''Ladies Won't Wait'' is a 1951

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...

thriller novel Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. ...

by the British writer

Peter Cheyney Reginald Evelyn Peter Southouse-Cheyney (22 February 1896 – 26 June 1951) was a British crime fiction writer who flourished between 1936 and 1951. Cheyney is perhaps best known for his short stories and novels about agent/detective Lemmy C ...

. It is a sequel to the 1945 novel '' Sinister Errand'' and portrays the continued adventures of Michael Kells, a half-American, half-British secret agent.Panek p.178 It was published in the United States under the

alternative title An alternative title is a media sales device most prominently used in film distribution. Books and films are commonly released under a different title when they are screened or sold in a different country. This can vary from small change to t ...

''Cocktails and the Killer''.

Synopsis

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

while waiting for his next mission, Kells encounters an attractive fellow agent who, not long after using the code phrase "ladies won't wait" is found dead. This puts him on the trail of an

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophica ...

attempting to defect to the

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

and a ruthless

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

female agent determined to stop him at all costs.

References

Bibliography

* Panek, LeRoy. ''The Special Branch: The British Spy Novel, 1890-1980''. Popular Press, 1981. * Reilly, John M. ''Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers''. Springer, 2015. 1951 British novels Novels by Peter Cheyney British thriller novels British spy novels Novels set in France William Collins, Sons books {{1950s-thriller-novel-stub