Hand Me A Fig Leaf

by James Hadley Chase

When Johnny Jackson unaccountably disappears, his grandfather contacts the police for help. As they prove to be uninterested, he turns instead to Colonel Parnell of the Parnell Detective Agency. It seems at first to be a simple case of a missing person but they soon find themselves in the middle of a complicated web of deceit, intrigue and murder.

Genres: Mystery, Novels, Crime, Thriller, Noir, Fiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 1981

About the author

René Lodge Brabazon Raymond was born on 24th December 1906 in London, England, the son of Colonel Francis Raymond of the colonial Indian Army, a veterinary surgeon. His father intended his son to have a scientific career, was initially educated at King's School, Rochester, Kent. He left home at the age of 18 and became at different times a children's encyclopedia salesman, a salesman in a bookshop, and executive for a book wholesaler before turning to a writing career that produced more than 90 mystery books. His interests included photography (he was up to professional standard), reading and listening to classical music, being a particularly enthusiastic opera lover. Also as a form of relaxation between novels, he put together highly complicated and sophisticated Meccano models.

In 1932, Raymond married Sylvia Ray, who gave him a son. They were together until his death fifty three years later. Prohibition and the ensuing US Great Depression (1929–1939), had given rise to the Chicago gangster culture just prior to World War II. This, combined with her book trade experience, made him realise that there was a big demand for gangster stories. He wrote as R. Raymond, James Hadley Chase, James L. Docherty, Ambrose Grant and Raymond Marshall.

During World War II he served in the Royal Air Force, achieving the rank of Squadron Leader. Chase edited the RAF Journal with David Langdon and had several stories from it published after the war in the book Slipstream: A Royal Air Force Anthology.

Raymond moved to France in 1956 and then to Switzerland in 1969, living a secluded life in Corseaux-sur-Vevey, on Lake Geneva, from 1974. He eventually died there peacefully on 6 February 1985.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hand Me A Fig Leaf was first published in 1981 at the tail end of Chase’s long career. Featuring Dirk Wallace of the Parnell Detective Agency, it’s the story on the surface of a search for a missing grandson, but Wallace quickly realizes that there is far more to be uncovered than he could have ever guessed. As he investigates, he inadvertently reveals family secrets and drug scandals tarnishing a hero’s reputation. The theme running throughout is that nothing is quite what it appears to be and that’s the key to this riddle.

[Kulpreet Yadav · Rating 5 out of 5]

The plot is delicious. Can’t think of another, more suitable word. Through the rise and fall of actions, the events in the plot are interwoven intricately. As one would expect from the master of the crime fiction genre. Before I had turned 20, I had read all the JHC books. And now, after so many years, reading them all over again equals the excitement I felt earlier, even though, as we know, the forensic science, communication technology and the medical science have grown many times over in the interim years.

Fred Jackson, a crippled old man, writes to his dead military-hero son’s ex-boss who now runs a detective agency, to help him find his missing grandson, Johnny. Fred lives in a country house and says the police won’t help him. The agency assigns the case to Dirk Wallace. It looks routine, until Dirk drives to Fred’s house to find him murdered and all his savings stolen. As Dirk digs deeper, he is attacked by professional killers. Drugs, murder, greed, impersonation, strip clubs, Dirk has a lot of work to do before he can even remotely come to terms with the truth. How he does that is the meat of the story.

The sheer complexity of this investigative story entertained me really well. Highly recommended.

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! Almost forty years ago from the time I'm writing this, JHC almost, just almost, wrote an LGBTQ mystery thriller! And a sympathetic one at that. Hand Me a Fig Leaf is one of Chase's better works. And not just for the surprise reading of sexual identity that runs throughout it, but also because it is so well plotted and designed. It has a rhythmic quality to it, struggling for heights of reason and then falling into valleys of discordant clues. Published in 1981, this novel is one of JHC's last--he only wrote four more novels after this, before his death. Still, he was coming up with new ideas and new approaches. He didn't go stale! This, even though for the past few novels before and including Hand Me a Fig Leaf, the structure has been the same. With an eight chapter template (and sometimes an epilogue) to flesh out the plot. Yes, JHC had become something of an assembly line. But it was an assembly line that could always come up with a new twist on things. Chase may have been getting older, but his work wasn't.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Chase is pretty much on top of his game with this one inventing a private eye that simply asks people a ton of questions and never gets involved directly with any rough stuff. The initial assignment gets blown out into a higher stakes game, but a red herring still serves as the base proposition for call to action. Not really much in the way of clever dialogue or standout characters but it's a short and enjoyable read, without too much shuffling in of Chase's usual stand-ins.

[Varun Vasudevan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a book you will devour in a single sitting!

I barely noticed my lunch as an unarmed Detective Dirk Wallace uses his wits to fight off two doped knife wielding, bad smelling black killers.

His mission is to uncover the whereabouts of a man's lost grandson - but shit hits the fan when the man is shot dead by an unknown assassin. Enter the Jekyll and Hyde story of the boy's decorated father - a vicious thug who was mysteriously reformed when he entered the army, a drug-trafficking cartel, metallic dames who lie like 2nd nature....all this in a dump like an out of the way, swampy frog infested Searle and this is a world Chase owns!

The action is mercilessly quick & I enjoyed the bones Chase threw at regular intervals but you have to wait till the final few scenes to tie the loose ends. And a satisfyingly poignant finish!

[Kakha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here again, we see the great title of the book, again the legendary Paradise City (fictional city, superbly invented by the author – the city of the rich, a resort town on the Florida coast), again a dizzying, impetuous, and incredible plot! This is such a magnificent book by the incomparable author of crime literature.
This short story is from a series of books about the so-called Paradise City Detective Agency (or Parnell Detective Agency). Here we meet with the glorious detective of this agency, Dirk Wallace, who is entrusted with the search for the grandson of a high-ranking colonel. But when he arrives at the client, Wallace finds him dead. The detective has a very difficult and dangerous path to figure out everything and even expose a gang of drug dealers.

[Giri Dv]

This book is surprisingly slow for a Chase novel.

[Meghana Vuppala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hand me a fig-leaf is an intriguing novel.
I liked the pace of the story, the end of every chapter is narrated like a simple cliffhanger, which made the reading more interesting.

[Aanil Tuli]

good

[Ivaylo Kovachev · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the slow tempo and lack of non-stop action in this book. Totally in Chase style, a crime mistery with very unusual environment, details and characters.

[Akinola Akinyemi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterful!

A slow burner. Got there eventually. What an amazing masterful, well plotted and entertaining read. Left me guessing alternate ending.

[Mirella Torkko · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mukaansatempaava ja nopealukuinen joo. Myöskin erittäin rasistinen ja seksistinen.

[Karthick Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maintains the suspense till the last. Excellent narration of the chasing scene.
Too much interrogations that will let u wander away from the line of story at times.
But dirk is always there to put everything ,he had investigated, in a nutshell at regular intervals.
worth reading.

[Mark Vickers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one has a great plot and as usual just when you think you know which way the storyline is headed, in typical JHC fashion the next chapter has you following a different path, you just have to read it......

[Ivo Stoykov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great crime novel!