Reviews

Get a Load of This by James Hadley Chase

paul_cornelius's review

5.0

I had intended to read this volume of James Hadley Chase short stories after finishing his novels. As I write this, I have three novels to go. But I decided to go ahead and complete going through these stories published in a single volume in 1942. It's one of JHC's earlier works. And it reveals a writer capable of working in several genres. Included are hard boiled crime stories, psychological thrillers, adventure stories, mysteries, and even semi-historical fiction. Too, Chase includes a setting he never employs in the novels, Cuba (although he borrows the names of characters used in the Cuban stories, Anita and Fuentes, for his 1982 novel that includes Cuban refugees from Castro, Have a Nice Night). Several stories are set there, including probably the best one of the bunch, "The Place of Love." Chase's Havana is a place of dark antiquity, dripping with humid tropical air and filled with malevolence. I wish he had turned "The Place of Love" into a full novel; it's fit for it. Other stories include psycho killers meeting their karmic fate in "Two Thumb a Ride," and an appealing adventure set in the Mexican Revolution, "The Magnificent Opportunity."