Résumés

PAS D'ORCHIDEES POUR MISS BLANDISH *****, 1939,
When Dave Fenner was hired to solve the Blandish kidnapping, he knew the odds on finding the girl were against him ; the cops were still looking for her three months after the ransom had been paid. And the kidnappers, Riley and his gang, had disappeared into thin air.
But what none of them knew was that Riley himself has been wiped out by a rival gang and the heiress was now in the hands of Ma Grisson and her son Slim, a vicious killer who couldn't stay away from women... especially his beautiful new captive.
By the time Fenner began to close in on them, some terrible things had happened to Miss Blandish...

LES BOUCHEES DOUBLES ****, 1939,
Dillon est un héros de la trempe de John Dillinger ou de Bony and Clide. Il arrive dans une petite ville, affamé, assoiffé, plein de poussière, sans un sou. Mais ce n’est pas un clochard, c’est un dur.
On lui offre un repas puis du travail. Il fait peur mais il attire l’attention, il est plein d’énergie, quelque part ça le rend sympathique. Il vit comme un boxeur à l’entraînement, pas d’alcool, pas de femmes, il ne connaît pas la peur. Rapidement il s’impose au gang local.
Après quelques péripéties, quelques meurtres et bon nombre d’attaques à main armée il s’installe dans le chef lieu et grimpe vite dans la « hiérarchie ». Dillon est maintenant devenu le bras droit du caïd local. Installé dans une vie confortable il commence à s’intéresser aux femmes, mais rapidement elles le perturbent, elles ruinent son mental. Devenu instable et ombrageux, il perd sa lucidité et décide de monter plus haut comme par caprice. Cependant cette ascension est très mal préparée, il n’a pas d’ami ni de protection efficace. Bien sûr il parvient à liquider les deux chefs de bande, mais pour rien, au lieu de s’installer à leur place il est réduit à fuir sur les routes.
De plus en plus violent il fait le vide autour de lui. Il continue à tuer… jusqu’à son dernier ami. Ses nerfs le lâchent, la peur le gagne, il s’avilit, et dès qu’il touche à l’alcool il n’est plus rien : il tente d'abuser d'une gamine handicapée mentale, mais elle l’écrase comme un insecte nuisible.
C’est le deuxième roman de James Hadley Chase dont les débuts sont fracassants. ‘No orchids for Miss Blandish’ a été immédiatement un énorme best seller. James, alors inspiré par les romans noirs américains et par les gangsters de cette époque nous livre ici son second chef d’œuvre, les dialogues sont percutants, et quel suspense !

QU'EST-CE QU'ON DEGUSTE, 1939
DUFFY AND HIS DANGEROUS DAMES
Bill Duffy is a newsman, a real pro photographer. He lives hard, drinks hard and he's tough, except where women are concerned. And when he finds himself with ravishingly beautiful woman in her apartment very late one night, it takes all his willpower to resist, willpower, and a very mangled corpse which somehow fell down the elevator shaft. And that was only the beginning...
Another sizzling murder thriller by the acknowledged master of crime fiction, James Hadley Chase.

DOUZE CHINETOQUES ET UNE SOURIS, 1940,
BIG TROUBLE
When a curvaceous, beautiful girl walks into your office, strips, and offers you a $6,000 retainer to help her out of the trouble she's in, it's hard to refuse.
Especially if you're private eye Dave Fenner, the man who busted the notorious Blandish case.
But by the time Dave had been beaten half to death and been forced to shoot his way out of a load of very unhealthy situations, he realised that chivalry - even if it was paid for in hard cash - was no way to stay alive...
The Doll's Bad News is a Hadley Chase masterpiece of high-power explosive action - for strong-nerved readers only.

LE CORBILLARD DE MADAME, 1940
It was Larry Richmond who'd been murdered - and he was the President of the Makenzie Fabric Corporation. Many big names were shareholders in the business, including the Commissioner of Police. The boys from the Press had been told to lay off investigations - the word was that the Corporation was a blind for something much bigger...
Small wonder then when Nick Mason began asking questions about the frame-up of Vessi for Richmond's murder, he started a lot of trouble - and when he wanted to quit, it was too late...

LE FIN MOT DE L'HISTOIRE, 1941, (recueil de nouvelles) :
Quatorze petites histoires mais très corrosives. Certaines sont même particulièrement cruelles. Ce sont quatorze romans noirs en condensé. Chase nous fait là un brillant exercice de style, avec sa façon magique de créer une ambiance en quelques lignes.

- Le fin mot de l'histoire
- Visite matinale
- Tableau de genre
- Une occasion magnifique
- Le paradis des amoureux
- Sortie nocturne
- Une oreille à la traîne
- Auto-stop
- Tour de passe-passe
- Le Général meurt dans son lit
- Promenade dans le parc
- Veille
- A fleur de peau
- L'ange peinturluré

MEFIEZ-VOUS FILLETTES !, 1941
Again Chase's own story-telling magic that rivets the reader's attention and interest from the first page to the last. The result is a thriller that sets the pulse pounding and the heart thumping.
This is yet another from James Hadley Chase's stable that will keep you chair-ridden until the last page.
CAPE TIMES (SOUTH AFRICA)

MISS SHUMWAY JETTE UN SORT, 1944
James Hadley Chase also waves his wand with this masterly thriller and transport the reader into a strange situation which has everything in the way of action and suspense. The author also reveals for the first time a new facet to his talent : besides punch and speed, " Miss Shumway waves a wand " has a splendid vein of humour !

EN TROIS COUPS DE CUILLER A POT, 1944
GAMBLER WITH A GUN
Harry Duke has a reputation. As a gambler. And in Bentonville, USA, gambling is King. But Duke has another reputation. He killed a man once. So no-one messes with Harry Duke.
That is, until someone tries to make it look like Duke slit a guy's throat one night. It's a neat frame-up. But Duke still has a few aces in his hand. Aces and a gun...

EVA *****, 1945
EVE : MYSTERIOUS, TANTALISING, ALLURING, WANTON
Deep within this desirable but strange girl burnt the violent fires that could destroy a man.
Clive Thurston had swindled his way to fame. He thought he knew the ropes ; and women. Maybe he did. But he didn't know Eve, otherwise he'd have realised that he was just another fly stumbling into the deadly web of a woman who was beautiful to look at ; but lethal to love...
Eve was made into a successful, highly acclaimed film by Joseph Losey, starring Stanley Baker and Jeanne Moreau.

ELLES ATTIGENT ****, 1946
Un personnage bizarre, très inhabituel… Georges Fraser est grand gars, large d’épaules mais très timide. Il vit seul, très seul, son unique compagnon est un chat, timide et farouche, tout comme lui, en quelque sorte son âme réincarnée.
Georges est ordonné et courageux, il gagne sa vie en faisant du porte à porte. Il vend des encyclopédies pour les enfants, c’est un petit job qui lui permet de survivre. A force de travail le métier est bien rentré, il parvient à dérouler son argumentaire avec un certain art, et réussit à faire quelques ventes.
Le soir il s’évade en rêvant qu’il est un caïd de la grande époque d’Al Capone et de Dillinger… Ce délire tourne même à la mythomanie : quand sa logeuse vient faire le ménage il lui raconte ses exploits imaginaires, du temps où il était aux Amériques au milieu des gangsters.
Mais ce petit monde étriqué et tranquille va vite changer ! On donne à Georges la mission de former une nouvelle recrue. Le jeune en question est en fait un dur à cuire qui s’est mis au vert. Pour ce qui est de vendre des encyclopédies il va en vendre, c’est un surdoué absolument sans scrupule. Bien vite il entraîne Georges sur une très mauvaise pente. Lui et sa sœur...
Cora est une jeune tigresse qui ne craint personne, elle vit comme un animal. Belle, sauvage, amorale, elle est désordre et souillon jusqu’à l’ignoble ! Encore une héroïne de Chase comme on les aime !
Georges est enamouré et aveuglé comme un gros insecte qui vient brûler ses ailes au lampadaire. Il se laisse entraîné, manipulé, piétiné, broyé… du moins jusqu’au jour où Cora commet l'erreur de toucher à son chat.
Ce roman est une terrifiante promenade dans les faubourgs de Londres, on n’est pas très loin des Mystères de Paris d’Eugène Sue. Et le porte à porte a été le premier métier de James, aussi a-t-on droit à une véritable leçon sur la vente à domicile, avec toutes les ficelles du métier. Et quelle leçon ! tous les manuels commerciaux sont battus.

LAST PAGE, 1946, (pièce de théâtre)

DOUZE BALLES DANS LA PEAU, 1946
Chester Cain, gunman and gambler, finds his vacation at Paradise Springs rudely interrupted by the City Administrator, who uses a luscious woman to trap Cain into a murder frame-up.
From then on the action, punctuated by gunfire, moves like an express train, as Cain ploughs his way through violence and adventure to bring this fast-moving thriller to an explosive climax.

FAITES DANSER LE CADAVRE, 1946
Money buys everything... or at least, that's what eccentric millionaire Kester Weidmann believed. So when his brother died, Kester figured all he had to do was to buy the services of a voodoo expert and bring him back to life.
But first he had to find a voodoo expert. And for that he employed Rollo - a small-time operator who used the Gilded Lily Club as a front. Rollo thought he had it made - it would be the con trick of the century. But he was reckoning without the interference of Celie, his smouldering Creole mistress, and Butch, the club muscle-man, who both decided that Weidmann's fortune was worth a heck of a lot more than Rollo's flabby neck...

LE MIROIR DE LA CHAMBRE 22, 1946, (cinq pages, publiées dans le journal de la Royale Air Force) 
C'est une histoire très anglaise, malicieuse à souhait. En quelques lignes, et avec presque rien, James nous construit un suspense et une ambiance terrifiante, c'est un véritable tour de magie d'un JHC déjà au sommet de son art. Un joli cadeau de Noël pour toute l'Angleterre en guerre.

SLIPSTREAM : A ROYAL AIR FORCE ANTHOLOGY, 1946, publié par René Raymond
Pendant les années de guerre le Journal de la Royale Air Force avait un tirage restreint au cercle des officiers. A la fin de la guerre, René Raymond et son ami David Langdon, un autre officier, Chef d'Escadron comme lui, sélectionnèrent une soixantaine d'articles ou nouvelles, pour les publier dans un recueil qui fut vendu au bénéfice des bonnes oeuvres de la RAF.
Ces articles ont été écrits par des pilotes et autres personnels de la RAF, hommes ou femmes, pendant les rudes combats de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale.
Amateurs ou écrivains chevronnés, ils apportent tous des témoignages particulièrement intéressants, voire même poignants. En particulier les retours vers l'Angleterre des bombardiers endommagés et des équipages blessés.
Parmi ces récits, une note plus amusante avec "Le Miroir de la chambre 22" de René Raymond.

LE REQUIEM DES BLONDES, 1946
" Certainly lives up to its title. One is compelled to read James Hadley Chase, it's an experience few others can provide. "
COVENTRY EVENING NEWS

N'Y METTEZ PAS VOTRE NEZ, 1947
He was a big strapping fellow around thirty, broad and well-built, but far from muscular ; soft, just this side of fat.
" Hello, Baby, " he said, " You one of her boyfriends ? "
" Go jump in a lake, " I said, " Jump into two if one won't hold you, " and I turned back to Netta's door.
He giggled. " There's no one there, " he said, adding in an undertone, " She's dead : died by her own hand. "
I felt a little cold breath again my cheek. There was something wrong here. I knew Netta well. She wasn't the suicide type.
And that's how it began. From then on Steve Harmas, American newspaper correspondent, was never out of trouble. Netta's body was kidnapped, then her mysterious sister Anne also committed suicide.
Harmas, working on his own to try to solve the mystery of these two girls' deaths, became so involved that followed that he was in danger of being arrested himself.
" No Business of Mine ", written with tremendous speed and punch, has an ending that comes like the crack of a whip.

LA CHAIR DE L'ORCHIDEE ******, 1948
Parmi les "courses poursuites" hallucinantes que nous a livré James, c'est de loin la plus réussie, avec à la fois un rythme endiablé et un suspense quasiment insoutenable.
James n'a pas lésiné sur le casting : on y trouve des lanceurs de couteaux, une femme à barbe, des malades mentaux dangereux, échappés de l'asile, des gangsters et d'ignobles profiteurs sans scrupule.
Dans la première partie, une extraordinaire chasse à l'homme s'organise pour retrouver Carole Blandish, la riche et belle héritière qui s'est échappée de l'asile psychiatrique. Son tuteur, qui profite de sa fortune, lance à ses trousses les autorités, la police, les infirmiers de l'asile... Tout le monde court après la récompense. Recueillie par Steve Larson, dans une petite ferme de montagne, Carole ne reste pas longtemps à l'abri. Les "frères" Sullivan, deux dangereux tueurs à gages et fins limiers, viennent participer à la chasse.
Carol est très fragile, inconsciente, adorable, sans défense et très repérable à sa longue chevelure rousse. Elle ne fait que des mauvaises rencontres jusqu'au docteur du village qui l'enferme dans sa cave au lieu de soigner Steve ! De temps en temps une crise de démence la sort d'une mauvaise situation pour la faire retomber dans un autre péril. Ses réactions face au danger sont imprévisibles, on ne sait jamais si elle va être forte ou faible : le suspense atteint un niveau horrifiant.
Dans la seconde partie, Carole sauvée par un jeune couple, a retrouvé sa liberté et sa fortune, mais pas Steve que les Sullivan sont revenus achever. La gentille Carole désemparée n'existe plus. Parfaitement consciente de sa situation, froide, déterminée, animée d'une haine féroce, elle organise ses affaires et part se venger. Miss Lolly, la femme à barbe, va l'aider à remonter la piste des deux tueurs. Le soir de l'exécution de Steve, Carole a pu crever les yeux de Frank mais c'est loin d'être suffisant : ils n'ont pas fini de payer !

TRAQUENARDS, 1948
Two killers wanted her - one for protection and one for prey. One of them had slain a helpless man to hide the secret of his identity. And he was quite prepared to kill the girl if she tried to double-cross him. But he'd reckoned without that terrible accident - and he was totally unprepared for the insane murderer who made death a ritual with a silver-handled knife.

GARCES DE FEMMES, 1949
Here is a story that zips along at a breakneck speed and again points to the reason why James Hadley Chase has gained such a world-wide reputation for explosive and non-stop action. To Floyd Jackson, private investigator and blackmailer, comes Cornelius Gorman with a odd proposition. Gorman looks after the interests of a number of big stars. Veda Rux is a young woman known in the profession as a stripper. The previous night, Gorman explains, she performed at a dinner given by millionaire, Lindsay Brett, who has recently acquired a priceless dagger, reputed to be made by Cellini. The dagger is shown to the guests and then locked in the safe. Veda Rux is a somnambulist and takes the dagger from the safe in her sleep, only discovering what she has done when she has left the millionaire's house. Gorman wants Jackson to return the dagger to the safe before the theft is discovered. Jackson is sure the story is a tissue of lies. In his own words : "I should have told him to jump into a lake. I wish I had now. It wouldn't have saved me a lot of grief, and being hunted for murder. But I thought I was smart enough to play it my way, and keep out of trouble, so I said I'd do it.
He was too smart for Gorman, when he fell in love with Veda his doom was sealed. From the moment he agrees to return the dagger, he is caught up in a relentless intrigue that makes him a cats paw for murder.

TU SERAS TOUT SEUL DANS TON CERCUEIL, 1949
It began as just another routine assignment for Vic Malloy, head of Universal Services. He'd been hired to watch the lovely Anita Cerf, whose millionaire husband suspected her of being a kleptomaniac. Everything was going fine until one of Malloy's operators was found dead - brutally murdered while working on the Cerf case...
Determined to find the killer himself, Malloy tried to interview Anita Cerf - but the lady was unavailable and had completely disappeared. So Vic Malloy found himself on the trail of a vicious murderer who was quite prepared to kill more than once. And the only person willing to help was a gorgeous red-head who swore she was just going along for the ride... but was she ?

LA MAIN DANS LE SAC, 1949
HARD, RUTHLESS, AMORAL..
that was Julie Holland - a good-time girl who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. And when the chance came to play a major role in a furs robbery she jumped at it. Luck smiled on her for even when everything went wrong with the plot and the gang-leader was arrested for a murder of which he was innocent, Julie still emerged from it with a thousand a year and a Mayfair flat.
But she was not satisfied yet - and the inevitable fate of the over-greedy awaited her. 

COUCHE-LA DANS LE MUGUET, 1950
It was odd that a healthy young heiress like Janet Crosby should die of heart failure. Odder still that on the day she died she sent a note and $500 to Vic Malloy, private investigator, asking him to trace the person who was blackmailing her sister.
Intrigued by the note, Malloy tried to see Maureen Crosby but only got as far as her nurse - a curvaceous blonde with an engaging bedside manner. Next he tried to see Janet's personal maid, but found that somebody else had reached her first and made sure she wouldn't talk to anyone - ever again...
Unless he dropped the case Malloy knew he would almost certainly become the killer's next victim ; but when the blonde nurse disappeared and a hired gunman tried to shot him, it seemed he didn't have any choice left...

C'EST LE BOUQUET !, 1950
A gray-pink bra and girdle lay in a soiled heap with her dress and stockings. The thought of the warm, soft flesh they had concealed started that muscle in my jaw twitching. I moved towards the bathroom door. I knew she was there. She had to be.
She was in one of those soft, clingy blue nightgowns. I walked towards her and took her hand. It was cold and the room stank from marijuana smoke...

LACHEZ LES CHIENS, 1950
A small French resistance group comes to London after the war to avenge the death of their leader, betrayed to the Gestapo by one of their members. But the traitor, Mallory, proves more than a match for them, and two of them are killed. The remaining three call in outside aid. They pick on Martin Corridon, an ex-commando, who accepts the commission to kill Mallory for £1,500, meaning to double-cross the avengers as soon as he gets the money. But it doesn't work out that way and Corridon is forced to search for Mallory from the dens of Soho to a remote Scottish island...

DANS LE CIRAGE, 1951
'Strictly for cash' is the story of how Johnny Farrar made his roll of money. He started out to make five thousand and ended up with a quarter of million. But he didn't get it by legitimate means. And as a result, he found himself in big trouble. From the moment the reins of the richest casino on the Florida coast fell into his hands, he was sucked into a whirlpool of suspense, intrigue, murder and ruthless ambush from which he was unable to tear himself free.
'Strictly for cash' is a non-stop hair-trigger thriller by today's undisputed king of action and suspense, James Hadley Chase.

IL FAIT CE QU'IL PEUT, 1951, (= NE TIREZ PAS SUR LE PIANISTE)
The dice were loaded against them... but survival could be bought - for a price
Milly Lawes a Piccadilly streetwalker, found a strange ring in her room one day. An hour later she was dead, and the ring gone. Scotland Yard knew all about the ring though ; so did the Secret Service, and before very long, did Martin Corridon, ex-Commando, ex-M15, ex-ethics of any kind... Corridon didn't really want to know, didn't want to work with the service again, but Milly had been a sort of friend, and the thought of her cut throat and blood soaked bed was enough to send him off on a trail of sabotage and murder. A trail that had him running as hunter, and hunted...

LA PETITE VERTU ****, 1951, (= SIRENE A LA MANQUE)
Most people didn't object to having their photograph taken and a street photographer like Harry Ricks had to take chances sometimes, it was part of the job. But when he snapped a beautiful girl one evening in Leicester Square, he didn't bargain on being beaten up in an alley and having the film torn from his camera...
And when the same beautiful girl became his fiancée, Harry was in deep trouble - there were too many questions he couldn't answer. She was a model, used to the good times - what did she see an ordinary guy like him ? Where did the expensive gifts she gave him come from ? And what kind of power the man she called her agent have over her...?
Written with tremendous speed and punch, has an ending that comes like the crack of a whip.

L'ABOMINABLE PARDESSUS, 1951
" Bodyguard required. Ex-Commando preferred. Good prospects and pay for the right man. " - it looked like a good number, and Frank Mitchell was out of a job. And he had all the qualifications.
The body needing guarding was Sarek, a black-market dealer in smuggled diamonds - but the body that really caught Frank's attention was Rita's. Rita was Sarek's wife, and she'd been waiting a long time for the foolproof plan to rid herself of the skinny little crook who called himself her husband... The prize was high - freedom for her, and a parcel of diamonds for the man who helped her. Frank walked in at just the right moment... 

LA CULBUTE, 1952
TAKE YOUR PARTNERS FOR MURDER !
The sensuous splendour of Lago Maggiore, Milan and Florence is a setting for a ruthless murder plan... a sinister danse macabre, the first steps of which are taken when a young army deserter falls into the hands of a wealthy and cruel woman planning to kill her husband and step-daughter.
But, unexpectedly, Fate intervenes and sets a deadly trap for - The Wary Transgressor...
James Hadley Chase is regarded by thriller fans everywhere as the undisputed King of the crime story. Once you have read this thrill-packed novel you'll see why.

DU GATEAU, 1952
The International Detective Agency had spent fifteen patient and fruitless years trying to recover the fabulous Chittabad jewel collection stolen by Paul Hater - now "safe" and silent on the notorious Bellmore State Prison Farm, Louisiana. But the Agency weren't the only interested party.
A curious and complicated alliance of ruthless underworld figures had also been attracted by the four million dollar glittering prize... and they'd hired the services of a man who could be relied upon to see the job through. Baird had a singular reputation - he was a born killer...

VIPERE AU SEIN, 1952
Why would an obscure blonde dancer who performed in a G-string - with a deadly snake for a partner - be insured for a million dollars ? That what Steve Harmas, special investigator, had to try and find out. It was supposed to be simply a publicity stunt - a trick to get Susan Gellert's name in the newspapers - but somebody stood to gain an awful lot of money if she died. And Steve was sure that whoever it was didn't intend to wait very long before collecting the compensation money...

UN TUEUR PASSE, 1953
It is the story of organised blackmail, punctuated by sudden and gruesome murder, peopled by ruthless killers, shady cops and Mr. Chase's own particular brand of young ladies.
She leaned against the wall, sweat running down her face, her knees sagging, feeling the pain as it moved inside her as if it were alive. She was too frightened to pull out the knife. She held on to the handle, crying weakly as she felt her life draining out of her.
A voice said, " Lie down and die, you bitch, " and a hand came out of the darkness and shoved her savagely and violently to the ground.

CA N'ARRIVE QU'AUX VIVANTS, 1953
Un bon Chase avec tous les ingrédients nécessaires : une femme fatale, des gangsters sans scrupules, un hold-up qui tourne mal.
Harry Collins est un petit garagiste qui tire le diable par la queue. Avec Ann, son épouse, ils triment et se privent de tout, mais leur situation financière est de plus en plus fragile.
Harry est une proie facile, vampé par Gloria et appâté par quelques promesses, il tombe dans un piège qui l'oblige à participer à un hold-up...
Mais petit à petit Harry reprend ses esprits, la mort de son meilleur ami est un électrochoc, il n'a plus peur, il redevient le guerrier qu'il était dans l'armée. Il part seul à la poursuite du gang.
Parmi les 89 romans de James Hadley Chase on trouve trois types d'intrigue, le "thriller en entonnoir" où les personnages sont pris dans un étau qui se resserre, le drame psychologique de la déchéance (Eve, Cade...) dans un style que l'on retrouvera plus tard avec Patricia Highsmith (Deep Waters, Edith's diary, The glass cell), et enfin le roman d'aventure, style "Indiana Jones", où il y a tellement d'action et de rebondissements que cela devient un peu la course à l'échalote...
The things men do est bien du type entonnoir avec un piège inextricable qui se referme sur le pauvre Harry. Mais James Hadley Chase fait plus que cela, à travers ce personnage il nous dresse une étude psychologique qui est un véritable petit chef d'oeuvre. Harry balance entre le bien et le mal, sa femme et son meilleur ami l'empêche un temps de basculer, mais il finit par tomber.
En fait Harry est prisonnier d'une vie trop exiguë, même l'amour de sa femme est étouffant, il a besoin d'oxygène, il pense pouvoir s'échapper un peu et se dégager des ennuis financiers...
Mais ses nouveaux "amis" ne sont pas bien intentionnés et ne cherchent pas à lui rendre service... Quand il touche le fond il réagit en homme... Va-t-il enfin revenir du bon côté : Non ! ses mauvais instincts de guerrier se sont réveillés et il part se venger.
Ce personnage est tellement vrai que l'on rentre complètement dans sa peau pour vivre intensément ses tentations et ses remords.

RIEN NE SERT DE MOURIR ****, 1953
Dans un accès de jalousie meurtrière Jack Maurer a sauvagement assassiné sa maîtresse, l’actrice June Arnot, et il l’a tué lui-même !
Depuis des années Maurer règne en maître sur la pègre et le Procureur attendait depuis longtemps qu’il commette enfin une erreur…
C’est un crime horrible, Maurer a découpé June en morceaux et son homme de main a liquidé tous les employés de maison. Cependant une jeune starlette semble avoir été présente sur les lieux du crime… ce serait un témoin majeur, mais où est-elle ?
Maurer est renseigné au jour le jour par les informateurs qu’il a dans les rangs de la police… Il s’engage une effrayante course poursuite entre l’équipe de Conrad, l’Inspecteur chargé de l’enquête, et les tueurs à la solde de Maurer. Quels seront les premiers à retrouver Frances Coleman ?
Les tueurs ont une longueur d’avance mais la nature humaine a ses mystères… et Conrad va maintenant se retrouver avec deux témoins. Encore faut-il pouvoir les protéger jusqu’au procès…
Maurer s’est placé hors de portée. Son bras droit, qui est aussi son avocat, prend la relève. Celui-ci tente une diabolique manœuvre d’avocat qui échoue de justesse. Se retrouvant impuissant et incapable de traiter le problème, il se résout à faire appel à « l’exécuteur » de la mafia, Vito Ferrari.
Arrive un horrible nain... très rapidement personne ne plaisante plus à son sujet.
Les témoins sont gardés dans un véritable camp retranché, surveillé jour et nuit par une petite armée… Mais toutes ces mesures de protection suffiront-elles à arrêter Vito Ferrari ?
Si vous voulez du roman noir vous allez être servis ! A ce niveau ce n’est même plus du suspense : on reste glacé d’horreur de la première à la dernière page !
Frances Coleman est une charmante et délicieuse jeune fille. Encore une héroïne de Chase particulièrement attachante ! Il faudra un jour en faire la liste… Qui a dit que les JHC girls n’étaient que des vamps ou des traînées sans aucune moralité ?
Pour être honnête il faut tout de même reconnaître que la turbulente Janey, l’épouse de Conrad, correspond bien au profil habituel.

UNE MANCHE ET LA BELLE ***, 1954
Chad Winters est un pitoyable employé de banque, tire-au-flanc, fainéant, malhonnête, ses collègues ne l’aiment pas… mais en dehors du boulot c’est un petit coq avec les femmes.
Son patron, un vieil ami de son père, lui donne une dernière chance en lui confiant la gestion d’un très gros compte, celui de Vestal Shelley. Ce n’est pas un cadeau, ses prédécesseurs n’ont pas fait long feu à ce poste.
Mais bizarrement, là où tous les autres ont échoué, il réussit. Comme il n’a aucun scrupule, mais beaucoup de culot, au lieu de se laisser marcher sur les pieds il prend en main les affaires de Vestal. Il transfert les différents comptes de Vestal vers d’autres sociétés de gestion, à chaque fois il en profite pour extorquer une commission. Vestal s’en aperçoit mais Chad ne craint pas les femmes, la querelle qui s’en suit lui donne l’occasion de la soumettre.
Vestal tombe amoureuse de ce tyran et l’épouse. De son côté Chad n’épouse que la fortune de Vestal, il faut dire que physiquement elle n’est pas très attirante.
Evidemment ce mariage est un échec. Chad est un éternel insatisfait, il veut tout, il ne supporte rien, il ne s’intéresse à rien et il est horriblement égoïste et cruel avec Vestal.
A cause de son complexe de supériorité et de son appétit insatiable il va se faire piéger par une autre femme qui ne lui cède que pour mieux le manœuvrer. Chad est tellement pressé de se débarrasser de Vestal qu’il saute sur la première occasion. Son plan manque de simplicité, il frôle la catastrophe et laisse des indices… et son alibi s’avère moins solide qu’il ne l’imaginait.
Ce meurtre de Vestal est certainement l’assassinat le plus horrible jamais raconté par James Hadley Chase. Dans ‘The Way the Cookie Crumbles’, le gigolo Phil Agir va chercher Norena Marsh à son pensionnat pour l’emmener voir sa mère à l’hôpital ; en fait il s’arrête au bord de la route pour l’étrangler dans un bois, elle s’échappe, il ne parvient à la tuer qu’après une poursuite atroce. Dans ‘The Flesh of the Orchid’ les Sullivan’s brothers, deux immondes tueurs professionnels, immolent Roy Larsen en l’arrosant d’essence et se régalent du spectacle... Mais vous pouvez chercher parmi les 89 romans noirs de Chase, vous ne trouverez rien de comparable au meurtre de Vestal, la scène occupe d’ailleurs presque tout un chapitre.
En tant que lecteur on se trouve obligé de rentrer dans la peau de Chad Winters parce que le livre est sa confession, racontée à la première personne. Par très sympa de ta part James !
Chad adresse cette confession au Procureur pour impliquer sa complice qui a manœuvré pour l’inciter au meurtre.
Mais quelle ignoble confession ! On ne donnera pas l’absolution à ce monstre.

PARTIE FINE, 1954
One night of midsummer madness... and Ken Holland, a respectable, married bank official, jeopardises his happiness and his future. The sudden temptation to kick over the traces while his wife is away lands Holland up to his ears in a vortex of political intrigue and murder. Set against a background of gangster politicians, blackmailers, gunmen and hard-boiled characters, the action of this explosive thriller takes place over a period of only thirty hours.
But what hours they are !

ALERTE AUX CROQUE-MORTS, 1954,
The Editor of a monthly crime and detection magazine assigns to two of his staff writers, Sladen and Low, the investigation of the strange disappearance of an unknown showgirl.
The disappearance was reported fourteen months earlier, but the trail is cold. The police, with nothing to work on, have lost interest. The assignment doesn't look hopeful.
However, the investigators start asking questions and almost immediately things begin to happen. Witnesses are murdered, an attempt is made to do away with the investigators. The police once more open the case. The disappearance of the showgirl is found to be only a minor part of a ruthless murder plot.
Safer Dead has the authentic James Hadley Chase touch, which has deservedly earned him the title of " Master of the Art of Deception ". It moves with the pace and power of forked lightning.

VOIR VENISE... ET CREVER, 1954
SUDDEN DEATH LURKS ALONG THE CANALS OF VENICE
That's what Don Micklem, millionaire American playboy on the trail of a disappearing one-time British agent, discovered the hard way. Had this quarry been murdered - or had he committed treason ?
Micklem's adventures, his fight against a ruthless political organisation and his narrow escapes from violent death, all set against a taut background of Venice's sinister waterways, make a deep-freeze chiller of a book that will compel the reader to read it through at a sitting.
http://wwwedu.ge.ch/co/florence/place_reine/agence_voyages/2000_2001/venise/15.html

SIGNE LA TORTUE, 1955
For years the world-wide operations of a mysterious and ruthless extortioner who called himself the Tortoise had baffled Scotland Yard and the police forces Of Europe. But, slippery thought he was, he was no match for the fast-thinking, fast-action Don Micklem, a wealthy American who got the Tortoise's trail and tracked him to his lair...
James Hadley Chase is universally recognized as the thriller maestro of the generation. His intricate, fascinating plots and his sizzling, machine-gun-fast action are unrivalled by any other writer.

EN CREVANT LE PLAFOND, 1955
" The world is made up of smart guys who get rich and suckers who stay poor, " Harry Griffin tells his girl friend, Glorie. " I've been a sucker too long ; now I'm going to be smart. I know where I can lay my hands on three million bucks, so I'm going to take them. "
This is the story of how Harry Griffin makes his desperate bid to hi-jack a passenger aircraft while in mid-flight, and steal a collection of industrial diamonds. It is also the story of Glorie Dane who tries to save him from the inevitable consequences of his action.
You've Got It Coming contains all the ingredients, the taut suspense and the excitement that we have come to expect from James Hadley Chase who has been described as by far and away the best writer of thrillers in the English language.

RETOUR DE MANIVELLE, 1956
We are all familiar with the well-worn and by now, threadbare plot of the man who commits murder and then attempts to make his crime appear to be suicide.
In There's Always a Price Tag, James Hadley Chase turns this old plot inside out and give us a new and electrifying reverse of the coin; the man who attempts to make a suicide appear to be murder in order to lay his hands on the victim's insurance money.
Here is a thriller that will quicken your heartbeat. It is by far the most ingenious story that this "Master of the art of deception" has yet given us.

FAIS-MOI CONFIANCE, 1956
FORBIDDEN FRUIT...
When your boss asks you to 'look after' his daughter during her stay in Rome, and when that daughter has a reputation for being fast, dangerous and beautiful, you play it cool - if you're smart. Ed Dawson, newspaper man, was smarter than most. But even he, in this instance, found it impossible to keep his fingers out of temptation's way. And from the moment he arrived in Sorrento to spend an illicit weekend with the girl in her secluded villa by the Mediterranean, Dawson was heading for trouble...

POCHETTE SURPRISE, 1957
St. Raphael was the place they called Vacation City - a millionaire's playground of exclusive clubs and pretty girls with expensive tastes.
Inquiry Agent, Lew Brandon, flew to the City after receiving a message from his partner that he was involved on a big case and needed help ; Brandon didn't realised just how fast until he arrived in St. Raphael and found Jack Cheppey dead - pierced clean through with an ice pick.
Suddenly it seemed that everyone wanted Brandon out of town. The police made it clear he wasn't welcome and an influential millionaire threatened to make his stay very unpleasant. But somewhere in Vacation City a murderer was having himself a holiday. Lew Brandon meant to find him and the mysterious blonde who was the last person to see Jack Cheppey alive...

LE DEMONIAQUE ****, 1958, ( = A TENIR AU FRAIS )
Who murdered Lucille Balu, a rising young film star, found strangled to death in a hotel elevator ?
Set against the background of the fabulous Côte d'Azur and the Cannes Film Festival, Chase's new thriller tells the story of a young degenerate with an inner compulsion to kill.

DELIT DE FUITE, 1958
Lucille Aitken had the kind of body that made men look at her with the kind of eyes you usually see in hungry animals. The very thought of her left Ches feeling as if he'd been hit with a sledgehammer, his mouth dry, heart humping... She was a real knock-out. A lovely lady who had no business being married to a baby-snatching tycoon more than twice her age. Ches had only known her for five nights, yet he knew he'd never be more in love. But falling in love with Lucille was one of the most dangerous games a man could play ; making love to her was playing with fire. Why ? Well, Lucille was just that kind of girl. Dynamite. Worse. Poison...

TRAITEMENT DE CHOC, 1959
This is the story of Terry Regan, radio and T.V. salesman, who falls in love with Gilda, the wife of a herd drinking bully who spends his life in a wheel-chair. Because of Gilda's fatal fascination, Regan decides to get rid of her husband so that he himself can marry her; and he hits on an ingenious murder plan. The murderer is to be the television set that stands in the husband's lounge.
But ingenious murder plans have habit of backfiring, and this one is no exception. Once again James Hadley Chase lives up to his reputation for sustained suspense, graphic and economical writing, and on the last page, a complete surprise.

AU SON DES FIFRELINS ****, 1960
SHE CAME OUT OF HIS PAST TO THREATEN HIS FUTURE...
Out of Jefferson Halliday's past comes Rima Marshall. She's got nothing to lose : she's sunk just about as far as a woman can go. But she still knows enough to put Jefferson in the hot-seat. And he knows that she knows. With the deck stacked this way, blackmail becomes a deadly dangerous weapon to fool around with...

PAS DE MENTALITE ***, 1959
Four desperate men and a girl plan to rob an armoured truck of its million-dollar payroll.
" Get out of here ! " she said, the gun sight steady and pointing at his chest. " The next time you try that little act, I'll kill you. Now get back in your room and stay in there. "
Bleck drew in a long, deep breath.
" Okay, baby, " he said. " Watch out ! I'll fix you for this ! Make no mistake about that ! " He'd fix her ! He'd teach her to throw a gun on him ! She and that bum Kitson ! He'd fix them both !
When they got the money from the truck, he'd put a slug through Kitson's head, and for her, well, that depended.
He suddenly grinned viciously in the darkness.
Like all James Hadley Chase's suspense novels it is a non-stop read.

TIREZ LA CHEVILLETTE, 1960
When Chet Carson broke jail, he thought he'd found a safe hide-out in a lonely filling station. But instead he found himself caught up in a dangerous threesome : an elderly owner, his gorgeous wife Lola, and a safe with a fortune inside, which Lola wanted. Her chance came when she stumbled on Chet's identity and threatened him : " Open the safe or go back to jail ! "
Chet was in dead trouble. They'd crucify him if he landed in prison again. But if he opened the safe, she'd pin the rap on him anyway. Somehow there had to be a third way...

UN LOTUS POUR MISS CHAUNG ****, 1961
L’action se situe en Indochine sans doute juste après la guerre. Steve Jaffe est un américain qui travaille à Saïgon. C’est un colosse jovial, un peu désœuvré, il fréquente les bars. Pour échapper à l’ennui il a quelques aventures rapides puis il rencontre une jeune et très belle taxi-girl indochinoise.
C’est le début d’une histoire d’amour entre deux personnalités complètement opposées. Steve est violent, brutal, égoïste, irresponsable et peu courageux. Nhan Lee Quon est la douceur même, généreuse et dévouée elle travaille pour nourrir toute la famille de son oncle. Sous une apparence timide et réservée elle est d’un courage hors du commun.
Steve découvre dans sa maison les diamants du Général Nguyen Van Tho, deux millions de dollars ! Plus ou moins accidentellement il tue son boy pour le faire taire… Steve perd son sang froid, il s’affole, il s’enfuit de chez lui désemparé, Nhan va le cacher et prendre tous les risques.
Ces diamants sont très convoités, y compris par le Chef de la Police qui s’empresse de faire disparaître le corps du boy, et tous les témoins gênants, pour se lancer discrètement à la poursuite des pierres. Steve n’a pas les moyens d’être discret, il manque de liquidités : pour organiser son départ clandestin il est obligé de lâcher quelques diamants. Les « amis » qui organisent son départ vers Hong Kong ont vite fait de comprendre, mais Steve est armé et dangereux…
Chase est le fils d’un Colonel de l’Armée des Indes, et le théâtre de son roman est l’Indochine au temps des colonies. Cependant son intrigue n’est pas d'un style colonial, loin de là : Steve, l’américain, promet d’épouser Nhan, la taxi-girl, et compte la ramener aux Etats Unis. Et puis, au fil des pages, Nhan devient le personnage principal. Chase nous fait vivre avec une grande délicatesse les sentiments et les frayeurs de cette jeune et adorable indochinoise.
Qui a dit que les héroïnes de JHC étaient toutes des vamps sans moralité ?
N’espérez pas lire de longues descriptions sur Saïgon, sur les rizières ou sur la vie en Indochine, il n’y en a pas ! JHC n’est pas un contemplatif, il n’y a que de l’action et des dialogues… mais soyez tranquilles, pour voyager vous aller voyager ! Et quel suspense ! Insoutenable !

MISE EN CAISSE, 1961
The woman was in a Rolls Royce and she had that expensive look that wives of millionaires usually have. Her proposition to Harry Barber seemed easy and highly profitable. Because he was just out of jail, without funds or a future, he agreed to help her. But he took precautions for he didn't quite trust this woman. His precautions didn't go far enough. He guarded against the possibility of a double cross, but not against the possibility of murder.
"Just another sucker" is yet another tense, swift thriller from the master hand of James Hadley Chase.
It is to be read at a sitting on the edge of your chair...

TUEUR DE CHARME, 1962
Like most bank managers, Dave Calvin had acquired an irresistible charm that he could switch on whenever he felt the necessity. Underneath it he was cold, calculating, brutal; a perfect murderer...
For years he waited, watching an endless stream of money pass through his hands, knowing that a risk was only worth taking if the reward was justified. And a three hundred thousand dollar payroll was justification enough, even for murder...

L'HEROINE DE HONG KONG, 1962
DEATH OF A CALL-GIRL...
It was the easiest three grand Nelson Ryan had ever made, but suddenly he realised he was being played for a sucker. A telephone call, seemingly innocent enough, led him to the murder of a Chinese call-girl who'd talked too much. It also pitched him straight into the teeming, sordid night life of colourful Hong Kong. From now on, Ryan would stick at nothing to get the killer who'd crossed him up...

UN BEAU MATIN D'ETE, 1963
Successful dramatist Victor Dermott rents an isolated ranch-house in the Nevada Desert. For two months all is ideal, then one bright summer morning he wakes to find his dog, his guns, his servant vanished, and the telephone dead.
The terror has begun...

CAUSE A L'AUTRE, 1963
" When a small-time clerk insures his life for fifty thousand dollars and then dies ten days later, I know this is a phoney claim. "
Those who have already read James Hadley Chase's Double shuffle and Shock treatment won't need to be told that Maddox, the best man in the Insurance Claims business, is about to make trouble for someone and that someone is the lush, auburn-haired Meg Barlowe ... a woman with a past.
Aided by Steve Harmas, chief investigator of the National Fidelity Insurance Corporation, Maddox strips the wraps off an ingenious insurance swindle.
Tell it to the Birds has all the suspense and I-can't-put-it-downiness we have come to expect from James Hadley Chase, who " knows better than most how to produce that genuine chill of horror and indeed any other emotion. "
Agonizing tension sustained throughout a first-rate story.

CHANTONS EN CHOEUR, 1964
Val Burnett was the attractive daughter of a multimillionaire. Her pleasantly organised life had been cruelly shattered when her husband, Chris received severe brain injuries in a car crash. While convalescing in Florida, Chris disappeared for twenty-four hours, leaving no message or trace of his whereabouts.
During the same night an attractive blonde was found brutally murdered in a second-rate motel, her body hideously mutilated. But while the police were searching for the murderer, an unscrupulous private investigator discovered evidence that Chris was the monster responsible for the killing.
Threatened with blackmail, but determined to prove her husband's innocence, Val set out to trace Chris's movements of the night of the murder and found herself on the trail of a maniac who didn't need a motive to kill again...

OFFICIEL, 1965
Robert Henry Carey was a spy who had defected to Russia and when the news leaked out that he had changed sides again an intensive and ruthless manhunt was on. From the glamour and nerve-shattering noise of Paris the hunt switches to the violent and scorched wastelands of Senegal, West Africa.
There is Fat Rossland who doesn't recognise trouble when it sits on his lap; Girland, a dissatisfied agent who is greedy for money - and women; Janine Daulnay who fatally plays the ends against the middle; Radnitz, the sinister tycoon with a past and, finally, Malik, the blond Russian with whom Girland tangles in a deadly battle of wits.
Striking a new note with the background to this action-packed novel of espionage, James Hadley Chase upholds his reputation for compulsive readability that inspired a reviewer to acclaim him as "far and away the best writer of thrillers in the English language. 

TROP PETIT MON AMI ***, 1965
Ticky Edris, the misshapen dwarf, and Phil Algir, the handsome con-man, devise a cunning plan to rob the safest bank in the world : the impregnable Florida Safe Deposit Bank.
Ruthlessly Edris set the plan in motion ; a junkie call-girl, Muriel Marsh, is murdered, so is her schoolgirl daughter Norena. Her father is the Vice President of the bank...
When sexy Ira Marsh, Muriel's sister, arrives at Paradise City, Florida's crime-free, millionaires playground, the whole plan begins to look as if it is going to work...

LA BLONDE DE PEKIN, 1966
Mark Girland's problems begin when a beautiful blonde is found lying on a dark deserted quai in Paris... the initials of the top Chinese atomic scientist tattooed on her upper thigh...
The girl is suffering from acute amnesia. Girland, desperate for money, is ordered by the C.I.A. to get any information he can - by posing as her husband...
But the appeal of the mission begins to wear thin when Girland discovers he has involved himself in a life and death race to extract vital atomic secrets from the scientist's beautiful, sexy mistress...

CHAMBRE NOIRE *****, 1966
James Hadley Chase has gained a world-wide reputation as the author of fifty-eight successful novels of suspense.
But every so often he departs from his expected thrill-a-minute plot as he did with two of his most successful books : Eve and Miss Shumway Waves a Wand : both filmed and paperback big sellers.
In his new novel, Cade, Chase adds a third novel to the unexpected out-of-the-usual Chase thriller.
Here is a story of an alcoholic press photographer, set against the torrid background of Mexico, the glittering lights of New York and the snow-covered mountains of Switzerland.
He finished his drink, then picked up his Minolta, he walked over the bridge to reach the far side of the pool and made his way with easy strides to the public beach.
Without knowing it, he was about to keep a fatal appointment with his destiny. It was on this hot sunny afternoon that he first met Juana Roca, a woman who was to ruin him to the wreck of a man who was later to be beaten nearly to death in a town called Eastonville.

C'EST MA TOURNEE, 1967
Alec Worthington, the C.I.A. man in Prague, has suddenly found the climate disagreeable. He wants out.
The C.I.A., not unused to this kind of problem, decide the best way is in a box... but then the real problems begin.
How to find a replacement and settle him into the job without attracting suspicion ? The answer is a decoy, a dispensable agent. Someone like Mark Girland, a man with a fatal weakness for money and women. A man known to the Russians, and a man the C.I.A. would be only too willing to lose.
But Girland has another basic instinct... the will to survive.

EH BIEN, MA JOLIE... ****, 1967
Serge Maisky has dreamed for years of the Big Steal - a brilliant plan to rob the Paradise City Casino where the richest gamblers in the world fought battles at the turn of a card...
But this superb, minutely-planned robbery was to go horribly wrong. For too many other people - some of them members of Maisky's own gang - had plans to get rich quick on those two and half million dollars !

L'HOMME A L'AFFUT ***, 1968
A Paradise City, la ville des milliardaires, un vieux couple d'escrocs organisent un pillage en série de coffres de particuliers. A la tête du gang, Martha, forte femme, au propre et au figuré, a autant d'appétit pour les pierres que pour les petits gâteaux. Elle est rouée, prudente, bien organisée, son plan se déroule à merveille. Les propriétaires sont absents, l'alerte ne sera pas donnée avant longtemps...
Cependant pour exécuter les cambriolages elle a recruté un jeune, certes surdoué pour ouvrir les coffres, mais au caractère bien trempé, voire turbulent, et aux dents longues....
Dans le même temps une riche héritière, aigrie et tyrannique, suite à un accident qui l'a condamnée à vivre sur un fauteuil roulant, rend la vie insupportable à son époux. Elle a exactement le même type de coffre que ceux pillés par le gang de Martha...

PRESUME DANGEREUX, 1968
The Russians will pay $4,000,000 for the top secret formula of a revolutionary new metal... and the C.I.A. will do anything to stop them.
American inventor Dr Paul Forrester is the man that both sides want. For he alone can decipher the vital code. But for two years Forrester has been in a mental asylum - ever since that bloody day he walked in on his beautiful wife and her lover...
So pretty Nona Jacey, Forrester's former lab-assistant, becomes a helpless pawn in the power struggle to possess the scientist... for she is the key to unlocking Forrester's mind.

UNE BOUFFEE D'OR PUR, 1969
This is the fourth Mark Girland thriller - that layabout character who will do most things for money. Against the background of the forests and castles of Bavaria, the plot revolves around Girland's dangerous search for three pornographic films featuring the daughter of the future President of the United States.
The ingredients that have made James Hadley Chase "the King of Thriller writers" are all there. Girland… beautiful women… edge-of-the-chair suspense and unputdownable reading with the master Soviet Agent, Malik, and the killer Lu Silk hovering in the shadows.
James Hadley Chase hits his peak in the opening pages of his new thriller, hots up evermore the furious pace, and ends up with an almost underplayed, infinitely deadly double take climax on the very last page.

LE VAUTOUR ATTEND TOUJOURS, 1969
Kahlenberg, millionaire and a compulsive collector of art treasures steals a famous poison ring, once owned by Caesar Borgia, from a rival collector.
Kahlenberg's museum is hidden in the Drakensberg range and can only be reached through the dangerous swamps and the steamy heat of the Basutoland jungle.
A Criminal, a professional Smuggler and a White Hunter together with a beautiful woman to act as their Trojan Horse are hired to recover the ring.

A VOUS LE PLAISIR, 1970
HE HAD NINE DAYS TO TURN A GUN-SHY BOY INTO AN EXPERT KILLER. OR ELSE...
Jay Benson had been one of the U.S. Army's top snipers. In Vietnam he'd killed eighty-two Vietcong. But making the School of Shooting he'd taken over outside Paradise City pay was a tougher proposition than the Vietnamese jungle.
So when the sinister Augusto Savanto turned up with an offer of fifty thousand dollars if Jay turned his gun-shy son into an expert shot, in just nine days, he accepted. 
Then he discovered the horrific reason why Savanto wanted his son made into a marksman. But there was no backing out now for Jay. Savanto was holding his beautiful young wife Lucy as a hostage for his co-operation...

UN HIPPIE SUR LA ROUTE, 1970
It seemed like a good idea at the time to ex-paratrooper sergeant Harry Mitchell, home after three years in the deadly jungles of Vietnam. Head south to Florida, get a summer job, soak up some sun, relax a bit. But when he got to Paradise City he found himself drawn into a lethal set-up where dumped corpses, smuggling operations, over-ambitious cops, hired killers and a sexy little double-crosser called Nina combined to make life very unhealthy.
It was just as well for Harry Mitchell that he'd learned to look after himself in Vietnam...
"There's a hippie on the highway" is a brilliant Hadley Chase shocker, packed with suspense and violent action galore and with the savage power of a .45 automatic.

LE DENIER DU COLT, 1971
A Seminole Indian, an easy-rider and his beatnik girl arrive in Paradise City, the playground for millionaires. They survey the scene and the Indian plans to spread terror through the opulent City and once terror has gripped, then to begin a systematic demand for money.
Do you want to stay alive ? Pay-up or else...
Chase is your guarantee for a non-stop read. Pick up this book and you're dead to the world and who doesn't want to be dead to this world for three or four hours ?

UN ATOUT DANS LA MANCHE, 1971
An Ace Up My Sleeve' is a story of blackmail.
It's a story of three people, all out for one thing : all determined to do anything to get it.
It's a story of bluff and counter-bluff, a game which develops into a deadly battle of violence and extortion.
From the moment Helga Rolfe, the elegant wife of one of the richest of tycoons, picks up a gum-chewing boy, young enough to be her son, events jump, bank and skid through a series of 180 degree turns and hair-raising gambits, racing to a climax of shattering impact, for both winners and losers...

SIMPLE QUESTION DE TEMPS, 1972
TAKING AN OLD LADY FOR A RIDE IS A CINCH IF YOU'RE HER CHAUFFEUR...
It was just a matter of how. Alice Morely-Johnson was worth several million bucks, dead or alive. A retired concert pianist, she had a penchant for attractive young men, rings and riches. The man in the front seat was Bromhead, also a master forger. He infiltrated Sheila who was prepared to use her beautiful body whenever necessary, and Chris Patterson, the attractive young man with all the right connections.
Alice's will became their target, which made the crime just a matter of time...

PAS DE VIE SANS FRIC, 1972
CRACKING THE BIG-TIME WAS GOING TO BE A CINCH...
Joey Luck and his beautiful daughter Cindy were ace shoplifters and pickpockets. But Cindy has bigger ideas.
When they were joined by Vin Pinna, expert thief ant thug on the run from Miami, prospects improved, but kidnapping ex-movie star Don Elliot wasn't such a good idea ; until he made the trio a quartet in crime. The crime ? Stealing stamps worth a million dollars.
And the route to the stamps was Judy Larrimore, nympho daughter of their owner.
She was just Vin's style...

ET TOC ! ..., 1973
Larry Carr, diamond expert, finds himself in need of psychiatric treatment. The Alienist tells him to have a change of scene ; to get away from his opulent surroundings, to go to Luceville, an industrial town of poverty, to engage himself in welfare work and to think of others rather than himself. This seemed to be sound advice, but Carr was not to know that by going to Luceville he was to become involved in a criminal world and with Rhea Morgan, a vicious, sensual thief, just out of prison.
Here we have all the expected ingredients that have made James Hadley Chase "the king of all thriller writers". Turn off the television set, lock your doors and keep the light burning... you have Hadley Chase in your home.

EN GALERE, 1973
This is the story of Johnny Bianda who worked for a Mafia-controlled organisation - a man with a dream of owning a boat which he could charter to the rich fishermen off the coast of Florida. To achieve this dream he steals $186,000 belonging to the organisation. But he knew the organisation would eventually find him and kill him. It was a matter of time.
He decided a year or so would be worth the risk so long as he could feel the rise and fall of a deck under his feet. He knew there had to be a knock on his door... it came sooner than he thought.

LE ZINC EN OR, 1974
Hi-jacking an aircraft has become the fashionable disease, and Colonel Bernie Olson, ex-bomber pilot much decorated in the Vietnamese war, is not immune. He plans to hi-jack a ten-million-dollar aircraft, and calls in Jack Crane, his ex-flight mechanic whom he knows has a criminal background, to help him out. But plans can be upset, especially when women become involved - particularly such women as Victoria Essex ("a blue print of a bitch") and the red-hot Pam Osborn, Olson's girl-friend.

LES POISSONS ROUGES N'ONT PAS DE SECRET, 1974
Steve Manson's magazine dealt in corruption : he attacked the rich, the powerful and the famous - and he made enemies. In a job like that, you couldn't afford to have dirty secrets of your own. With the whole town itching for you to make a slip, it was like living in a goldfish bowl. But Steve have lived clean - until his beautiful, extravagant wife was caught shoplifting, and suddenly he was up to his neck in the dirtiest secret of all - blackmail and murder...

A PIEDS JOINTS, 1975
IT WAS IN PARADISE CITY THAT THE PAST CAUGHT UP WITH CLAY
Clay Burden had married his sluttish young wife, Rhoda, because he was tired of being on his own. Val had walked out on him, and if he couldn't have Val, maybe marriage would make him forget her.
Six years later, working in Paradise City, Clay met Val again. Married to the powerful and sinister Henry Vidal, she had changed... still beautiful and passionate, still compelling... but tense and nervous, driven by odd fears and anxieties...
When Clay left his job and joined the Vidal empire, what had begun as a sneaking feeling of unease hardened into stone-cold certainty. Val must be released from the hypnotic influence exerted over her by her husband, even if Clay had to murder to set her free...

LE JOKER EN MAIN, 1975
Helga, a shrewd and ruthless woman, had married Herman Rolfe, one of the world's richest tycoons, but Helga has a weakness : a frustrating and compelling sexual urge boiling up in her... Crippled, suspicious Herman, guessing she's played around, had decided to put a tail on her and was proposing to write some nasty looking terms into his will... 
Rolfe made an unsteady move forward, his eyes blazing.
" How dare you pry into my private papers ! You whore ! " he exclaimed harshly.
" I would rather be a whore than a crippled joke ! " she screamed at him.
Then it happened.
Blood rushed to his face, his mouth twisted, the canes slipped out of his hands and clattered on the floor. He clutched at his chest. The agony that swept through his thin body made her close her eyes. Then he toppled forward, suddenly boneless and fell at her feet.
Would he die ?

FAIS-MOI PLAISIR... CREVE !, 1976
Keith Devery arrived in the small town of Wicksteed with a criminal record and a lot of ambition. And when he met Frank Marshall, a local drunk who was about to inherit a million dollars, he knew that here was a golden opportunity to get back into the big league.
Marshall's mysterious wife Beth agreed with him... and together they ruthlessly plotted the perfect murder. Then Keith found that he had himself been set up... and that Beth had plans of her own once the money was hers...
James Hadley Chase, long acclaimed as the king of all-out thriller excitement and suspense, has added another novel of tension, sex and underworld intrigue to his world-bestselling list.

QUI VIVRA, RIRA, 1977
Farrell Brannigan, President of the National Californian Bank, builds yet another bank at Sharnville, an up-and-coming town on the Pacific coast. Using the brilliant know-how of young electronics expert, Brannigan feels justified in calling his new bank : "The Safest Bank in the World". The press give the new bank a world-wide publicity.
But some forty years ago, when Brannigan was a young and rising banker, he made an implacable enemy. This man, with a pathological urge for revenge, attemps to break into " The Safest Bank in the World".
James Hadley Chase tells the story as only he can.
Don't go to bed with this one, unless you want to stay awake all night.

ON REPIQUE AU JEU, 1977
Helga Rolfe was blonde, beautiful, and bright enough to control her own multi-million empire. But not to control her secret weakness... she was sex crazy. And former lover, Archer, knew it. He had an old score to settle with her and he needed cash. When handsome gigolo Christopher Greenville crossed his path, he'd found the way to both.
With Archer's coaching, Chris conned Helga into wanting him badly enough to propose marriage, and when Archer faked Chris's kidnapping, she was ready to pay the huge ransom. But events took a frightening twist when the local Mafia joined the action...

PLANQUE-TOI A LA MORGUE, 1978
Kidnapping is rife in Italy, but was there another reason why Carlos Grandi, billionaire, put his daughter behind an electrified fence, guarded by savage dogs and two fast shooting guards ?
Mike Frost, always in search of big money, got the job as second guard. Kidnappers sold him the idea to be the " inside man ". There was no other way to kidnap Gina Grandi.
Here is the story of a kidnap plan worth twenty million dollars that turned sour and finished with a High Noon shoot out.
If you are looking for a non-stop read, this is it.

QUESTION DE FLAIR, 1979
Russ Hamel, a millionaire author, marries for a second time. His wife, Nancy, is twenty-two years younger than he is. He receives poison pen letters, hinting that Nancy is having an affair. He employs a detective agency to watch his wife. Bart Anderson, the operator assigned to watch Nancy, is living far beyond his means. He discovers Nancy is not leading a blameless life. Pressed by increasing debts and a bleak future, he turns blackmailer.
Yet another of James Hadley Chase's non-stop reads. 

MEURTRES AU PINCEAU, 1979
There was only one clue : a small, golf ball button torn from a jacket and found near the horrifyingly mutilated body of a young hooker. A small button, but a large clue... for there were only four men in the city who wore those buttons.
Detective Tom Lepski of the Paradise City police quickly settled for one of them : Ken Brandon, an insurance agent. But just as he was wrapping-up the case, the other murders began.

TU CROIS PAS SI BIEN DIRE, 1980
Jerry Stevens, an out-of-work bit-part movie actor - with several lousy Westerns to his credit - is offered a job at one thousand dollars a day to impersonate John Merril Ferguson, one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. It is explained to Stevens that Ferguson needs to complete a secret deal and, as the world's press is continually watching his every move, Ferguson needs a stand-in. This seems reasonable to Stevens, and the money is beyond his wildest dreams.
But from the moment he agrees to impersonate Ferguson, he is thrown into a nightmare of intrigue, murder and stark terror.

LA GRANDE FAUCHE, 1980, (=SAUF VOTRE RESPECT)
When Claude Kendrick, owner of a shadily-run art gallery in Paradise City, was approached by Ed Haddon, the King of art thieves, to find a buyer for a priceless icon of Catherine the Great, he thought his greediest dreams had come true ! For Herman Radnitz, the multimillionaire, was prepared to pay six million dollars. But there was a catch - Radnitz wanted the icon delivered to Zurich as part of the deal.
To his joy, Kendrick learnt of a couple travelling to Europe. All he had to do was make sure that the icon was planted on them unawares... the couple in question were none other than Detective Tom Lepski and his pretty wife...

FILE-MOI UNE COUVERTURE, 1981
Colonel Parnell, the boss of The Parnell Detective Agency, receives a letter from an old frog-farmer, Frederick Jackson, who reminds him that his son, Mitch Jackson, served in Parnell's regiment in Vietnam and won the Medal of Honor posthumously.
I need a detective, the letter goes on. My grandson has disappeared. The local police show no interest. I rely on you to find the boy for me because of what my son did for your regiment.
Dirk Wallace, one of the Parnell's operators, is given the assignment, which look simple enough until Wallace arrives at Searle, a small, gossip-ridden town near where Frederick Jackson has his frog-farm.
Against the background of croaking frogs, deceit and murder, Wallace's search for Johnny Jackson, the missing grandson, becomes not only complicated but deadly dangerous.

PASSEZ UNE BONNE NUIT ****, 1982
If Detective Tom Lepski of the Paradise City police hadn't shot down a runaway killer, a group of jewel thieves and a group of Cubans, after ransom money ; would not have collided in the luxurious suite of the Spanish Bay Hotel.
Have a Nice Night has all the ingredients of a taut thriller - a non-stop read. For entertainment you could scarcely do better. So put your feet up and have a nice night with James Hadley Chase.

TU ME SUIVRAS DANS LA TOMBE, 1982
This action-packed story takes place within the space of six days. There is no let-up for the moment the Florida State police begin the hunt for a vicious young killer who has no respect for anyone's life.
Holed up in a remote fishing-lodge owned by Perry Weston, a successful movie script-writer, and his wayward wife, this killer is determined to escape or die in the attempt.
We can say to Hadley Chase's millions of readers (his books have been translated into twenty-three languages), this is indeed a vintage Chase.

CE N'EST PAS DANS MES CORDES ****, 1983
MARIAGE, MEURTRE ET TRAHISON...
Sherman Jamison, un magnat de la finance, sans scrupule, veut épouser sa maîtresse et se débarrasser de son épouse, d'autant qu'elle est incapable de lui donner un héritier. Mais elle ne veut pas divorcer. Shannon est une catholique confite en dévotion.
Sherman, n'est pas du genre patient, il fait appel à un tueur à gages, Ernie Kling, qui lui propose d'organiser un horrible attentat. Le projet est diabolique, mais Ernie modifie ses plans et manoeuvre pour tenter d'extorquer davantage d'argent. Un match est lancé entre ces deux personnages ignobles, aussi monstrueux l'un que l'autre. Qui aura le dernier mot ?
En attendant la vie de la douce Shannon ne tient qu'à un fil...
Quel est le véritable héros de ce roman ? Sherman ? Ernie ? Shannon ? Lucky Lucan le gigolo ? Tarnia Lawrence la maîtresse de Sherman ? Non, ce sont tous des personnages secondaires. Le héros c'est un jeune réfugié vietnamien, Ng Vee, qui sert de "boy" à Ernie. Il tient la maison, fait la cuisine, et à l'occasion il assiste son "maître" dans ses basses besognes. Shannon est sa prisonnière, du moins jusqu'à la fin des tractations financières.
Voudra-t-il et pourra-t-il faire quelque chose pour elle ?
James nous livre une étude psychologique très fine sur ce personnage qui devient vite particulièrement attachant. Plusieurs ressorts actionnent la mécanique de son cerveau : son enfance, ses sentiments, sa loyauté envers son maître... Le suspense en devient odieux.
Au moment où Ng Vee semble avoir une idée, Ernie s'aperçoit de son trouble et l'écarte.
James arrête ! Pitié ! On va devenir cardiaque !

CA IRA MIEUX DEMAIN, 1984
A NASTY PIECE OF WORK...
Dirk Wallace is handed a simple assignment : find out who's blackmailing Mrs Thorsen's daughter. Before long, Wallace realises that he's up against some very organised crime.
And when things turn nasty, there's only one thing to do. Wallace and his assistant quite the Acme Detective Agency and go it alone. There's a score to be settled.
And Dirk Wallace doesn't want to have to play by the rules...