Not My Thing

by James Hadley Chase

Not my thing is a powerful, compulsive novel of betrayal and death from James Hadley Chase, the master of mystery and adventure.Ruthless tycoon Sherman Jamison is determined to have an heir. He will let nothing stand in his way. Yet, not only is his wife unable to provide him with a child, but as a devout Catholic she will not consent to the divorce her husband so desperately wants.And so Jamison decides to get rid of her ... permanently.

Genres: Crime, Novels, Noir, Fiction, Mystery

192 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1983

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 3 out of 5]

Not My Thing was the second to last book Chase ever published, coming at the tale end of a long and productive career. Over a twenty year period Chase had used the Paradise City locale as the location for about a dozen unconnected novels. Chase’s fictional city feels like a sleazy corrupt Atlantic City, but is found south of Miami.

Not My Thing falls into the caper gone wrong category and is a version of the spouse hiring a hitman genre. A fairly easy read, it does feel a bit dated by a few decades. It almost feels like a spoof of the caper novel with its cardboard characters.

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, the cornerstone of many a James Hadley Chase novels comes into play in Not My Thing. A kidnapping. Along with it, of course, he includes blackmail, murder, infidelity, and justice. This is JHC's penultimate novel, and he has brought along many of his favorite characters, including Tom Lepski of the Paradise City PD. This was well over a dozen times that Lepski has appeared in a Chase story. Paradise City and its PD, too, have grown. But into something of almost a pure abstraction. For this Paradise City is an amalgam of both American and British slang and mangled idioms. It's a place where, in 1983, swing music still rules and visions of the 1930s and 1940s keep popping through the text.

As with most Chase stories, the action is fast paced and unrelenting. Billionaires are just as corrupt and murderous as mafia hitmen. And, once again, Chase makes use of a Vietnamese background. The first JHC book I ever read, A Lotus for Miss Quon had a key role for a Vietnamese houseboy. So does Not My Thing. One minor quibble: do characters in a JHC novel ever do any exercise other than "having a swim?" Rarely do they play golf or tennis. Never do they jog or go to a gym and lift weights. Just forever swimming.

[Κώστας · Rating 4 out of 5]

ΒΙΠΕΡ Νο. 1941
Μετάφραση Τασσώς Καββαδία
Πρωτότυπος τίτλος: Not my thing

Αυτού του είδους τα σενάρια είναι βούτυρο στο ψωμί του μαέστρου, τα παίρνει και τα σκίζει.
Το στοίχημα εδώ είναι αν η γεροντική άνοια μπορεί να μειώσει ή και να εξουδετερώσει ολοσχερώς την συγγραφική δεινότητα.
Kατά τον Ν.Παπάζογλου, ναι, "όλα τα αλλάζει ο καιρός, όλα θα τα ρημάξει" (τραγούδι με τίτλο "χαράτσι", 1985). O πανδαμάτωρ χρόνος δεν αφήνει τίποτα στη θέση του.
Ο Τσαίηζ όταν έγραψε αυτό το βιβλίο ήταν ήδη 77 ετών, λίγο πριν το τέλος της ζωής του.
Ωστόσο η τροχιά του από την εμπειρία του και τα γαλόνια του έχει τέτοιο ύψος και ταχύτητα που άνετα μπορεί να χειριστεί 4-5 πρωταγωνιστικούς χαρακτήρες χωρίς να βγάλει απέξω και το αγαπημένο του αστ.τμήμα του Μαϊάμι, την αστυνομία του paradise city.
Εδώ δεν έχουμε cul de sac και γι αυτό δεν βάζουμε και 5 αστέρια ( εμείς οι κακομαθημένοι αναγνώστες που έχουμε διαβάσει άλλα 60+ βιβλία του) αλλά απολαμβάνουμε όπως παλιά την καταστροφή των επιδέξιων, φιλόδοξων και πολλά υποσχόμενων πιονιών απ τη σκακιέρα της πλοκής. Κι αυτό από μόνο του είναι υπεραρκετό να μας δώσει μια εγγυημένα απολαυστική ανάγνωση στο όλοι εναντίον όλων πάρτυ.

[Kakha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why do such a terrible thing, how can anyone and why to order the murder of a human, and most egregiously, of his own wife? What kind of person is this? And in general, can such a creature be called human? I mean that this is, of course, a fictional story, so superbly written by our beloved master of crime fiction literature, but in real life, this has happened many times in real life. We know many such examples, to our great regret... I just can not think of and feel what motivates such not quite people?
In this book, some Sherman Jamison, an influential and wealthy man, turns to one trusted person for help in organizing the murder of his own wife. This person contacts a professional killer, who of course agrees to this terrible case... But this murderer wanted to get a much larger amount than was agreed on in the campaign, because of this the situation got out of control.
This tragic novel is simply mega-interesting reading.

[Payal Pasha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Definitely not chase's best. A story with too many twists and turns and and a crime so conveniently solved because all the right people are present by chance at all the right places at the right time. A husband wants to divorce his wife because she cannot give him a son to carry on his legacy. ( really??! ) She refuses because she is Catholic and it's against her religion. 🤔The husband meets another woman and both fall deeply in love AT FIRST SIGHT and now he wants to marry her because he is sure she will give him a son. 😐 🙄😏Too much Bollywood masala for me. I almost imagined them singing a song around trees. Along comes the hired killer with his aid ( a hungry poor Vietnamese) who is loyal to his master but loses his heart to the wife AT FIRST SIGHT ( 🙈🙈) and now he wants to protect her. There is a gigolo too who I forgot to mention because he is quite forgettable. There is FBI too for a few minutes who are enjoying dinner right next door to the criminal instead of keeping an eye on him and are unaware when he takes off. 🙄🙄
In a nutshell ......yeah, I think you got it.

[Rtrv2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second to last of JHC's novels. This is not one of his best but it still has a certain unique quality that only JHC seems to deliver. With most authors, you feel that they've written the whole plot in advance and everything in the book is leading up to the pre-planned finale. With Chase, things just *happen*. A character might be introduced, have two pages dedicated to them, and then do nothing. I don't want to spoil this one, but the main character is completely superfluous. And yet somehow it works. You spend the whole book in suspense because you don't know who will win in the end. I can't think of any other author who is quite like this? (but I'd welcome suggestions!)

[TheMighty Zuru · Rating 3 out of 5]

...at the end of it all, it was nobody's thing!

[Hari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting Characters and Plot Points

[Vincent Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice book ... Not My Thing is a powerful, compulsive novel of betrayal and death from James Hadley Chase, the master of mystery and adventure.

Ruthless tycoon Sherman Jamison is determined to have an heir. He will let nothing stand in his way. Yet, not only is his wife unable to provide him with a child, but as a devout Catholic she will not consent to the divorce her husband so desperately wants.

And so Jamison decides to get rid of her ... permanently.

[Aashwini · Rating 1 out of 5]

not my thing is not my thing!!!