense slowly but skilfully. We can see a trap being artfully constructed to engulf them but they may be constructing a trap of their own. The question is which set of hunters will be able to strike a killing blow first. It’s a dangerous dance of death.

This is a fine and gripping gritty realist spy novel and it’s highly recommended.

The good news is that copies of the “Dark” spy thrillers seem to be easy to find.

I’ve reviewed some of Cheyney’s Lemmy Caution novels - Dames Don’t Care and Never a Dull Moment. And one of his Slim Callaghan PI thrillers, The Urgent Hangman.