Twelve Chinks and a Woman

12 Chinks and a Woman by James Hadley Chase

Hardboiled fiction?

This fiction is so hard that it is fossilised.

This guy's speech is so clipped and to the point that he doesn't use adverbs, adjectives, nouns or verbs.

He shoots prepositions on sight.

This guy is so tough that he irons his shirts by laying in the road and getting run over by trucks, big trucks.

But it is a ripping good yarn with morals. The bad guys all die and in the end the whole story is unfolded so we are not left in the dark. Some poor lunks get it before their time and some dames are just too hot for their own good.

Yes, it really was like that in 1941 when this was written. Now it seems cliched and tired but it makes me wonder how much of our current crop will also seem show more cliched in 75 years time. Jo Nesbo? Ian Rankin? How will they fare?

This is how it starts:
"Only one man could satisfy Glorie Leadler's craving for love and affection. And though this golden-haired bit of feminine dynamite could have had a dozen men at her feet for the asking, it was a solitary Oriental who made her heart beat fast. When jealous rivals tore that midnight love from Glorie's arms, her over-heated emotions burst forth in a volcano of love-stricken vengeance that rocked Florida and left a mark on many men's souls"

Could you beat that? show less

Fast and furious as usual from Chase. A plot so complicated he has to stop from time to time and have the leading character explain it. Nevertheless, quite enjoyable with some excellent, extremely violent scenes. Chase shouldn't be able to get away with this - his books lack even a shred of authenticity - but he is a storyteller first and foremost and keeps things moving along so fast you don't even have time to think.

Enter the world of the American thrillers of the 40's and 50's where all the men are mean and cruel and all women are slutty. This is one such novel where a private detective enters into a town in Miami and destroys the underworld there.. Just like that.

Unrealistic, repetitive, boring.

pretty fast...bit different from rest of Fenner tales as has more hardcore action - gangsta style than others.