No Orchids for Miss Blandish

"No Orchids for Miss Blandish" is a powerful and vivid crime noir novel written in 1939 by James Hadley Chase. It is remarkable for its time in its frank and unsentimental treatment of sexuality, violence and the gangster culture that had been allowed to take root and flourish in America. It's also remarkable because it's a great American crime novel...written by an Englishman who had learned of gang culture and its popularity in American fiction through newspaper accounts, which gave him stories of Ma Barker and John Dillinger, and his experience in the book industry, which let him know what was popular with the reading public; indeed, except for a few lapses in vocabulary, one would not guess Chase was an Englishman. And, finally, "No Orchids for Miss Blandish" is remarkable because it was Chase's first novel, written over a three-month period.Briefly, a petty crook learns that Miss Blandish (daughter of a multimillionaire, back when a million was worth something) and her fiance are going to visit a particular roadhouse and sees it as the perfect opportunity to relieve her of her $50,000 diamond necklace. Things go wrong, the fiance is killed, and the crook and his two cohorts take her with them. Things go from bad to worse for Miss Blandish when they have a chance encounter with the Grissom Gang, her captors are murdered, and she becomes their prisoner, a million-dollar kidnap victim. Just when Miss Blandish thinks things can't get any worse, Slim Grissom, Ma Grissom's simple-minded sociopathic knife-wielding son, discovers that girls are different than boys, and takes a shine to their captive, psycho puppy love. The remainder of the book not only details the efforts to recover the kidnapped girl, but her spiral into a drug-induced submissive state, and the activities and machinations of all the peripheral characters.The story is somewhat derivative of other fiction of the time, but his lack of sentimentality and romanticism sets "No Orchids for Miss Blandish" apart from other efforts. The book was shocking to English readers, and no less so to Americans when it was published here, though to modern readers, accustomed to soft-porn romance novels from the magazine aisle of the local supermarket, it will seem that Chase turns his narrative eye aside whenever the action becomes too carnal. And, also, the situation will not be so alien to modern readers as it was to readers of the late Thirties, not with our pop-psychology knowledge of Stockholm Syndrome and the frequent news reports of the Nice Guy Next Door who, it has been discovered, has kept sex slaves hidden in his house for years. Still, despite our callousness and jaded sensibilities, the story yet retains a visceral power to surprise, shock and engage the modern reader. It is well worth finding.

After reading the fierce first chapter, I was totally surprised to discover that this book was written in 1938! The novel is just as dark, violent, and explicit as anything written today, and I enjoyed every page of it! I can see why the book was such a hit and such a controversy at the same time when it was released. It wasn't until after I finished the first chapter of the kindle edition, that I realized that I was reading a revised version of the novel, "updated" by the author for more modern audiences in the mid-60's. After skimming through passages from the original text, I was shocked to find out that the language and some of the content was softened tremendously! When I read hard-boiled noir, I don't want it soft, I want it as hard as can be! So I paused my reading to track down the only edition that I could find with the original text, and that was this paperback edition, the one published by Bruins Crimeworks.Described as a "shocking tale of vile, ruthless, gangsterism," it tells the story of the kidnapping and ransoming of the beautiful, innocent, unnamed daughter of millionaire John Blandish. The girl ends up in the hands of the infamous old lady Ma Grissom, and her gang of thieves and killers, including her psychotic son and knife-man Slim Grissom. Months later, the girl has still not been found and her father hires private dick Dave Fenner to find out what happened to her. Her father partly hopes she is dead, because if she isn't, one can only imagine what the Grissom gang has been doing to poor Miss Blandish.The novel is well-plotted, fast-paced and never boring, with raw and lurid details and vivid characters in the villainous gangsters. My jaw definitely dropped a few times at the horror of the story and the situation that Miss Blandish was in, being a rich girl that has always been protected by the terrors of the world, being suddenly thrust into something that might ruin her innocence completely. And that ending? Jeez...stuck in my head for days...

This book is well written, I feel bad for some rich kids that Don't get taught or won't learn how to do for themselves and far as working or being responsible for anything. So when things like this happens they can't cope.I have nothing against rich folks it just how helpless they can get when not held accountable for anything vital in their lives.The book is great I could not put it down for hours at a time cause I wanted to know what happens next and there is so much going on I couldn't find a stop point.Please read there is a lot going on and I loved the gangtas that kept bustin each other chops for what one gangtas had and the other didn't for big money on robbery, murder and kidnapping.You won't be disappointed. I have not let you readers down yet when you read my reviews.

Fast, without hoping what's coming next. Typical on James Hadley Chase books. Will continue reading all his novels. Should be made movies of

I bought a couple of James Hadley chase novels frm the same publisher. The books quality is soo good and so the packaging!!

This is a fast paced book with a story told in a very unusual way.The characters came alive and I could experience them.It was too bad there was no happy meaningful the long suffering Miss Brandish.She killed herself due to shame and depression.The police should have engaged Services of a psychiatric doctor and kept hereunder constant supervision by psychiatric nurses.They mishandled the case which ended in a tragedy .

A nice present for a Chase fan

Thoroughly enjoyed this book by the master-story teller James Hadley Chase Absorbing fast-paced from start to finish. Great characters great everything. Awesome.