James Hadley ChaseNo Orchids for Miss Blandish

You know the different writing, art and photography styles, right? For example, the romantic photographing a street at night would give us an ethereal, dreamlike vision of quiet neighborhood, shrouded in gentle mist or fog, rendered in beautiful black-and-white, showing dark, rich blacks, some beautiful gray tones and stunning white highlights. The realist would give us photo of the street as it really is, regardless of whether it's black-and-white or color; no more, no less. Finally, the naturalist would show a filthy, depressed, run-down, neighborhood from the view of the gutter, looking over the body of a passed-out wino or mugged sailor, garbage, graffiti roving street people in the background.This book is stark naturalism. It was meant to shock, which is does even 80-years after it was written. It's tragedy writ large. Imagine O. Henry on meth.

After reading the fierce first chapter, I was totally surprised to discover that this book was written in 1938! The novel is just as dark, violent, and explicit as anything written today, and I enjoyed every page of it! I can see why the book was such a hit and such a controversy at the same time when it was released. It wasn't until after I finished the first chapter of the kindle edition, that I realized that I was reading a revised version of the novel, "updated" by the author for more modern audiences in the mid-60's. After skimming through passages from the original text, I was shocked to find out that the language and some of the content was softened tremendously! When I read hard-boiled noir, I don't want it soft, I want it as hard as can be! So I paused my reading to track down the only edition that I could find with the original text, and that was this paperback edition, the one published by Bruins Crimeworks.Described as a "shocking tale of vile, ruthless, gangsterism," it tells the story of the kidnapping and ransoming of the beautiful, innocent, unnamed daughter of millionaire John Blandish. The girl ends up in the hands of the infamous old lady Ma Grissom, and her gang of thieves and killers, including her psychotic son and knife-man Slim Grissom. Months later, the girl has still not been found and her father hires private dick Dave Fenner to find out what happened to her. Her father partly hopes she is dead, because if she isn't, one can only imagine what the Grissom gang has been doing to poor Miss Blandish.The novel is well-plotted, fast-paced and never boring, with raw and lurid details and vivid characters in the villainous gangsters. My jaw definitely dropped a few times at the horror of the story and the situation that Miss Blandish was in, being a rich girl that has always been protected by the terrors of the world, being suddenly thrust into something that might ruin her innocence completely. And that ending? Jeez...stuck in my head for days...

"No Orchids for Miss Blandish" is a powerful and vivid crime noir novel written in 1939 by James Hadley Chase. It is remarkable for its time in its frank and unsentimental treatment of sexuality, violence and the gangster culture that had been allowed to take root and flourish in America. It's also remarkable because it's a great American crime novel...written by an Englishman who had learned of gang culture and its popularity in American fiction through newspaper accounts, which gave him stories of Ma Barker and John Dillinger, and his experience in the book industry, which let him know what was popular with the reading public; indeed, except for a few lapses in vocabulary, one would not guess Chase was an Englishman. And, finally, "No Orchids for Miss Blandish" is remarkable because it was Chase's first novel, written over a three-month period.Briefly, a petty crook learns that Miss Blandish (daughter of a multimillionaire, back when a million was worth something) and her fiance are going to visit a particular roadhouse and sees it as the perfect opportunity to relieve her of her $50,000 diamond necklace. Things go wrong, the fiance is killed, and the crook and his two cohorts take her with them. Things go from bad to worse for Miss Blandish when they have a chance encounter with the Grissom Gang, her captors are murdered, and she becomes their prisoner, a million-dollar kidnap victim. Just when Miss Blandish thinks things can't get any worse, Slim Grissom, Ma Grissom's simple-minded sociopathic knife-wielding son, discovers that girls are different than boys, and takes a shine to their captive, psycho puppy love. The remainder of the book not only details the efforts to recover the kidnapped girl, but her spiral into a drug-induced submissive state, and the activities and machinations of all the peripheral characters.The story is somewhat derivative of other fiction of the time, but his lack of sentimentality and romanticism sets "No Orchids for Miss Blandish" apart from other efforts. The book was shocking to English readers, and no less so to Americans when it was published here, though to modern readers, accustomed to soft-porn romance novels from the magazine aisle of the local supermarket, it will seem that Chase turns his narrative eye aside whenever the action becomes too carnal. And, also, the situation will not be so alien to modern readers as it was to readers of the late Thirties, not with our pop-psychology knowledge of Stockholm Syndrome and the frequent news reports of the Nice Guy Next Door who, it has been discovered, has kept sex slaves hidden in his house for years. Still, despite our callousness and jaded sensibilities, the story yet retains a visceral power to surprise, shock and engage the modern reader. It is well worth finding.

I first read this book over 40 years ago and was drawn into the whole library of JHC works. It is quite short and can be read quite quickly in one or two sessions (ideal for flying). This particular book really set the standard of the genre. There is no profanity and no intimate detail of romantic encounters (and it is all the better for that). Hard to put down and there's always the ending you didn't quite anticipate. Hadley-Chase is, surprisingly, British but writes in a style and nuanced way that you would imagine he was as American as apple pie or doughnuts! If you haven't discovered his work, do try it with this one.

Dreadful attempt at an American style storyGratuitous violence and very little plotI gave up - if it was possible to give it 0 stars I would

I read this book years ago and finding it on the kindle decided to download and revisit.As I say in the review title, JHC is one of my favourite authors and so am biased when reviewing him, but have to say this is one of his best!Although no great work of fiction this book should be read in the context for which it was written. If you like 1930s - 1950s crime fiction writing then you should enjoy this book and other JHC books.

Great classic read. Delivered promptly. Many thanks.

If you take in to consideration that it was written with the use of a dictionary of American slang and, as far as I know, that he never set foot in America he did a fine job. It's not Raymond Chandler but who could match that? Greatly enjoyed.