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Tom Lepski #15

by James Hadley Chase

Missis Henry Thorsenil, rikkal ja ilusal võimukal lesknaisel, tekib kahtlus, et tema tütrelt Angelalt pressitakse raha välja, ning ta pöördub oma murega Paradaise City parima ja kalleima eradetektiivibüroo Acme poole. Asja asuvad uurima intelligentne ja sarmikas detektiiv Dirk Wallace ning tema asendamatu abiline Bill Anderson, kes puutuvad juurdluse käigus kokku nii vägivalla, narkootikumide kui maffiaga.

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

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

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

[Велислав Върбанов · Rating 4 out of 5]

Страшно динамичен и увлекателен криминален трилър! Историята започва като класическо разследване, тъй като детектив Уолъс е нает за привидно лесната задача да проследи богато момиче и открие за какво харчи големи парични суми. Случаят обаче се оказва неочаквано брутален и свързан с мрачни тайни из престъпните среди, а главният герой постепенно навлиза в жесток сблъсък с мафията...

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hit Them Where It Hurts is the last novel James Hadley Chase published before he died. It is also the final volume of his work for me to read. I have been going through his books, all 90 of them, for almost nine months to the day. So, here are a few things in general to say about JHC:

1) Although in terms of academe it has become something of a false boundary no longer enforced, the dividing line between "fiction" and "literature" is one some people still pay attention to. While Chase would mostly fall on the side of fiction, it is also fair to say that a great deal of his work also manages to achieve the level of literature, especially his stories published right after World War II and going into the early 1950s.

2) Chase could move between many genres: mysteries, crime thrillers, psychological studies, adventure stories, and spy thrillers.

3) His favorite setting, Paradise City, eventually became a complete abstraction, mixing elements of time (1940s and 1950s) in to his present day. He also seems to deliberately confuse American and British idioms and slang. Overall, JHC is a master of atmosphere and mise-en-scene. You perspire in his novels, out of fear or humidity, just like the lead characters. His European tales, meanwhile, often become places of dark, coldly brittle landscapes.

4) A James Hadley Chase character is most likely to eat seafood or steaks. He or she usually work off their carbohydrates through "having a swim."

5) For all the times he fell back on a set piece for his stories--kidnapping, blackmail, white slavery, infidelity, corruption, greed, murder--he nonetheless managed usually to write a fresh story, with a new twist even if often set among used plots. He did this right to the very end, even in his last few novels.

6) JHC could write effective comic novels and stories. And not only that, he was capable of injecting comic situations even into his darkest tales. Tom Lepski, perhaps the character to most often appear in a Chase novel, and his wife could always be counted on to lighten the scenes.

7) Chase had a 45 year career, publishing some 90 volumes. Two and sometimes three novels per year came from his hand. But he always seemed to have a new take on the situation. JHC was also a master of responding to the times in which he wrote, focusing on white slavery early on, post Word War II psychological decay, evolving race relations, even putting in place an occasional feminist hero, populating his stories with hippies, rich sociopaths, heirs and heiresses with psychopathological tendencies. And, a couple of times, he even made self referential allusions to his own works.

Now, what about Hit Them Where It Hurts? For the last time, we see Tom Lepski of the Paradise City PD get a role, albeit a limited one, in a Chase novel. Two new characters, Dirk Wallace and Bill Anderson, whom he had introduced in Hand Me a Fig Leaf, came back for another go round. And Chase seemed to be setting them up as a new source to develop for his fiction. Mix these people in with a cold, aloof and inhuman matriarch who has raised a drug dealing son and psychologically malformed daughter, both of whom enjoy mixing with the lumpen elements along the wharf, and you have the classic elements of a JHC thriller. Private Investigators begin trying to unravel a simple tale of blackmail, but it ends up leading to exposing the sordid workings of Paradise City's entire elite. The usual Chase pace of storytelling combines with multiple story lines to produce what is almost a ready made film treatment. This book was not made into a movie. But it should be.

Well, now I'm done. I'll miss spending a few hours every night with yet another Chase thriller. James Hadley Chase himself turned out to be an admirable writer. The 90 novels weren't enough. I wish there were more.

[Eti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Реална оценка 2.5★
Харесах, но не разбрах защо от детективска история се превърна в план за отмъщение! 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Rural Soul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it years ago in a magazine. It seems that my taste has been changed a lot as I read it today again.

[Joséphine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Affreux! Tellement raciste et misogyne
+ très très peu crédible, juste vraiment nul
(pas cool les polars de jeunesse de mamie)

[Fauré · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was fine until it became a dull vengeance story.

[Akinola Akinyemi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another 1

Once a reviewer wrote he could not pick a favourite out of all James Hadley Chase books he read, well I think I concur. This is just another one. It kept me on the edge the entire time.

[Kakha · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, the main object is a private, so-called Paradise City Detective Agency (or Parnell Detective Agency) and the real main character is a good, strong man, Dirk Wallace, a private detective of this agency because all the hard story of this book is tied to him. Almost all the actions, all the investigation of one interesting case take place around him. Of course, where there is a crime in Paradise City (a magnificent city on the Florida coast invented by the author), the local glorious police will definitely come into play, whose representatives are well known to those readers who are lucky enough to read the works of our great author from a series of books about the aforementioned Paradise City. So, Dirk Wallace, a detective of Colonel Parnell's agency, is tasked with figuring out why one rich heiress regularly withdraws many thousands of dollars from her bank account (serious money at the time) and whether there is blackmail behind it. And the investigation suddenly turns into a particularly painful course for Dirk – everything turns into bloody revenge on the perpetrators of the death of Wallace's girlfriend...

[Petrus Forsgren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hit them where it hurts by James Hadley Chase (Swedish title ”För sent att fly”), 1980, is about private detectives Dirk Wallace and Bill Andersson who investigate the blackmail of a relative to a rich widow. The blackmail then turns out to have connections to the mafia and a butler in the widow's household. The investigation becomes personal when Dirk's girlfriend is killed. A series of bombings, corrupt police officers, seedy restaurants, double-dealing, dangerous underlings to bosses. An exciting story, look forward to reading more books by James Hadley Chase. This was no. 15 in the series with Tom Lepski the policeman, but he has a marginal role in this book. Publishing series Manhattan Pocket no. 408. My favorite quote from the book;

"No human should live in the past, it is the future that counts. Tomorrow is a new day, go ahead and go to sleep now.... Tomorrow is a new day"

[Rao Neelamraju · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was reading chase books from my school days. Finished most of them. Started reading again after retirement. JHC has a unique way of writing and though you read his books you still like to read. This book primarily about a lunatic and a private detective. With the introduction of characters from his another book, he created a great story.. Worth reading…

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was an easy read. It was significant for two reasons: it was the last book written by one of my favorite author, and it was the first book I read in English instead of a translation. Another interesting point is that the story is set in Miami, a city I had just visited soon after reading the book. That's when I realized the author had never actually been to America!

[Tatjana Li · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple english. Easy to read in a day-two. For sure not high quality in terms of language not plot. All predictable and at the end even boring. I was expecting more, at least unpredictable twist at the end.

[Hari Udayakumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gripping Tale, a Quick Read,

[Δήμος Καραχάλιος · Rating 4 out of 5]

Πολύ καλό! Λίγο στο δεύτερο μισό εστιάζει πολύ στην εκδίκηση αλλά είναι κλασικός Chase!

[Taavi Tuisk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kahetunni krimisopakas ilma suurema võimaluseta ise nuputada, et kes on mõrvar.

Võtsin Riia lennujaamast ja jätsin Caeni hotelli :)

[Aleksandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Скучна кримка, първа и последна среща с автора.

[Shojjoti Hossen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Amogh Pendharkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

JHC stories always keep you engrossed while reading. This story is fast and not lingering. Once you start reading, you find it difficult to keep it down.
The story is about a detective who investigates a case of blackmailing and while investigating he realizes a big organization is involved. He quits the detective agency when he faces a major personal blow and then decides to Hurt them where it hurts....

[Viswajith Venugopal · Rating 2 out of 5]

My grandfather's bookshelf has a whole bunch of James Hadley Chase titles, and I'd never picked one up before. When I visited this time, I randomly picked this one out of the lot and decided to give it a shot.

I can see why James Hadley Chase is popular: his novels are the book-equivalent of one of those action movies full car chases and explosions, which constitute a couple of hours of mindless entertainment.

The book is fast-paced, never slowing down to describe the setting in detail or anything like that. Basically, a detective working for the nation's best detective agency is hired to find out why and by whom a client's daughter is being blackmailed. He makes queries, unearths various intriguing details. Suddenly in the middle, someone close to him is killed, and he goes ballistic in his quest for revenge. This is a book that most people will finish in one setting -- it lasts between two and three hours.

There are many things I disliked though, and I don't think I'm going to read another Chase. I guess most of these were conscious choices by the author, and a lot of readers might like them -- I personally didn't, is all. Characters are developed very poorly, and the way they're affected by events, and the things they do in response, are all very unconvincing. I couldn't really connect with any of them -- they felt more like agents to move the plot forward, rather than actual people dealing with circumstances. Also, the way the protagonist unearths new leads and goes about solving the crime is so formulaic -- I can tell that when the author wants to introduce a new detail, there is, magically, a phone call from one of the detective's informants, with a random new piece of info. It's putting off when it's that obviously done -- Agatha Christie was so much better at this.

Also -- and this is probably more reflective of the times the author was from more than anything else -- I was frequently shocked by how sexist and racist the book was. Female characters are shallow, and none of the paragraphs they're introduced in are complete without a description of their figure/breasts and the detective's (it's a first-person narrative) opinion on their body. And black people are always introduced as "black man" or "black woman", as if it is understood that they are a different, slightly lesser, race. The racism is so imbibed and taken for granted that, by today's standards, it's pretty hard to get used to.

[Mark Vickers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just another crackerjack from the maestro, I can't say it enough about the master, JHC, he was in a class of his own the storylines, attention to details, everything about the man is just pure CLASS, enough said........

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Primera novela de Chase que leí.

[विकास 'अंजान' · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an amazing read. Fast paced, page turner.

[Shardulvyas · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, easy one day read.