Crime Fiction Alphabet: Letter J

The Crime Fiction Alphabet meme is rolling along and we are up to the Letter "J". Kerrie over at Mysteries in Paradise is keeping us all in line. My contribution for this week is the author:

James Hadley Chase (1906 to1985)

Mr Chase was born René Lodge Brabazon Raymond in London England on December 24th, 1906, he would move to France in 1956 and eventually resided in Switzerland. Chase died on February 6th 1985. He is one of the best known thriller writers of all time. 

The rise of the gangster culture during the Great Depression of the United States provided a big demand for gangster stories. Chase read James Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice and read about Ma Barker, using an American slang dictionary and maps of the U.S underworld, he then wrote his first No Orchids for Miss Blandish in his spare time.  All of his novels were so fast-paced that the reader was compelled to turn the pages in a nonstop effort to reach the end of the book. The final page often produced a totally unexpected plot twist variably Early books did contain some violence that matched the era in which they were written, though this was considerably toned down as plots centered more on circumstantial situations to create the high degree of tension that was the hallmark of his writing. Sex was never explicit and, though often hinted at, seldom happened. In several of his stories, the protagonist tries to get rich by committing a crime, either by insurance fraud or a theft. But the scheme invariably fails and leads to a murder in which the hero realizes that he never had a chance to keep out of trouble. Women are often beautiful, clever, and treacherous. They kill unhesitatingly if they have to cover a criminal act.  His plots typically centered around dysfunctional families, and the final denouement echoes the title. Chase's best market was France. In France more than thirty books were made into movies, and all of his ninety titles were published by Gallimard in their Série noire series. He was also very popular in other European markets, as well as Africa and Asia. However, his books failed to take hold in the American market partially due to the fact that the descriptive details did not seem convincing to American readers. This, together with their misogynist attitude, turned off the female market.

Various Covers

 

 

The Titles

Year published	Title	Central character(s)
1939	No Orchids for Miss Blandish also The Villain and the Virgin	Dave Fenner Slim Grisson
1941	The Dead Stay Dumb	Chet Sladen
1941	Twelve Chinks and a Woman also Twelve Chinamen and a Woman also The Doll's Bad News	Dave Fenner Glorie Leadler
1941	Miss Callaghan Comes to Grief	Jay Ellinger Raven
1942	Get a Load of This (short story collection)
1944	Miss Shumway Waves a Wand	Ross Millan Myra Shumway
1945	Eve	Clive Thurston Eve
1946	I'll Get You for This	Chester Cain
1947	Last Page (play)
1948	The Flesh of the Orchid	Carol Blandish The Sullivan Brothers
1949	You Never Know with Women	Floyd Jackson
1949	You're Lonely When You're Dead	Vic Malloy Paula Bensinger Jack Kerman
1950	Figure It Out for Yourself also The Marijuana Mob	Vic Malloy Paula Bensinger Jack Kerman
1950	Lay Her Among the Lillies	Vic Malloy Paula Bensinger Jack Kerman
1951	Strictly for Cash	Johnny Farrar
1952	The Fast Buck	Verne Baird Rico
1952	The Double Shuffle	Steve Harmas
1953	I'll Bury My Dead	Nick English
1953	This Way for a Shroud	Paul Conard Vito Ferrari
1954	Tiger By the Tail	Ken Holland
1954	Safer Dead	Chet Sladen
1955	You've Got It Coming	Harry Griffin
1956	There's Always a Price Tag	Steve Harmas, Glyn Nash
1957	The Guilty Are Afraid	Lew Brandon
1958	Not Safe to Be Free also The Case Of The Strangled Starlet	Jay Delaney
1959	Shock Treatment	Steve Harmas, Terry Regan
1959	The World in My Pocket	Morgan
1960	What's Better Than Money	Jefferson Halliday
1960	Come Easy - Go Easy	Chet Carson
1961	A Lotus for Miss Quon	Steve Jaffe
1961	Just Another Sucker	Harry Barber, John Renick
1962	I Would Rather Stay Poor	Dave Calvin
1962	A Coffin from Hong Kong	Nelson Ryan
1963	One Bright Summer Morning
1963	Tell It to the Birds	Steve Harmas, John Anson
1964	The Soft Centre	Frank Terrell Valiere Burnette
1965	This Is for Real	Mark Girland
1965	The Way the Cookie Crumbles	Frank Terrell
1966	You Have Yourself a Deal	Mark Girland
1966	Padillo's Play	McCorkle Padillo
1966	Cade	Val Cade
1967	Have This One on Me	Mark Girland
1967	Well Now - My Pretty	Frank Terrell
1968	An Ear to the Ground	Steve Harmas, Al Barney
1968	Believed Violent	Frank Terrell, Jay Delaney
1969	The Whiff of Money	Mark Girland
1969	The Vulture Is a Patient Bird	Max Kahlenberg
1970	Like a Hole in the Head	Jay Benson
1970	There's a Hippie on the Highway	Frank Terrell, Harry Mitchell
1971	Want to Stay Alive?	Poke Toholo
1971	An Ace Up My Sleeve	Helga Rolfe
1972	Just a Matter of Time	Chris Patterson Sheila Oldhill Miss Morely-Johnson
1972	You're Dead Without Money	Al Barney
1973	Have a Change of Scene	Larry Carr
1973	Knock, Knock! Who's There?	Johnny Bianda
1974	So What Happens To Me?	Jack Crane
1974	Goldfish Have No Hiding Place	Steve Manson
1975	Believe This - You'll Believe Anything	Clay Burden
1975	The Joker in the Pack	Helga Rolfe
1976	Do Me a Favour, Drop Dead	Keith Devery
1977	My Laugh Comes Last	Larry Lucas
1977	I Hold the Four Aces	Helga Rolfe
1978	Consider Yourself Dead	Mike Frost
1979	You Must Be Kidding	Ken Holland Paradise City Police Force
1979	A Can of Worms	Bart Anderson
1980	You Can Say That Again	Jerry Stevens
1980	Try This One for Size	Paradise City Police Force
1981	Hand Me a Fig Leaf	Dirk Wallace
1982	Have a Nice Night
1982	We'll Share a Double Funeral	Perry Weston Chet Logan
1983	Not My Thing	Ernie Kling
1984	Hit Them Where It Hurts	Dirk Wallace

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