Murder Room
25 total works
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 - Callaghan finds Gringall has more than a missing person in his sights.
The sinister business of counter-espionage is played out by an array of magnificent characters. Quayle, compounded of wisdom, administrative genius and the ability to live without sleep, wine or women; Shaun O'Mara, who loves all those things, looks like an actor and is an aristocrat, and works with subtlety, artistry and distinction; and Ricky Kerr, a cleverly drawn portrait of a man who is not quite able to stand the pace.
The women, of course, dress superbly, move like angels, are as beautiful as diamonds and, with one notable exception, behave abominably.
'If there are better thrillers it is hardly possible to think of them while under the spell of this one' Times Literary Supplement
Henrietta looked at Lemmy Caution with starry eyes. 'There's breakfast on the way,' she said, 'come on in.'
'Listen lady,' replied Lemmy. 'Maybe you ain't heard about me. I think I oughta warn you, I am not the sorta guy you ask around for breakfast, especially if you're good at makin' waffles.'
Henrietta leaned against the doorpost. 'I was going to give you fried chicken,' she said, 'but I've decided against it - I've got a better idea.'
'Such as?'
'Such as waffles,' she said.
Proceed with caution ... to Mexico ...
... or at least Mexico as Lemmy Caution sees it: 'It's hot as hell. Away down the dirt road some guy's playin' one of them wailin' Mexican fandangles which give me that twilight feelin' ... maybe it'd be a relief to start dyin' ... ?
Across the road some guy in a funny hat is handin' out a spiel to a dame about what a great bullfighter he used to be. Maybe she's his wife. If she is, then all I can say is she's a bad picker ... Me, I'd have married the bull ...'
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, Windermere Nikolls, he discovers some startling facts - particularly about the lovely Esme Vendayne - and the mystery leads Callaghan to a shady London nightclub and a violent underworld.