The fading thrill of Chase

This year is the 100th birth anniversary of James Hadley Chase and it is very unfortunate that the writer, at one time hailed as ‘the thriller maestro of the generation’, is now almost forgotten, writes Dhiraj Sharma

This article is a tribute to the greatest mystery writer of the 20th century popularly known by the pseudonym—James Hadley Chase (real birth name Ren Brabazon Raymond). Widely read, hugely admired and multi-nationally published and translated—Chase is one of the rare thriller writers, capable of always replying intelligently to "Now, what happens next?" His inventiveness, feeling for a situation and personal style set him apart.

The son of an army officer, Colonel Francis Raymond (Indian Army), Chase was born on December 24, 1906, on Christmas Eve, in Ealing, London and was educated at King's School, Rochester, Kent. Declining a bank clerk’s job, he left home when he was 18 and worked as a travelling salesman, selling children's encyclopedias. Later, he joined a wholesale book firm and worked in several jobs before devoting himself entirely to writing. He took up writing as his career, prior to World War II and during the War he served with distinction as a pilot in the Royal Air Force (RAF), ultimately achieving the rank of Squadron Leader. He was also Editor of the Royal Air Force Journal, a biweekly publication.

It was only after reading James M. Cain's short story The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) that Chase decided to try his hand at writing thrillers. He was heavily influenced by American crime and gangster writers. Chase, at that time, had never been to the US. With the aid of American slang dictionaries, maps and reference books, he composed in six weeks his first novel No Orchids for Miss Blandish in 1939. Published by Jarrolds (London), it became a huge success and is still claimed as one of the best-selling mysteries ever published. It was published in several European countries, as well as South America, Canada, Japan and even Russia.

Chase wrote 89 novels (translated in 32 languages), a play, some short stories and also edited an anthology. More than 25 of his novels have been used as a source material for films and TV productions, in the USA, France, Germany, USSR and even in India. Some of the popular movies based on his stories are: Young Girls Beware (1959), directed by Yves Allegret from Miss Callaghan Comes To Grief, 1941), Lucky Nick Cain (1951), directed by Joseph M. Newman from I'll Get You For This, 1946).

The French film What Price Murder (1958) directed by Henri Verneuil was based on the novel The Sucker Punch (1954) and its Hindi version is Ketan Mehta's Aar Ya Par (1997) Many of the old Indian classic movies are also based on Chase's novels, some of the popular are: Brij's Victoria No 203 (1972) based on There's A Hippy on The Highway. (1970), Krishna Shah's Shalimar (1978), based on The Vulture is a Patient Bird, (1969). Recently, Kushan Nandy's 88 Antop Hill (2004) starring Jackie Shroff, Rahul Dev, Lisa Ray—all are based on the Chase's thriller: Tiger by The Tail, 1954.

Despite a huge fan-following, Chase was criticised for the sadistic treatment of women in his novels. Critics dubbed him as a pulp fiction writer. A number of his novels were attacked for violence. His novels often had catchy titles and lurid covers, although there were no particular sexual contents or descriptions in his writings per se, as compared to other thriller authors of his time. He was also criticised for his lack of first-hand knowledge of American life and its people. Even then, while he was villified critically during his lifetime, he had an enormous following the world over, and was being translated and published throughout Europe, India and Africa. In defense, he was quoted as saying, "If an author's work sells steadily and well, worldwide, he should not need to waste time giving press interviews, writing introductions or bothering about what critics have to say."

Unlike Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, Chase did not use a series character although some characters appear in more than one novel. Chase's series characters include Police Detective Top Lepski, Vic Malloy a private eye, CIA agent Mark Girland, Helga Rolfe, Hermen Rednitz etc. His characters are always coherent and consistent; they act and react with an unbreakable logic. Other pseudonyms that Chase used were Raymond Marshall, Ambrose Grant and James L. Docherty.

He, while using the US for his locales in a majority of his novels, created imaginary locations such as Paradise, Fairview and Orchid Cities around Florida, USA. For a few novels, London too served as a locale. It is interesting to observe the differences in language and mannerisms of Chase's characters, as perceived by him, and even the differences in the plots, when the novels are based in USA and UK. In fact, most of the author's knowledge of USA has been derived from encyclopedias, maps and dictionaries. Chase visited Miami and New Orleans a couple of times and that too quite late in his life.

He lived a retiring and a secluded life in Corseaux-Sur-Vevey north of Lake Geneva. He moved to France in 1956 and over to Switzerland in 1961, the details of his personal life are not well known. During his lifetime, James Hadley Chase refused to give any press interviews, nor did he write any introductions to his novels. He firmly believed that his job was to write readable thriller stories for the general public, not to give lengthy details of his background or self-indulgent analyses of his literary influences.

His interests included photography, listening to classical music, he was an opera lover. As a form of relaxation, Chase put together highly complicated and sophisticated Meccano models. His work experience in the book trade and the Royal Air Force stood him in good stead throughout his writing career. He died on February 6, 1985, at Corseaux, Switzerland, survived by his wife, Sylvia Ray.

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