The Whiff of Money [Paperback]

James Hadley Chase (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

Secret Agent Mark Kirkland has been given the task of locating and retrieving three pornographic films. His mission must remain top secret as the films, rather embarrassingly, feature the daughter of the future president of the United States. His quest leads him to the depths of Bavaria where he finds Soviet agent, Malik, and sidekick Lu Silk also rather interested in the whereabouts of the films. Who will find them first? And once found, who's to say they won't immediately disappear again?

Editorial Reviews

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: 228 pages
• Publisher: House of Stratus (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842321188
• ISBN-13: 978-1842321188
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,502,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Whiff of Money, Intriguing and suspenseful, May 12, 2003

By 

Sergey D Semenov (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Whiff of Money (Paperback)

One of the best crime novels. Highly recommend to read. My synopsis: Money is subject to anything. Some people care about it and others don't. Certain "blue stag" films were made to blackmail the future president of US. Hired professional killers test their experience to get those films any way possible in this exciting and thrilling story. Betrayal, hatred and sexual appeal are all mixed up in this intriguing and suspenseful fiction.

1.0 out of 5 stars A sad end to a distinguished career, January 3, 2008

By 

Gordon Matthews (Durham, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Whiff of Money (Hardcover)

James Hadley Chase (René Brabazon Raymond), an Englishman who never visited America, wrote some of the toughest, most compelling hard-boiled crime fiction of the mid-twentieth century (his best-known work was No Orchids for Miss Blandish), all or most of it set in America and comparing favorably, in my opinion, with the better-known James Cain and Jim Thompson. He studied the writings of other hard-boiled mystery writers to master the American idiom, and studied maps to describe American locations plausibly- his books read like books written by an American, not like books written by an Englishman trying to ape American styles. Like many writers of suspense thrillers, however, Chase switched to writing espionage novels in the 1960's to fill the demand for more books that resembled the James Bond movies and the Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV show (but not, sadly, Ian Fleming's James Bond novels). Most of these espionage thrillers do not show the authors at their best, and that's certainly the case with Chase's efforts in the genre. Even worse, he had entirely lost his ear for the modern idiom, even when the idiom was common to both England and America. He insists, for example, that hipsters are a type of trousers rather than a type of bohemian (I think he confused them with hiphuggers), and his hero does not "dig" the things he likes- he "digs for" them. The result is embarrassingly awful, like some elderly person's unsuccessful attempts to speak the language of hip-hop. Collectors of Chase, of which there are deservedly many, are advised to stick this book on the shelf unread. The only things that it has going for it are that Chase still retained the knack for coming up with a snappy title (some of his other titles include Kiss My Fist, Well Now My Pretty, The Dead Stay Dumb, and There's Always a Price Tag) and that it isn't camp.

2.0 out of 5 stars The Pornography, December 13, 2003

By 

Michael Churchill Dibulo (l) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Whiff of Money (Paperback)

A pornography which portrays in picture, an embarrassingly, feature of the daughter of the future president of the United States comes alive when a secret Agent such as Mark Kirkland receive an instruction on an assignment to locate and retrieve the three copies of the pornographic films. His mission must remain a top secret, His quest leads him to the depths of Bavaria where he finds Soviet agent, Malik, and however, sidekick Lu Silk is also more anxious and rather interested in the whereabouts of the films. Who will find them first? And once found, who's to say they won't immediately disappear again? The book is a brain storming season for crime lovers, it portray a special suspense for book lovers, the scene has a beginning but by the time you must have closed the last pages, you will be grumbling for the end of the drama but you might by sad to find none, because the drama continues even as the pages ends.