The Second World War has just ended and the Secret Service has 'mislaid' two lists of German war criminals. Peter Everard Quayle is the head of the Department concerned and he was responsible for the compilation of the list. Instead of handing the job over to his agents he decides to call in a group of people who operated behind enemy lines during the war. Among them is Michael Frewin, Quayle's second-in-command, who appears to be a bit of a fop - but outward appearances are deceptive for he is a cold-blooded killer ...

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.

Slim Callaghan is called to Devonshire to investigate a burglary at Margraud Manor, where valuable jewels - heirlooms of the Vendayne family insured for GBP100,000 - 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.

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...

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 more twists than a hangman's rope. 'Slim Callaghan's quick wit and knowledge of rough and tumble place him in the top ranks of private eyes. What a man!' New York Times Book Review

Rene Burg, one-time Chicago gunman, finds himself mixed up in the Norwegian underground movement during the war. As well as gunning for the German Army in general, Burg is out to get one person in particular: a beautiful deadly woman who has brought the technique of double-crossing to a fine art. And he doesn't have much time, because they are both under sentence of death.

'The British, once they take the gloves off - once they forget to play cricket, to be English gentlemen - they are the toughest things on earth,' says one German espionage agent to another in Dark Duet. And the trouble with Michael Kane, hero of this spy thriller is that he never plays cricket with Nazi spies ...Dark Duet seems to me damn good' Raymond Chandler

Quayle, the master of a British spy ring in World War II, is faced with the task of dealing with a man who has come from Morocco with what he says is important information about German troops there. But is the man what he seems? Quayle puts his agents into action, not hesitating to risk their lives to discover the answer, but it is Quayle who ends up doing most of the work - and who is prepared to sacrifice everything for the cause of war.

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 but, too late, discovers the luscious Mrs Denys is not all she seems. Callaghan is determined to get to the bottom of it all - and opens some dangerous cans of worms in the process.

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. 'Nobody eats or sleeps in the course of this tale. And you probably won't either' New Yorker