Greg Shepard’s Introduction traces the successful writing career of Rene Lodge Brabazon Raymond, aka “James Hadley Chase,” a British writer who wrote 90 thriller novels–most of them set in America. A James Hadley Chase novel features hard-boiled action and usually a noirish ending. STARK HOUSE has been reprinting omnibus editions of James Hdley Chase novels. This latest omnibus edition includes Just the Way It Is and Blonde’s Requiem. Just the Way It Is (1944) is the story of gangsters in a small town. What makes this novel unusual is Chase’s devleopment of two women characters: Lucille, a gangster’s moll, and Clare Russell, a plucky reporter. Blonde’s Requiem (1945) caused Chase problems because he borrowed heavily from Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely in plot construction. The book has been out-of-print for 70 years.
If you’re looking for traditional thrillers with violence, deception, betrayal, and drama, this STARK HOUSE omnibus will fulfill your yearning for noir.
So glad Greg has been reprinting the earliest and toughest of Chase novels in unexpurgated editions – great stuff!
Sergio, the early Chase novels are as tough as nails!
I think I read somewhere that Chase never actually visited America–everything he wrote about was based on American pulps that he read, which might account for some of his “plagiarism”. The only book of his I think I’ve read is NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH, a bit of a ripoff of Faulkner’s SANCTUARY. Still, if more of his work is now available, I’ll have to read a few more.
Deb, like Edgar Rice Burroughs who achieved success with his Tarzan novels–and who never visited Africa–Chase never visited America although most of his thrillers are set in the U.S. His reading of American pulps and novels provided his “research.”
I think he was not the only one from Britain who wrote “as an American” and of course there were many German authors too who tried their hand at this, sometimes with strange results …
The most famous was Karl May with his Indians and Cowboys stories, but that was mainly in the 19th Century …
Wolf, James Hadley Chase produced a series of successful thrillers over decades. The covers on the Corgi paperbacks from the 1970s were spectacular!
Just remembered E C Tubb also wrote one US mystery:
Assignment New York
Wolf, I’ll have to track down a copy of ASSIGNMENT NEW YORK!
I am not sure but I have heard that Keating also never visited India though he wrote all those Inspector Ghote novels.
Neer, it would not surprise me to learn Keating never visited India.
Yes–I absolute love the pattern on that…I’m not sure, sari? Tablecloth? Wall hanging? That pattern is spectacular!
Deb, the Corgi covers were very eye-catching!
caftan?
I like “borrowed heavily” for what he did. I’m sure Chandler was not amused.
Like Deb, the only Chase I’ve read is NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH. Frankly, he would come far down my list of authors to revisit, below Carroll John Daly.
Jeff, occasionally Chase would stub his toe stylistically. In a couple of the Chase books I’ve read he refers to the car’s truck as the “boot.”
I’ve tried hard to like Chase, but he remains firmly 2nd-rate.
Dan, you’re right. Chase is not in the top tier of thriller writers. But he could write with coolness and flare.
After a stretch of every book I come across looking good to me, and then an avalanche of things of all sorts coming from the library, now nothing seems interesting to me, including this one. I have Blandish, but no other Chase, and haven’t even read that. Just feeling pretty blah about books right now, I guess. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Rick, you seemed excited about Allen Steele’s AVENGERS OF THE MOON. Maybe you should read some more CAPTAIN FUTURE books!
I think I have Blandish someplace, hope it made it thru my great book purge.
I’d heard of him, but haven’t read any. I have a vague recollection of Blandish being highly recommended, much more than any of his others, though the covers were always striking
Maggie, sometimes the artwork on Chase’s books was better than what was between the covers!
Is this getting through?
Bob, it sure is getting through!
I absolutely love Chase and would never call him second-rate. He is among the top-thriller writers for me.
Neer, I enjoyed James Hadley Chase’s early thrillers. The later ones…not so much.
That got through, but my real message didn’t. It had to do with Chase writing that a heist haul was made up of $100 and $25 bills.
Bob, I’m sure some counterfeiters over the years might have come up with some $25 bills.
That puts me in mind of a Martin Amis book I gave up on (THE INFORMATION, perhaps?) which is partly set in Southern California, where I was living at the time. A character in the book gets a copy of the Los Angeles Times and finds an item in a particular section of the paper–but the L.A. Times did not have such a section; I knew that because I read it every day. I thought to myself, how hard would of it be for Amis, living in London (even in the pre-Internet days) to get a copy of the LAT and verify the existence of said section? I gave up in irritation after that!
Deb, I’m with you on mis-steps in the setting of a novel. If the author can’t get the little details right, how can they get the Big Details right.