- pseudonym for René Brabazon Raymond - Wrote also as James L. Dochery, Ambrose Grant, Raymond Marshall

London-born former children's encyclopedia salesman and book wholesaler, who was inspired by the works of hardboiled American crime writers, and wrote NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH (1939). It became a huge success and is still claimed to be one of the bestselling mysteries ever published. Although Chase produced around 40 thrillers and gangster stories set in the United States, he only went there on short visits.

--'"It cost a lot of money," Slim said, watching her closely to see if she was listening. "But money means nothing to me now. I can buy you anything I fancy. I have all the money in the world. Look - what do you think this is?" He pushed the parcel towards her, but Miss Blandish ignored it. Muttering, Slim put his cold, damp had on her arm and pinched her flesh. She didn't move. She grimaced and closed her eyes.' (from No Orchids for Miss Blandish)

James Hadley Chase was born in London as the son of an army officer. He was educated at King's School, Rochester, Kent. He left home at the age of 18 and worked in several jobs before devoting himself entirely to writing. After reading James M. Cain's novel The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) he decided to try his own hand as a mystery writer. He had read about the American gangster Ma Barker and her sons, and with the help of maps and a slang dictionary, he composed in six weeks No Orchids for Miss Blandish. During World War II he served as a pilot in the RAF, ultimately achieving the rank of Squadron Leader. From this period dates Chase's unusual short story 'The Mirror in Room 22', in which he tried his hand outside the crime genre. In was set in an old house, occupied by officers of a squadron. The owner of the house had committed suicide in his bedroom and the last two occupants of the room have been found with a razor in their hands and their throats cut. The wing commander tells that when he started to shave before the mirror, he found another face in it. The apparition drew the razor across his throat. "The wing commander nodded. "I use a safety razor," he said. "Otherwise I might have met with a serious accident - especially if I used an old-fashioned cut-throat." The story was published under the author's real name in the anthology Slipstream in 1946.

Chase published some 80 books. More than twenty have been adapted into films in France and Italy. Joseph Losey's film version of Chase's thriller EVE (1945), made in 1962, was cut by the producers, the Hakim brothers. In the story Stanley Baker played a British writer, Tyvian, who is obsessed by a cold-hearted femme fatale, Eve (Jeanne Moreau). "Do you know how much this weekend's going to cost me?" he asks Eve. "Two friends, thirty thousand dollars …and a wife." Robert Aldrich's gangster film The Grissom Gang (1971) was based on No Orchids for Miss Blandish, and presented a wide variety of depraved criminals.

A number of Chase's works, such as I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS (1946) and YOUNG GIRLS BEWARE (1959) were attacked for their violence. Although many of his stories are located in the US, he paid there only two brief visits, one to Miami and one to New Orleans. Most of the author's knowledge of America has been derived from encyclopedias, detailed maps, and slang dictionaries. Chase's series characters include a corrupt ex-commando Brick-Top Corrigan, Vic Malloy, a Californian private eye, a former CIA agent Mark Girland, millionaire playboy Don Miclem, and Helga Rolfe. Vic Malloy appeared in YOU'RE LONELY WHEN YOU'RE DEAD (1949) and FIGURE IT OUT FOR YOURSELF (1950), and Mark Girland in THIS IS FOR REAL (1965) and YOU HAVE YOURSELF A DEAL (1966). Corrigan stories were written under the name Raymond Marshall, among others MALLORY (1950) and WHY PICK ON ME? (1951). Don Miclem had his adventures in European setting in MISSION TO VENICE (1954) and MISSION TO SIENA (1955).

In several Chase's stories the protagonist tries to find his place in the sun by committing a crime - an insurance fraud or a theft. But the scheme fails and leads to a murder and finally to cul-de-sac, in which the hero realizes that he never had a chance to keep out of trouble. Women are often beautiful, clever, and treacherous, who kill unhesitating if they have to cover a crime.

--"The jury will love your legs," Adams said comfortingly. "You'll only get twenty years. You'll be out of all the misery that's coming when they drop the H-bomb. You don't know yet, but you're a lucky girl." --Gilda turned and ran. She took five swift steps before she reached the big, curtained window.She didn't stop. She went through the curtains, through the glass and out of the window.
--Adams heard her thin, wailing scream as she went down into the darkness, and the thud of her body as it struck the sidewalk, sixteen stories below." (from Tiger by the Tail, 1954)

In THERE'S ALWAYS A PRICE TAG (1956) the author turns inside out the old plot, in which a man commits murder and then attempts to make his crime appear to be a suicide. In the story the protagonist attempts to make a suicide appear to be murder in order to lay his hands on the victim's insurance money. But there is no escape in Chase's world: "I looked out of the car window at the traffic, the people moving on the sidewalks, the shop windows and the blue of the sky. It seemed to me that it was imperative to store up in my mind the sight of these familiar things. I had a feeling I wouldn't see them again."

In TELL IT TO THE BIRDS (1963) Anson, a gambler and an energetic insurance salesman, knows that he has never been able to hold onto money but still thinks of a robbery: "This is it, he thought. There is a time when everyman worth a nickle must make up his mind what to do with his life. I've put off my decision long enough. I'll never get anywhere without money. With Meg to help me and with fifty thousand dollars to get me started, I'll reach up and take the sun out of the sky."

Chase lived retiring life and details of his personal history are uncertain. Also sadistic treatment of women in a number of his stories got Chase into trouble with critics and the authorities. Feminists could say much about Chase's views about sexual roles, but on the other hand his books do not offer anything new in the discussion: "Anson looked searchingly at her. His eyes moved over her body. He thought: you meet a woman and she starts a chemical reaction in you. You think there is no one like her in the world, the something happens, and it is finished. She means less to me now than the used plate after a good meal, and how little can that be?" (from Tell It to the Birds)

No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1939): Written in six weekends during 1938, the thriller was Chase's first novel. In the story a rich young heiress, Miss Blandish, is kidnapped by a mob of depraved killers. She fells in love with a one of the kidnappers, who lives in awe of his Ma - prefiguring James Gagney's role as Codie in the Raoul Walsh film White Heat (1948). Dave Fenner, the reporter turned private eye and hero of the story, also appeared in TWELVE CHINKS AND A WOMAN (1940). In 1944 George Orwell defended the book, which was considered Fascist and against all the values that England fought for in the World War II. The novel sold half a million copies during the wartime paper shortages, and was read more than any other title by serving members, men and women, of the British armed forces. Orwell wrote, that 'it is not, as one might expect, the product of an illiterate hack, but a brilliant piece of writing, with hardly a wasted word or a jarring note anywhere.' In 1942 the play of the book, written by the author and Robert Nesbitt with additional dialogue by Val Guest, toured Britain from 1942 until 1949. The principal players were Robert Newton, Linden Travers, Hartley Power and Mary Clare. In 1961 Chase revised No Orchids, paying particular attention to the dialogue. - For further information: 'Raffles and Miss Blandish' by George Orwell (Horizon, October 1944); Persephone by D. Streatfield (1959); Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, ed. by Chris Steinbrunner and Otto Penzler (1976); Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, ed. by John M. Reilly (1985); Cult Fiction by Andrew Calcutt and Richard Shephard (1998) - Note: Chase based his No Orchids for Miss Blandiss more or less on William Faulkner's novel Sanctuary (1931) - Suomeksi Chandlerilta on julkaistu noin seitsemänkymmentä teosta. - The French film What Price Murder (1958), dir. by Henri Verneuil, was also based on Chase's story. In depicted a young bank clerk who weds a rich widow and starts then to plan her murder with his beautiful secretary.

NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH, 1939 - Ei kukkia neiti Blandishille - film versions: 1948, dir. by St. John Clowes; 1971, The Grissom Gang, dir. by Robert Aldrich, starring Scott Wilson, Kim Darby, Tony Musante. 
THE DEAD STAY DUMB, 1939 - Vainajat eivät puhu 
HE WON'T NEED IT NOW, 1939 (as James L. Docherty) 
TWELVE CHINKS AND A WOMAN, 1940 - Nainen ja kaksitoista kiinalaista 
LADY - HERE'S YOUR WREATH, 1940 (as Raymond Marshall) 
GET A LOAD OF THIS, 1941 
MISS CALLAGHAN COMES TO GRIEF, 1941 - film: Young Girls Beware (1959), dir. by Yves Allegret 
MISS SHUMWAY WAVES A WAND, 1944 
JUST THE WAY IT IS, 1944 (as Raymond Marshall) - Kuolema uhkaa 
EVE, 1945 - film: Eve (1962), dir. by Joseph Losey, starring Stanley Baker, Jeanne Moreau, and Virna Lisi 
I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS, 1946 - Elämä pelissä - film: Lucky Nick Cain (1951), dir. by Joseph M. Newman 
BLONDE'S REQUIEM, 1946 (as Raymond Marshall) 
MAKE THE CORPSE WALK, 1946 (as Raymond Marshall) 
ed.: SLIPSTREAM: A ROYAL AIR FORCE ANTHOLOGY, 1946 (as René Raymond) 
LAST PAGE, 1946 (play) 
MORE DEADLY THAN THE MALE, 1946 (as Ambrose Grant) 
NO BUSINESS OF MINE, 1947 (as Raymond Marshall) 
THE FLESH OF THE ORCHID, 1948 
YOU NEVER KNOW WITH WOMEN, 1949 - Naisista ei koskaan tiedä 
THE FLESH OF THE ORCHID, 1948 - Lähtöjuhlat, neiti Blandish 
TRUSTED LIKE A FOX, 1948 (as Raymond Marshall) 
THE PAW IN THE BOTTLE, 1949 (as Raymond Marshall) 
YOU'RE LONELY WHEN YOU'RE DEAD, 1949 - Kuolema ei voi todistaa 
FIGURE IT OUT FOR YOURSELF, 1950 (THE MARIJUANA MOB) - Maksettu velka 
LAY HER AMONG THE LILIES, 1950 (TOO DANGEROUS TO BE FREE) - Todistajalla on este 
MALLORY, 1950 (as Raymond Marshall) - Mitä te maksatte? 
IN A VAIN SHADOW, 1951 (as Raymond Marshall) 
BUT A SHORT TIME TO LIVE, 1951 (as Raymond Marshall) 
WHY PICK ON ME? (as Raymond Marshall) - Valmis pahimpaan 
STRICTLY FOR CASH, 1951 - Ei mitään ilmaiseksi 
THE FAST BUCK, 1952 - Vaarallinen houkutus 
THE DOUBLE SHUFFLE, 1952 - Tarkoituksena kuolema 
THE WARY TRANSGRESSOR, 1952 (as Raymond Marshall) - Turmion tielle 
THE THINGS MEN DO, 1953 (as Raymond Marshall) - Myöhäistä katua 
THIS WAY FOR A SHROUD, 1953 - Ainoa todistaja 
I'LL BURY MY DEAD, 1953 - Hän tietää liikaa 
MISSION TO VENOCE, 1954 (as Raymond Marshall) 
THE SUCKER PUNCH, 1954 (as Raymond Marshall) - Vaarallista himoa 
TIGER BY THE TAIL, 1954 - Ampiaispesä - film: The Man in the Raincoat (1958), dir. by Julien Duvivier, starring Fernandel - note: a rare humorous adaptation of Chase's book 
SAFER DEAD, 1954 (DEAD RINGER) 
YOU'VE GOT IT COMING, 1955 - Liian pitkälle 
MISSION TO SIENA, 1955 (as Raymond Marshall) - Tehtävä Sienassa 
MISSION TO VENICE, 1954 - Tehtävä Venetsiassa 
THE PICKUP, 1955 (as Raymond Marshall) 
RUTHLESS, 1955 (as Raymond Marshall) 
YOU FIND HIM - I'LL FIX HIM, 1956 (as Raymond Marshall) - Kiusaus ja sen uhri 
THERE'S ALWAYS A PRICE TAG, 1956 - Kaikella on hintansa 
THE GUILTY ARE AFRAID, 1957 - Keinolla millä hyvänsä 
NEVER TRUST A WOMAN, 1957 (as Raymond Marshall) 
HIT AND RUN, 1958 (as Raymond Marshall) - Paha mielessä 
NOT SAFE TO BE FREE, 1958 (THE CASE OF THE STRANGLED STARLET) - Tule 16.00 
SHOCK TREATMENT, 1959 - Shokkikäsittely 
THE WORLD IN MY POCKET, 1959 - Maailma tarjottimella - film: On Friday at Eleven (1960), dir. by Alvin Rakoff, starring Rod Steiger, Nadja Tiller 
WHAT'S BETTER THAN MONEY, 1960 - Raha on valttia 
COME EASY - GO EASY, 1960 - Ei kiitetä rahasta 
JUST ANOTHER SUCKER, 1961 - Syytä itseäsi 
A LOTUS FOR MISS QUON, 1961 - Saigonin jalokivet 
I WOULD RATHER STAY POOR, 1962 - Hän ei saa kuolla 
A COFFIN FROM HONGKONG, 1962 - Ruumisarkku Hongkongista 
TELL IT TO THE BIRDS, 1963 - Kova hinta kuolemasta 
ON BRIGHT SUMMER MORNING, 1963 - Oli kaunis kesäaamu 
THE SOFT CENTRE, 1964 - Hetki on lyönyt 
THE WAY THE COOKIE CRUMBLES, 1965 - Armoton pikkumies 
THIS IS FOR REAL, 1967 - Isojen poikien leikit 
CADE, 1966 - Älä luota luopioihin 
YOU HAVE YOURSELF A DEAL, 1966 - Vasten tahtoaan 
WELL NOW, MY PRETTY-, 1967 - Vaarallista kaksoispeliä 
HAVE THIS ONE ON ME, 1967 - Suoraan ansaan 
AN EAR TO THE GROUND, 1968 - Syytä itseäsi 
BELIEVED VIOLENT, 1968 - Yli rajan 
THE VULTURE IS A PATIENT BIRD, 1969 - Houkutus rikokseen 
THE WHIFF OF MONEY, 1969 - Saalista väijymässä 
THERE'S A HIPPIE ON THE HIGHWAY, 1970 - Kurvit vievät kuolemaan 
LIKE A HOLE IN THE HEAD, 1970 - Valittu tappamaan 
WANT TO STAY ALIVE?, 1971 - Haluatko mielummin kuolla? 
AN ACE UP MY SLEEVE, 1971 - Kaikki yhden kortin varassa 
JUST A MATTER OF TIME, 1972- Ei ennen kuin hän on kuollut 
YOU'RE DEAD WITHOUT MONEY, 1972 - Onneton loppu 
KNOCK, KNOCK! WHO'S THERE, 1973 - Kaivaa hautaansa 
HAVE A CHANGE OF SCENE, 1973 
THREE OF SPADES, 1974 
SO WHAT HAPPENS TO ME?, 1974 - Miljoonakaappaus 
GOLDFISH HAVE NO HIDING PLACE, 1974 - Rikoksen kuva 
THE JOKER IN THE PACK, 1975 
BELIEVE THIS, YOU'LL BELIEVE ANYTHING, 1975 
DO ME A FAVOUR - DROP DEAD, 1976 
I HOLD THE FOUR ACES, 1977 - Vain neljä ässää 
MY LAUGH COMES LAST, 1977 - film 1995, dir. by Strathford Hamilton, starring Billy Zane, James Russo, Mia Sara 
MEET MARK GIRLAND, 1977 
CONSIDER YOURSELF DEAD, 1978 - Veriset lunnaat 
A CAN OF WORMS, 1979 - Armoton oikotie 
YOU MUST BE KIDDING, 1979 
YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN, 1980 
TRY THIS ONE FOR SIZE, 1980 - Onni vain yksillä 
HAND ME A FIG-LEAF, 1981- Eikä jälkeäkään jäänyt 
HAVE A NICE NIGHT, 1982 - Kerran se kirpasee 
WE'LL SHARE A DOUBLE FUNERAL, 1982 - Hautajaiset kahdelle 
NOT MY THING, 1983 - Ei pyydetä armoa 
HIT THEM WHERE IT HURTS, 1984 - Isku vyön alle 
MEET HELGA ROLFE, 1984 

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