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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Crime Master's Classic,
This review is from: No Orchids for Miss Blandish (Mass Market Paperback)
James Hadley Chase is the master of crime fiction, not to be confused with mystery, suspense or simple thrillers. He goes deep into his characters makeup and motivation for crime. No Orchids for Miss Blandish is one of his classics about a crime family kidnapping a rich girl for a ransom. However the relationships that develop between the girl and her captives, and the conflict between the family members go beyond a simple crime. Despite reading it several times, and watching the movie, it has not lost its fascination for me, like many of Chase's books. It is a pity that his books are out of print. I read about 50, and there are more I want to buy if I can find them.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Setting the record straight,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: No Orchids for Miss Blandish (Paperback)
I feel compelled to comment on the last reviewer who admits to not having read the novel, but instead launches into analysis of an essay written by George Orwell entitled "Raffles and Miss Blandish." The reviewer's problem is with the use of two quotes from the Orwell essay, drawn together to better promote the book's merits in the bookseller's synopsis. For clarification, here is an expansion of the quotes taken from Orwell's essay:
The first quote: "In a book like No Orchids one is not, as in the old-style crime story, simply escaping from dull reality into an imaginary world of action. One's escape is essentially into cruelty and sexual perversion. No Orchids is aimed at the power-instinct, which Raffles or the Sherlock Holmes stories are not." And the second quote: "Several other points need noticing before one can grasp the full implications of this book. To begin with, its central story bears a very marked resemblance to William Faulkner's novel, Sanctuary. Secondly, it is not, as one might expect, the product of an illiterate hack, but a brilliant piece of writing, with hardly a wasted word or a jarring note anywhere. Thirdly, the whole book, récit as well as dialogue, is written in the American language; the author, an Englishman who has (I believe) never been in the United States, seems to have made a complete mental transference to the American underworld. Fourthly, the book sold, according to its publishers, no less than half a million copies." Maybe it's just me, but I sense a fair amount of admiration in those words. Just for fun, let's pull another quote from the essay. Orwell's ends "Raffles and Miss Blandish" with these words: "In Mr. Chase's books there are no gentlemen and no taboos. Emancipation is complete. Freud and Machiavelli have reached the outer suburbs. Comparing the schoolboy atmosphere of the one book (Raffles) with the cruelty and corruption of the other (No Orchids,) one is driven to feel that snobbishness, like hypocrisy, is a check upon behavior whose value from a social point of view has been underrated." Freud and Machiavelli have reached the outer suburbs. I love that allusion, and if I had not yet read NO ORICHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH, I would certainly seek it out after reading that dark declaration.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Journey through the Underworld,
By Acute Observer (By the Shore NJ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: No Orchids for Miss Blandish (Mass Market Paperback)
This 1961 book tells a story about gangs in the Kansas City area circa 1934. Two members of a small gang stop at a rural gas station / lunchroom. A reporter stops by, and chats with a gang member. This reporter is covering the "Blandish shindig", where Miss Blandish will be wearing a very valuable diamond necklace. Then she and her boyfriend will visit a roadhouse. Bailey, and his boss Riley, plan a highway robbery to steal this hard-to-fence diamond necklace.
They stop the car to steal the necklace. Miss Blandish's boyfriend tries to defend her, and is shot and killed. The gang decides to kidnap the heiress, and drive away. But when they stop for gas, the members of another gang, bigger and more dangerous, see them and later figure out they kidnapped the heiress. The Grisson gang will follow the Riley gang and hijack the heiress. The Riley gang will not be able to complain. [Would a gang that just murdered a man give up so easily?] Now the Grisson demands a million dollars in used bills, and gets it. But they renege, and keep Miss Blandish for her utility. This story, interesting in itself, has little redeeming value. While fictional, it echoes the crimes of the 1930s: the kidnaps in the Midwest (and elsewhere), the gang wars, the society of that day. There is little mention of politic, or the corruption of local government. The idea of wearing an expensive necklace to a roadhouse seems unbelievable, except as a hook for this story. But it serves as a warning against foolish actions, and the destructive use of drugs. A small company is put out of business by a larger company, and then falls before a more powerful organization. [The word "blandish" means "pleasing, alluring, enticing".]
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