Guilty Are Afraid [Paperback]

James Hadley Chase (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

When Jack Sheppey ends up dead in a beach hut in a wealthy town on the coast of the Pacific, his former partner in their detective agency starts a desperate quest to find his killer. But as private investigator Lew Brandon soon learns, this becomes a non-stop, terrifying and deadly hunt that will take him right to the heart of gangster territory.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Far and away the best writer of thrillers in the English Language" -- Cape Times

About the Author

James Hadley Chase has been hailed as 'the thriller maestro of the generation', 'the king of all thriller writers' and a 'master of the art of his deception'. During his life, he wrote some eighty titles, each one thrilling and delighting his readers with their fast-moving tales of murder, intrigue, blackmail and espionage. Hadley Chase was born René Brabazon Raymond and he also wrote under the names of James L Dochery, Ambrose Grant and Raymond Marshall. He was born René Brabazon Raymond in London in 1906. Whilst working as a bookseller he was inspired by American crime-writers and went on to write his own thrillers and gangster stories, also set in the United States. Success came with No Orchids for Miss Blandish which was published in 1939 and was one of the most successful books of the thirties, selling several million copies. George Orwell described it as 'a brilliant piece of writing with hardly a wasted word or a jarring note anywhere'. It was subsequently dramatised and performed on London's West End, and also made into a film. Chase went on to gain popularity for his numerous other gangster stories, and by the end of the war he was one of Britain's most successful thriller writers. During his career he travelled widely and produced some ninety books, also writing under the names of James L Dochery, Ambrose Grant and Raymond Marshall, although ironically he only visited the USA late in life, relying previously upon knowledge gleaned from dictionaries of slang and encyclopedias for the novels set there. His interests included photography (he was up to professional standard), reading and listening to classical music, being a particularly enthusiastic opera lover.

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: House of Stratus (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842321048
• ISBN-13: 978-1842321041
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,725,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dead in a beach hut, December 13, 2003

By 

Michael Churchill Dibulo (l) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guilty Are Afraid (Paperback)

As a private eye, Lew Brandon came searching for Jack Sheppy his detective partner only to discover his corpse inside a hut in the beach on the pacific coast. A good detective guess told him that his partner was not alone at the beach and he must have came with someone. Who must that be? Lew has to uncover the death of his partner and by the time he was half way through, he was asking himself a couple of handful of questions such as: who hired Sheppy and who was he working for?, who was with him at the time of his death. By the end of the book, Brandon found out that he was looking for a notorious gang leader entwined in a family misdemeanor. Lee Creedy was seems to be connected to employing Jack Sheppy to watch over his wife, but would a blonde relating to Lee Creedy kill his father's employee? Some fish is cooking and a mouse is smelt somewhere.