out" his stories for his secretary, Miss Sprauge, who would copy them down in shorthand and type them up later. The Caution books read very much like what they are: pulp stories written in ersatz American by a British writer. With the private detective Slim Callaghan however, he invented a non-American who is based in Cheyney's home territory of London. Callaghan in the first book works from Chancery Lane in a Marlowe-type shabby office and he has difficulty paying the bills. However, unlike Marlowe, Callaghan is ambitious and after a success helping a rich female client, he is able to make the step up to having his own agency, with a fancy office and pretty secretary, in swanky Berkeley Square. Subsequent novels in the series follow very much the tried and tested pattern. Callaghan's services are sought by rich and attractive female client. The Lady in question is, of course naturally involved in some upsetting business (often blackmail) that precludes going to police. Callaghan meets the lady, likes what he sees (Cheyney appears to have studied women's fashion for he never fails to describe in detail every lady's clothes and jewellery), is nonchalant and impudent, which simultaneously both upsets and attracts lady. The Lady of course is either afraid to tell all facts or is being deliberately misleading and Callaghan must work out truth for himself. Callaghan begins his investigating, in Marlowe-style, by putting himself about and stirring up trouble, which attracts the attention of a number of people (including at least one shady nightclub owner) involved in the puzzle who supply him with enough pieces to get the whole picture and to plan strategy. During these cases (usually over a period of days) Callaghan will push himself to the limit. He will get no sleep, drink continually ('three fingers of straight whisky'), and drive his Jaguar long distances (to Torquay or Weymouth to visit refined clients, and then back to London all in the same night) as part of his overall plan. At the same time, he will meet a string of attractive women who will, of course, throw themselves at him during the story--but he however only has eyes for his refined client--hand out and receive beatings, tamper with evidence, and outsmart both criminals and the police until the case is solved and his refined client is extricated from trouble and danger. Only then (to the chagrin of