Belonging to much-before era from the ‘Harry Potter’ series and the Sci-fi movies and the advent of Net and ‘Net-flix’, many of us during the 60-70s were hooked onto one of the most prolific British writers of racy thrillers, called ‘James Hadley Chase’ ! I for one, can hardly remember having missed any of his ‘un-putdownable’ pieces of fiction which portrayed the underbelly of an amoral society driven by avarice and carnal lust to become rich and violence and crime that invariably surfaces there-from.
Born as René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, he was well known by his various pseudonyms, but by far the most popular one was ‘James Hadley Chase’. With pulsating titles like ‘Strictly for Cash’, ‘Tiger by the Tail’, ‘Safer Dead’. ‘You’ve Got it Coming’. ‘The Whiff of Money’ and many others, the Chase novels could grip from the first page. No literary genius, he was a superb spinner of spell-binding yarns set in Europe and US, which would occupy most of my waking hours in long train travels ! The climax would generally be explosive as the title of one of his famous novels ‘The Sucker Punch’ !
My favourite was ‘Hippie on the Highway’ which provided the inspiration for the amazing Hindi comic-thriller ‘Victoria 203’ ! It is said that one of his novels ‘ The Wary Transgressor’ was lifted by Hans Hellmut Kirst in perhaps his most famous novel ‘ The Night of the Generals’, which later became a popular film starring the incredible actor, Peter O’Toole in the title role.
Another facet was the wry humour and sardonic feel of his protagonists. Some interesting characters of the police force also recurred in his novels – Sergeant Lepski, the brilliant but violent cop, his superior Lt.Beigler and sensible Chief of Police, Terrell – all working to control crime in the city and nail the killers ! There was also ace Investigator, Maddox, who could smell a false insurance claim, miles away.
All his plots, however, reveal that many with dysfunctional backgrounds have a grouse against socially successful and immoral greed and lust brings out their sordid side to commit heinous crimes for which there is no redemption eventually. It’s really doesn’t pay in the end.
Why revel in the Chase novels after all these years when the present generation wouldn’t know them. It’s uncanny that his depiction of seamy side of civilised society with all its scars and blemishes surfaces with more frequency in today’s world specially the West.
Despite being a major superpower, with all its research, technology, innovations and Nobel prize winners, America’s recurring incidences of mass shootings and it’s violent gun-culture, show ugly manifestations of extreme materialism and break-down of core human values from time to time in certain sections of its society.
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