This first novel by James Hadley Chase (there will be many more as it was a success) almost read in one sitting. Fast, rhythmic surprise (for a novel of 1939), and nervous, this book is a very good policeman in the "black" movement.
Curiously, Chase chose not to highlight the police and detectives, and those are the bandits who are the stars here. Each has its strong character, and that's a real gangster gallery that depicts Chase, with stereotypes we love finding: the ace of the gun, the psychopath plays the Superintendent, the woman obese gang leader . Their common point? A raw and violent language: legend has it that Chase, English origin, wrote his book with a slang dictionary at hand. Curiously, the author has when he wrote his novel, never set foot in the States, but we will never realize.
The story is dark, especially because of its unsavory characters, and one wonders continually on the fate of Miss Gang (the title finally tells us a little about its future). The first part of the novel is devoted to kidnapping itself and how Grissom gang pulls it off. The second highlights a private detective in charge of finding Miss Blandish. Curiously, even at that time, one has the feeling that there is a secondary character.
No Orchids for Miss Gang revives me with the sort, and I'm looking forward to read more Chase wrote ten years later: Flesh of the Orchid. Note that many of the novels of James Hadley Chase are republished in recent months in the collection Folio Police.
