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Veda Rux, a beautiful blonde, known professionally as a stripper, steals a priceless Cellini dagger from the safe in millionaire Lindsay Brett's home. Her agent, Cornelius Gorman, approaches Floyd Jackson, a private investigator and first-rate blackmailer, and asks him to return the dagger before the theft is discovered.
Jackson should have known there was something wrong with the whole situation, but, blinded by the beauty of Veda and more money than he had ever seen, he agreed to the proposition.
From the moment he fell in love with Veda, his doom was sealed—he was caught up in a relentless intrigue that made him a cat's-paw for murder.
221 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1949
73 people are currently reading
922 people want to read
About the author
James Hadley Chase
650 books1,001 followersRené 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.
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.
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June 14, 2020So...
I can't help feeling that I'm really lucky to not have lived in the 60s.
That world... all the women that lived then must have had incredible, otherworldly patience to deal with all this gross bullshit. Ffffff....
I can't help feeling that I'm really lucky to not have lived in the 60s.
That world... all the women that lived then must have had incredible, otherworldly patience to deal with all this gross bullshit. Ffffff....
February 13, 2024
Pesimismul visceral al lui James Hadley Chase este vizibil în întreaga sa operă, însă în acest roman publicat în anul 1949 se află la cote maxime. Și aceasta deoarece eroul romanului, detectivul particular Floyd Jackson, în ciuda afirmațiilor celorlalți privitoare la viclenia, necinstea și lipsa sa de scrupule, nu este totuși un om rău și un ucigaș, deși acțiunile sale conduc la moartea unor oameni. Însă, asemeni multor colegi de-ai săi, creații ale aceluiași scriitor, s-a săturat de sărăcie și de viața dusă de pe o zi pe alta și mizează totul pe instinctul său de a mirosi apariția unei oportunități de a se îmbogăți.
"Cam aşa se petrec, de obicei, lucrurile. Îţi faci proiecte, clădeşti castele, te aşezi călare pe treapta cea mai de sus a lumii, şi apoi apare cineva, scuipă un foc cu o pocnitoare şi balonul tău de săpun se împrăştie". Probabil că acest citat ar putea fi pus ca motto pentru întreaga operă a scriitorului britanic.
Pentru Floyd Jackson nu există cale de mijloc, iar cazul ce la prima vedere pare foarte simplu - și care constă în returnarea unui stilet de Cellini proprietarului acestuia, mai exact plasarea pe ascuns a stiletului în seiful aflat în casa unui milionar și sustragerea pudrierei tinerei Veda Rux, practicantă de striptease - se va dovedi a fi nu doar foarte riscant, ci și extrem de promițător din punct de vedere financiar. Șansa pe care Floyd o așteapta de-o viață. Îți vine să spui că mai bine nu. Lectură plăcută!
"Cam aşa se petrec, de obicei, lucrurile. Îţi faci proiecte, clădeşti castele, te aşezi călare pe treapta cea mai de sus a lumii, şi apoi apare cineva, scuipă un foc cu o pocnitoare şi balonul tău de săpun se împrăştie". Probabil că acest citat ar putea fi pus ca motto pentru întreaga operă a scriitorului britanic.
Pentru Floyd Jackson nu există cale de mijloc, iar cazul ce la prima vedere pare foarte simplu - și care constă în returnarea unui stilet de Cellini proprietarului acestuia, mai exact plasarea pe ascuns a stiletului în seiful aflat în casa unui milionar și sustragerea pudrierei tinerei Veda Rux, practicantă de striptease - se va dovedi a fi nu doar foarte riscant, ci și extrem de promițător din punct de vedere financiar. Șansa pe care Floyd o așteapta de-o viață. Îți vine să spui că mai bine nu. Lectură plăcută!
May 15, 2022
A none-too-swift shady PI is down on his luck, when a client wants to hire him to replace a dagger in a safe, that's guarded like Fort Knox. He meets the girl who stole the dagger, and falls like a ton of bricks.
You just know it's going to end badly.
You just know it's going to end badly.
January 19, 2010
The thing that surprised me the most about this book was not the things that you never know with women (like the fact that they're not the stripper they're pretending to be, but instead a wanted murderer and bank robber who is utterly prepared to kill themselves just so that you won't be able to wriggle out of the new murders that they've committed) but how insanely unlikeable the main character was. I've never read anything approaching a noir before that has such a unredeamable main character. The purpose is clearly to provide an overwhelming sense of moral smugness that he's getting his comeuppance, but he was just too unlikeable for me to care, and wasn't even a character I enjoyed disliking. Lives off women! Blackmailer! Cheater! Thief! meh.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 13, 2019
Well that was fun, like a cross between an old 50s crime/mystery movie and an episode of Rake.
July 20, 2016
If this is a good example of James Hadley Chase’s work, then sign me up for more! I’ve read a fair bit of crime/noir fiction but am probably still on the steep end of the learning curve as I continue working to discover which authors I like and which are better left alone.
This is a stand-alone novel (he does have several series of 3-5 books) and with a definite noir or pulp fiction vibe to it. A private investigator (and part-time blackmailer) named Floyd Jackson is enlisted to steal a gold compact from a rich mansion in California. He’s smart enough to realize there is something fishy going on but he can’t put it together until it is too late. Add to that a beautiful femme fatale, a murder or three and hiding out from the law and it all combines for a pretty cool story. But what I really liked about it was the writing style, with Floyd as the first person POV character telling the story in an easy flowing narrative that kept things moving well. The characters are well-drawn 1950’s era low-lifers that really captured my attention. The mystery of who is scamming who unfolded perfectly.
An interesting note: the author was a Brit and some of his earlier novels were based purely on what he had read about America, not on having visited yet. This book contains several instances of British slang being used by Americans as well as complete misjudgment of distances between cities (i.e. driving from the Los Angeles area to Albuquerque New Mexico in a single afternoon). But I didn’t let any of that bother me from enjoying a good read.
Finally, I suggest reading the original version of the novel and not the Harlequin publication of 2009 in which they took out certain words and passages they decided would be offensive to modern audiences.
This is a stand-alone novel (he does have several series of 3-5 books) and with a definite noir or pulp fiction vibe to it. A private investigator (and part-time blackmailer) named Floyd Jackson is enlisted to steal a gold compact from a rich mansion in California. He’s smart enough to realize there is something fishy going on but he can’t put it together until it is too late. Add to that a beautiful femme fatale, a murder or three and hiding out from the law and it all combines for a pretty cool story. But what I really liked about it was the writing style, with Floyd as the first person POV character telling the story in an easy flowing narrative that kept things moving well. The characters are well-drawn 1950’s era low-lifers that really captured my attention. The mystery of who is scamming who unfolded perfectly.
An interesting note: the author was a Brit and some of his earlier novels were based purely on what he had read about America, not on having visited yet. This book contains several instances of British slang being used by Americans as well as complete misjudgment of distances between cities (i.e. driving from the Los Angeles area to Albuquerque New Mexico in a single afternoon). But I didn’t let any of that bother me from enjoying a good read.
Finally, I suggest reading the original version of the novel and not the Harlequin publication of 2009 in which they took out certain words and passages they decided would be offensive to modern audiences.
September 6, 2015
I'm fond of books set in places the author never visited. This one is set in LA. I don't think Chase had been to America when he wrote this. But he'd read his share of James M Cain and Jim Thompson and seen plenty of noires. He owned some maps of California and a slang dictionary. The result is comical and dreamlike. Characters seem to drive from LA to Abilene in the space of an afternoon. Car trunks are called boots. Etc.
December 26, 2020
Reminiscent of a Raymond Chandler story, if not the symbolic prose, with all the moving pieces. This is another superb JHC thriller. Maybe JHC painted himself into a bit of a corner with Max Otis--that seems clumsy--but the end salvages things. One thing with You Never Know with Women, everyone is a seamy crook, each person is capable of murder. And when it's all said and done, the sluggish villain at the beginning ends up being the least disgusting of the lot--including the narrator, Floyd Jackson.
June 9, 2017
“You Never Know With Women” is a pulpy 1949 thriller. In it, Chase presents the reader with a number of themes popular in pulp literature, including the sucker who can’t say no to a beautiful woman, the endless greed propelling the sucker deeper into the quagmire, a valuable mysterious artifact that a number of persons are fighting over, an innocent man on the run with the entire world on look out for him, being blamed for murders he didn’t commit, and the romantic couple brought together by desperate circumstances, but turned against each other with distrust and suspicion.
The story begins with a detective down on his luck, his license suspended, the police out to get him for whatever will stick. Offered a chance to make some money as a professional thief by the most unusual grouping of individuals imaginable, he gets involved in a caper that barely makes any sense and results in him being on the run with bodies strewn just about everywhere.
The narrator talks about an “alarm bell ringing in [his] mind” telling him that he is being played for a sucker. He is sure that the whole “lousy tale” of the artifact, the stripper who walks in her sleep, and the rest of it “was a tissue of lies a half-wit paralytic could have seen through.” He knows he should have told the bunch to go jump in lake and that doing so would save him a lot of grief, but greed gets the better of him and then he sees Veda Rux and, as soon as he sees her, he knows there is going to be trouble. He should have known that the way this frail made him feel he was only going to have half his mind on the job and, when a guy gets that way, “he’s leaving himself wide open for a sucker punch.” But there was nothing he could do because it was like getting hold of a live wire and not being able to let go.
There are some great one-liners in this book, such as the idea that: “women are funny animals. You never know where you are with them – they don’t often know where they are with themselves.” How about: “Even a punk with a paralyzed brain hates to be forgotten.” This is a terrific thriller, filled with twists and turns at every step, and, well worth your time.
The story begins with a detective down on his luck, his license suspended, the police out to get him for whatever will stick. Offered a chance to make some money as a professional thief by the most unusual grouping of individuals imaginable, he gets involved in a caper that barely makes any sense and results in him being on the run with bodies strewn just about everywhere.
The narrator talks about an “alarm bell ringing in [his] mind” telling him that he is being played for a sucker. He is sure that the whole “lousy tale” of the artifact, the stripper who walks in her sleep, and the rest of it “was a tissue of lies a half-wit paralytic could have seen through.” He knows he should have told the bunch to go jump in lake and that doing so would save him a lot of grief, but greed gets the better of him and then he sees Veda Rux and, as soon as he sees her, he knows there is going to be trouble. He should have known that the way this frail made him feel he was only going to have half his mind on the job and, when a guy gets that way, “he’s leaving himself wide open for a sucker punch.” But there was nothing he could do because it was like getting hold of a live wire and not being able to let go.
There are some great one-liners in this book, such as the idea that: “women are funny animals. You never know where you are with them – they don’t often know where they are with themselves.” How about: “Even a punk with a paralyzed brain hates to be forgotten.” This is a terrific thriller, filled with twists and turns at every step, and, well worth your time.
Want to read
November 12, 2019No matter what you may think, this title grabs you.
Remember, it was written in 1942. How many
men would echo the title today? A woman writer
who read it blurted out "You never know with MEN!"
So, equality.
Maybe, nobody knows.
In my view, this book seizes the reader and does
not let you go. The opening scene is masterful. And
Chase
tops it throughout the book. The hero may be a heel.
But we root for him anyway.
Chase is a pro at snappy words and suspense. His
style still works.
Read this. You'll never forget it.
+++Frank Hickey, writer of the Dancing Max Royster
crime novels about the world's only ballroom
dancing detective.
August 22, 2012
Initial chapters of this book are real page turners and very much interesting. I felt the story going to have an end in the 9th/10th chapter itself out of seventeen chapters with the flow of initial chapters.
Yes, we could get most details of the crime scene in initial chapters and few intermediate chapters seems to be bit dragging. Last few chapters get back the speed and the ending was well done.
Overall, the book feel like a sine wave with a high initially and intermediate low and back to form in the end.
Yes, we could get most details of the crime scene in initial chapters and few intermediate chapters seems to be bit dragging. Last few chapters get back the speed and the ending was well done.
Overall, the book feel like a sine wave with a high initially and intermediate low and back to form in the end.
April 19, 2010
"Women are funny animals, you never know where you are with them, "Alma & Veda a man's best friend is his wife" Floyd Jackson is going to Gas Chamber"
June 21, 2025
Meet Johnny Farrar, a private eye in the classic mould—tough, cynical, and allergic to subtlety. He gets hired to investigate a jewel heist that looks simple at first... until Nadine, a stunning, mysterious woman, turns up with a smile that could melt glaciers and a secret that could kill.
Johnny, like every Chase male protagonist ever, thinks he’s in control. Spoiler: he’s not.
Nadine is one of Chase’s most cunning femme fatales—cool, clever, and always three steps ahead. She’s not just a “dangerous woman,” she’s a whole curriculum in manipulation. And Johnny? He falls for her like rain off a tin roof.
As the case spirals into murder, betrayal, stolen diamonds, and smoky barroom confrontations, Johnny begins to suspect that truth is a rare currency—and everyone's broke.
This book has all the Chase trademarks:
✔️ Snappy dialogue that crackles like a lit fuse
✔️ Gritty atmosphere—cigarettes, neon, and the faint scent of death
✔️ A plot that moves like a getaway car
✔️ And an ending that smirks and walks away, leaving you blinking
I read this one on a lazy Sunday in a noisy Behala café, earphones in, jazz playing, monsoon rain hammering outside. I remember laughing out loud at a line Johnny throws out—something like, “Trusting women is a full-time job—and I’m on vacation.” Everyone turned and stared. I just raised my cup and thought, Chase, you magnificent rascal.
And Nadine? She reminded me of that one girl from college—beautiful, brilliant, and always five moves ahead. Except Nadine has a gun and no regrets.
In essence, You Never Know with Women is a noir firecracker—a quick, slick ride through lust, lies, and lethal attraction. It’s about what happens when a man who thinks he’s the hunter realizes he’s been the prey all along.
Johnny, like every Chase male protagonist ever, thinks he’s in control. Spoiler: he’s not.
Nadine is one of Chase’s most cunning femme fatales—cool, clever, and always three steps ahead. She’s not just a “dangerous woman,” she’s a whole curriculum in manipulation. And Johnny? He falls for her like rain off a tin roof.
As the case spirals into murder, betrayal, stolen diamonds, and smoky barroom confrontations, Johnny begins to suspect that truth is a rare currency—and everyone's broke.
This book has all the Chase trademarks:
✔️ Snappy dialogue that crackles like a lit fuse
✔️ Gritty atmosphere—cigarettes, neon, and the faint scent of death
✔️ A plot that moves like a getaway car
✔️ And an ending that smirks and walks away, leaving you blinking
I read this one on a lazy Sunday in a noisy Behala café, earphones in, jazz playing, monsoon rain hammering outside. I remember laughing out loud at a line Johnny throws out—something like, “Trusting women is a full-time job—and I’m on vacation.” Everyone turned and stared. I just raised my cup and thought, Chase, you magnificent rascal.
And Nadine? She reminded me of that one girl from college—beautiful, brilliant, and always five moves ahead. Except Nadine has a gun and no regrets.
In essence, You Never Know with Women is a noir firecracker—a quick, slick ride through lust, lies, and lethal attraction. It’s about what happens when a man who thinks he’s the hunter realizes he’s been the prey all along.
September 19, 2017
This review is coming a little late, and it'll be short, and with almost nothing that might persuade someone to pick this up...
It's my fourth book by James Hadley Chase- I keep coming back after long periods!
It's nowhere near my first book of his, No Orchids For Miss Blandish, but after that book, it's the second one that's left me sad and utterly disappointed...
I'm sad because it's obvious to be...
I'm disappointed because I'm a fool and can never guess anything else for a change...!
I read it while I was on my vacation; apart from the supernatural gore and horror of Tokyo Ghoul, this was the closest to something humane, and poetry!
The author writes just as remarkably, with his usual words like "swell", "dough" and statements from our hardboiled character about reality and women...
It was worth the time... I'm gonna keep it after No Orchids For Miss Blandish if I were to put up a ranking...
Will come back to you James, again... till then have a "swell" time( I wish we all do!)
It's my fourth book by James Hadley Chase- I keep coming back after long periods!
It's nowhere near my first book of his, No Orchids For Miss Blandish, but after that book, it's the second one that's left me sad and utterly disappointed...
I'm sad because it's obvious to be...
I'm disappointed because I'm a fool and can never guess anything else for a change...!
I read it while I was on my vacation; apart from the supernatural gore and horror of Tokyo Ghoul, this was the closest to something humane, and poetry!
The author writes just as remarkably, with his usual words like "swell", "dough" and statements from our hardboiled character about reality and women...
It was worth the time... I'm gonna keep it after No Orchids For Miss Blandish if I were to put up a ranking...
Will come back to you James, again... till then have a "swell" time( I wish we all do!)
May 7, 2025
Professional stripper Veda Rux steals an expensive Cellini dagger from a millionaire’s house – seemingly during a sleepwalking incident. The woman’s agent, Cornelius Gorman, ropes in dodgy PI Floyd Jackson, in a bid to return the dagger to the millionaire’s safe before he learns it’s missing.
Jackson thinks there’s something fishy about the whole thing but as he’s desperate for cash, he decides to give it a shot. Unfortunately, Jackson isn’t aware of the whole story, and soon finds himself in a heap of trouble…
This is the first book I’ve read by this author (real name, René Lodge Brabazon Raymond). Both the plot and the dialogue are reminiscent of Raymond Chandler and there were times when I had to remind myself I wasn’t reading The Big Sleep et al. One or two of the characters are a tad misogynistic, but that’s hardly surprising for the time it was written (1949). The plot veers towards the slightly silly at times but on the whole is jolly good fun with plenty of bad guys and double crosses thrown in along the way.
An entertaining and amusing read.
Jackson thinks there’s something fishy about the whole thing but as he’s desperate for cash, he decides to give it a shot. Unfortunately, Jackson isn’t aware of the whole story, and soon finds himself in a heap of trouble…
This is the first book I’ve read by this author (real name, René Lodge Brabazon Raymond). Both the plot and the dialogue are reminiscent of Raymond Chandler and there were times when I had to remind myself I wasn’t reading The Big Sleep et al. One or two of the characters are a tad misogynistic, but that’s hardly surprising for the time it was written (1949). The plot veers towards the slightly silly at times but on the whole is jolly good fun with plenty of bad guys and double crosses thrown in along the way.
An entertaining and amusing read.
June 5, 2023
There is no way I would have correctly guessed the end of this captivating novel, where the beautiful and innocent-looking Veda turned out to be the real reason Floyd Jackson's life was in grave danger right from the word go. You Never Know with Women is a deserving title for the novel because not only for it suspenseful and captivating style the author adopt for the novel the end as it turned out to be truly confirmed the saying why no man born of a woman can correctly guess the mood and action of any woman.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 1, 2021
This is another book by the great master of head-turning crime fiction, which for many critics provides proof that James Hadley Chase had his own, extremely special, difficult relationship with women. And for some, the name of this cute novel can say a lot...
This is a special book – of course, mega-interesting, with a stormy, masterfully intricate plot. And it was written more than 70 years ago. Classics are classics. I know this piece will never grow old.
This is a special book – of course, mega-interesting, with a stormy, masterfully intricate plot. And it was written more than 70 years ago. Classics are classics. I know this piece will never grow old.
February 26, 2021
Another of JHC finest!
You have to feel for Floyd Jackson. It might not be much of a respectable lifestyle he had managed, but I swear he didn't deserve any of the treatment he received from the twin corrupt officers who handled his case. But this is JHC. Full of drama, twist, suspense and intrigue. Another of his finest.
You have to feel for Floyd Jackson. It might not be much of a respectable lifestyle he had managed, but I swear he didn't deserve any of the treatment he received from the twin corrupt officers who handled his case. But this is JHC. Full of drama, twist, suspense and intrigue. Another of his finest.
August 8, 2020
Chase is an old love of mine, so I am biased. His characters always give a good for thoughts and plots are unpredictable.
January 8, 2021
An interesting novel. Classic Chase.
July 3, 2021
Би энэ хүүхнүүдийг хэзээ ч ойлгохгүй байх🥲🥲🥲
September 4, 2022
Eνα απο τα καλύτερα έργα του Τσαιηζ! Δυσκολο να γραφτει τετοιο εργο σημερα. Το Crime fiction ειναι εμπλουτισμενο με γυναικειες ορμονες και ψιλοκοσκινισμένο στον μυλο της Πολιτικής Ορθότητας!
September 7, 2022
3,5/5
Buenos plow twist
Buenos plow twist
Currently reading
October 3, 2022I've heard about this book since when I was young. I love it. It's very good and it's absolutely inspirational.
December 13, 2022
A good read with a pot boiler style which is refreshing against today's smooth literate effect. A veritable plot hothouse.
June 24, 2023
Pulp classic, you just never know, until the last couple chapters.
August 3, 2023
I liked the twist in the end, suspected who the killer was a few chapters before the last page though. Good Crime Read.
March 16, 2024
James Hadley Chase is the master of crime stories. Another great entertaining novel by him.
May 1, 2025
Α ρε Τσαίηζ των εφηβικών μου μεσημεριών όπου όλα ανοίγονταν μπροστά και η Αθήνα ήταν μια άγνωστη πόλη και το αύριο με περίμενε να έρθω...
February 20, 2017
Maybe not the best one, you'd bettre not start JHC with that one.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews