Jarrolds, n.d. (Aug 1940), 255pp, 1/-. Cover by Merlin *31st thousand
---- [*56th thousand]
---- [*367th thousand]
Corgi Books 0552-10522-8, 1977, 188pp, 60p. Cover photo
When Dave Fenner was hired to solve the Blandish kidnapping, he knew the odds on finding the girl were against him – the cops were still looking for her three months after the ransom had been paid. And the kidnappers, Riley and his gang, had disappeared into thin air. But what none of them knew was that Riley himself had been wiped out by a rival gang – and the heiress was now in the hands of Ma Grisson and her son Slim, a vicious killer who couldn't stay away from women... especially his beautiful new captive. By the time Fenner began to close in on them, some terrible things had happened to Miss Blandish.
Jarrolds 233, Jun 1951, 192pp, 2/-. *757th thousand
Jarrolds, Oct 1952, 1/6.
The story of Miss Blandish needs no introduction. Over half a million copies of the book have been sold. More than seven million people people have read it.
In the past twenty-five years no other character in fiction has so gripped the public imagination. The B.B.C. has mentioned Miss Blandish. Many reviewers and plays have burlesqued her. Her name has become as familiar to the public as any of the greatest Hollywood stars. She has been accepted as a house-hold word.
This edition of No Orchids for Miss Blandish is based on the play of the same title, licensed by the Lord Chamberlain, presented by George Black, and dramatized by James Hadley Chase and Robert Nesbitt, with an additional dialogue by Val Guest.
Panther 1250, Jul 1961, 155pp, 2/6. Typographical cover
---- Jul 1961 [2nd imp.], 155pp, 2/6. Cover by unknown * ?re-cover of the above.
---- 2/6. Cover photo [* ?re-cover of the above]
---- [3rd imp.] 1966, 155pp, 3/6. Cover photo
---- [4th imp.] 1967
Panther Books 02834-X [5th imp.] 1969, 155pp, 5/- (25p). Cover photo
---- [6th imp.] 1970
Panther Books 02834-X-2 [7th imp.] 1971, 155pp, 25p. Cover photo. *Movie tie-in.
The most controversial thriller ever written.
This is James Hadley Chase's most disturbing, powerful novel – and it is also the most shatteringly controversial thriller ever written, bar none. It has sold millions upon millions of copies all over the world, shocking and enthralling all who have read it.
This no-punches-pulled story of an attractive wealthy girl kidnapping, held to ransom – and ultimately raped – by a viciously sadistic criminal captures the authentic ruthlessness of gangsterism in all its searing brutality. It is most definitely not a story for the squeamish.
The present Panther edition has been re-written and revised by the author who feels the original text with its outmoded dialogue and its 1938 atmosphere would not be acceptable to the new generation of readers who may be curious to read the most controversial, the most discussed and the best known gangster story ever written.
as by James L. Docherty (James Hadley Chase), Rich & Cowan, (Dec 1940), 192pp, 1/-. *158th thousand
Panther Books 0586-03627-X, 1975, 45p. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1977.
---- [3rd imp.] 1979, 173pp, 65p. Cover photo by Beverley Le Barrow (Jilly Johnson)
Duffy and his dangerous dames
Bill Duffy is a newsman, a real pro photographer. He lives hard, drinks hard and he's tough – except where women are concerned. And when he finds himself with a ravishingly beautiful woman in her apartment very late one night, it takes all his willpower to resist – willpower, and a very mangled corpse which somehow fell down the elevator shaft. And that was just the beginning.
Jarrolds, nd (Mar 1941), 192pp, 1/-. Cover by Dolan * 140th thousand
Jarrolds/Arrow 293, nd (Apr 1953), 144pp, 2/-, [anon]. *275th thousand
Panther 03444-7, 1971, 157pp,, 25p. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1971; [3rd imp.] 1973; [4th imp.] 1975, 40p.
Corgi Books 0552-11096-5, (Jun) 1979, (160pp). Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
Corgi Books, ??. Cover photo (Debbie Smith)
Dillon was just about the roughest, meanest gunman around – a real cool killer, meanest gunman around, evil as they come. It was bad news for a lot of people the day he hit town. Bad news for Myra, the curvaceous teenage tease... for Butch Horgan, her brutal, greedy father... for Nick Gurney, the small-time operator who thought he could string along with Dillon and hit it rich... for Hurst and Little Ernie, the ace racketeers who had a whole city carved up between them. And for a whole load of other characters whose ventilated corpses were to lie in the wake of Dillon's ruthless progress...
as by Raymond Marshall (James Hadley Chase), Jarrolds, May 1941, 192pp, 1/-. *33rd thousand
as by Raymond Marshall (James Hadley Chase), Jarrolds, n.d. (Jul 1950), 128pp, 2/-. *198th thousand
as by Raymond Marshall (James Hadley Chase), Jarrolds, n.d. (c.1952), 128pp, 2/-. *248th thousand
Panther Books 1181, 1961, 159pp, 2/6.
---- [xth imp.] 2/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02503-0 [xth imp.] Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02503-0-2 [xth imp.]. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10328-4, 1977. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1980. Cover photo (Kim Mills
---- [3rd? imp.] 1986. Cover photo
Over the phone, the voice was metallic. And she had offered journalist Nick Mason a hefty sum to expose a murder frame up... Mason, intrigued, had gone along to the gas chamber to see Vessi die. Before the pellets hit the acid, Vessi insisted on his innocence. His last words gave Mason the clue to some odd business going on at the respectable Mackenzie Fabric Corporation. When he was warned off his investigations by a blonde fury of a hooker and a cold-eyed gunman, Mason almost decided to forget the whole thing... but by then he'd met the irresistible Mardi, the girl from Mackenzie Fabrics who might be able to lead him to the truth...
Jarrolds, c.1941.
Once again James Hadley Chase achieves an epic of tough writing that easily exceeds anything that he has previously written. Here are all the ingredients that you have come to expect from him – pace, punch and ferocious realism.
This is the story of the smuggling of Chinese aliens from Cuba to Florida. It is also the story of Glorie, that tempestuous unbridled young woman who sets Dave Fenner a fantastic puzzle which involves him in deadly gang warfare before he finally solves it.
Make no mistake about it, Twelve Chinks and a Woman is only for the really hardened fans of the tough school of writing. There are violent moments in this book that are incredibly savage and brutal. The author depicts his underworld without hesitation. It is as close to the jungle as the wild beasts that stalk there. Glorie, who will elevate the Victorian eyebrow, is without doubt the most incredible piece of nymphomania of any of the Tough Women as yet created by Chase.
Chase fans who look for explosive action won't be disappointed. They've got it here!
as The Doll’s Bad News, Panther 0586-03375-0, 1970, 142pp, 25p (5/-). Cover photo by Andrew Cockrill
---- [2nd imp.] 1973; [3rd imp.] 1975, 50p.
as The Doll’s Bad News, Corgi 0552-10991-6, 1979, 154pp, 75p. Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
Big Trouble
When a curvaceous, beautiful girl walks into your office, strips, and offers you a $6,000 retainer to help her out of the trouble she's in, it's hard to refuse. Especially if you're private eye Dave Fenner, the man who busted the notorious Blandish case.
But by the time Dave had been beated half to death and been forced to shoot his way out of a load of unhealthy situations, he realised that chivalry – even if it was paid for in hard cash – was no way to stay alive.
(no UK paperback)
This is the story of Miss Callaghan. Not of any particular Miss Callaghan but of the hundreds of Miss Callaghans who disappear from their homes suddenly and mysteriously and are seen no more by those who knew and loved them. This is also the story of Raven, who played with clockwork trains, the leader of the White Slave Ring in East St. Louis, who was responsible for keeping to full strength the army of women for the service of men. James Hadley Chase needs no introduction now. He has established a reputation for unmitigated toughness and plain writing. Under his blunt treatment the traffic of women in America is shown to be what it is – a loathsome, corrupt stain on the pages of American history.
Panther Books 1116. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-?????-?. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10381-0, 1977, 65p. Cover photo (Suzanne Mizzi)
Corgi Books [2nd imp.] Cover photo
How come a New York reporter like Ross Millan was combing half of Mexico looking for old man Shumway's missing daughter?
Millan had asked himself the question a dozen times—and when he found her, he asked himself a whole lot more questions. For the shapely blonde he'd seen in the photograph turned out to be a fast-talking lady who packed a punch like a prizefighter, did a little magic on the side, and just happened to be a dip—a very efficient pickpocket.
From the day little Miss Myra Shumway walked into Millan's life things were never quite the same...
Panther Books 0586-03635-0, 1975. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1978, 192pp, 65p. Cover photo
---- [xth imp.] Cover photo
Granada [xth imp.]. Cover photo
Gambler with a gun.
Harry Duke has a reputation. As a gambler. And in Bentonville, USA, gambling is King. But Duke has another reputation. He killed a man once. So no-one messes with Harry Duke. That is, until someone tries to make it look like Duke slit a guy's throat one night. It's a neat frame-up. But Duke still has a few aces in his hand. Aces, and a gun...
(no UK paperback)
Panther Books 2835, Mar 1962, 159pp, 2/6. Cover by Charles Binger [originally Crest d314, Joy Street by Frances Parkinson Keyes, 1959]
---- [2nd imp.] 1965; [3rd imp.] 1965; [4th imp.] 1966; [5th imp.] 1968.
Panther Books 02835-8, [6th imp.] 1969, 159pp, 5/- (25p). Cover photo
---- [7th imp.] 1969.
Corgi Books 0552-09780-2, 1975, 223pp, 40p. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10839-1, ?. Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
Clive Thurston was a hard, ruthless Hollywood writer. But his fame and reputation rested on the work of another man – a brilliant playwright who had conveniently died. Clive thought his secret was safe – but then he met Eve. Eve was on the game. To Clive she was an enigma – bold, shy, wanton, and childlike by turn. Clive was a pushover, from the moment he saw her he was a man possessed – possessed by a woman who was beautiful to look at but lethal to love...
Panther Books 1690, Jun 1964, 156pp, 2/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 2445-X [2nd imp.], 1968, 156pp, 3/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02445-X-2 [xth imp.] Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10081-1, 1976, 214pp, 50p. Cover photo
----, [2nd imp.] 1978; [3rd imp.] 1979.
Corgi Books 0552-10842-1 [4th imp.] 1982, 214pp, 85p. Cover photo
Money buys everything... or at least that's what eccentric millionaire Kester Weidmann believed. So when his brother died, Kester figured all he had to do was buy the services of a voodoo expert and bring him back to life.
But first he had to find a voodoo expert. And for that he employed Rollo – a small-time operator who used the Gilded Lily Club as a front. Rollo thought he had it made – it would be the con trick of the century. But he was reckoning without the interference of Celie, his smouldering Creole mistress, and Butch, the club muscle-man, who both decided that Weidmann's fortune was worth a heck of a lot more than Rollo's flabby neck...
Guild Books 470, Sep 1953, 192pp, 2/-. Cover by Sheila Sanford
Panther Books 1083, 1960, 221pp, 2/6. Cover by unknown
Corgi Books 0552-11915-6, 1982, 238pp, 95p. Cover photo (Lalla Dean)
George Fraser, a lonely, timid fellow, lived in a dream world of gangsters, gunfights and beautiful women... He began to imagine himself as the toughest gangster of them all – to bolster up his feelings of inferiority. But George boasted once too often – and to the wrong person
From that moment, harmless George Fraser was caught up in a deadly net of intrigue and became a cat's paw for murder...
Panther Books 1059, 1960, 192pp.
Chester Cain, gunman and gambler, arrives at Paradise Palms for a well-earned vacation. The City Administrator, E. Killeano, has other ideas and using Miss Wonderly, a blonde stray, as bait, traps Cain into a murder frame-up.
Killeano not only misjudges his man, he also misjudges Miss Wonderly, who turns against him and teams up with Cain.
From then on the action, punctuated by gunfire, moves like an express train with a spectacular jail-break which is probably one of the most exciting sequences James Hadley Chase has yet written.
I'll Get You for This is Hadley Chase writing at his best with wise-cracking dialogue, non-stop action and toughness-plus-one.
(no UK paperback)
as by Raymond Marshall, Jarrolds, May 1953, 192pp, 1/6.
Panther 1715, Aug 1964, 159pp, 2/6. Cover photo
Panther 0585-01715-1.
Panther 0585-01715-1-2 [xth imp.] 1970. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-11043-4, 85p.
Two killers wanted her – one for protection and one for prey. One of them had slain a helpless man to hide the secret of his identity. And he was quite prepared to kill the girl if she tried to double-cross him. But he'd reckoned without that terrible accident – and he was totally unprepared for the insane murderer who made death a ritual with a silver-handled knife.
Panther Books 1810, 1965, 187pp, 3/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-01810-7, 1967. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-01810-7-2, 1970, 187pp, 5/- (25p). Cover photo by Keith Inman
Corgi Books 0522-10178-8, 1976, 223pp, 60p. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
Carol Blandish looked like a million dollars but she was worth plenty more
Six million, in fact. So why should the Sullivans worry if she was crazy? All they wanted was her cash. And Roy Larson, the guy the Sullivans had been hired to kill, just wanted Carol's perfectly curved young body. All in all, it seemed like Carol was one helluva wanted girl...
In this sequel to his smash-hit world bestseller No Orchids for Miss Blandish James Hadley Chase piles thrill on thrill in a story that moves at a breath-taking pace to a climax that will grip the reader in a fist of cold steel.
Panther Books 1073, Jun 1960, 190pp, 2/6. Cover by unknown
---- [xth imp.] 1965, 2/6. Cover photo
---- [xth imp.] 3/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-01073-4-2 [xth imp.]. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10276-8, 1976, 190pp, 60p. Cover photo
Floyd Jackson was down on his luck; a private investigator with no licence, no money and a lot of cop trouble. So when Fatso Gorman came to him with ten crisp hundred-dollar bills and a crazy story about a sleepwalking stripper who'd stolen an antique dagger, he was more than interested – even though he knew it had to be phoney. The job – returning the dagger – looked simple enough, but Floyd reckoned there had to be more to it than that. What he hadn't figured on, though, was being made the fall guy in a murder...
as by Raymond Marshall, Jarrolds, Apr 1952, 2/-.
Panther 1201, Apr 1961. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] Apr 1963, 155pp, 2/6. Cover photo
---- [3rd imp.] Mar 1964, 155pp, 2/6.
---- [xth imp.] 1965, 3/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-01201-X. 3/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-01201-X-2. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10922-3, 1978, 65p.Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
Way of a wanton...
Hard, ruthless, amoral, that was Julie Holland – a good time girl who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. And when the chance came to play a major role in a big robbery she jumped at it. But she was still not satisfied – and the inevitable fate of the over-greedy awaited her...
Pocket Books B43, (Aug) 1951, 256pp, 1/9. Cover by Taylor
Pocket Readers Circle Series, May 1953, 2/-.
Hale, 1958, 192pp, 2/6. Cover by John Pollack
Panther Books, 1967, 191pp. Cover photo
Panther Books. Cover photo
Panther Books, (Apr) 1970, 25p. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-09693-8, 1974, 217pp, 40p. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo
It began as just another routine assignment for Vic Malloy. He'd been hired to watch the lovely Anita Cerf, whose millionaire husband suspected her of being a kleptomaniac. Everything was going fire until one of Malloy's operators was found dead – brutally murdered while working on the Cerf case...
Determined to find the killer himself, Malloy tried to interview Anita Cerf – but the lady was unavailable and had completely disappeared. So Vic Malloy found himself on the trail of a vicious murderer who was quite prepared to kill more than once. And the only person willing to help was a gorgeous red-head who swore she was just going along for the ride... but was she?
Guild Books 454, (Oct) 1952, 176pp, 2/-. Cover by Taylor
Hale, 1957, 2/6. Cover by Taylor
Panther Books, 1967, 3/6. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1968.
Panther Books 0586-02604-5 [3rd imp.] 1969, 5/- (25p). Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02604-5-2 [4th imp.] 1970, 190pp, 5/- (25p). Cover photo
Corgi 09551, 1974. Cover photo Frank Usher
Corgi, (c.1980s?). Cover photo
Take a bow, Miss Ophelia...
It all started with a letter that had lain forgotten in the pocket of Vic Malloy, tough hardbitten boss of Universal Services. Soon after he opened the letter, though, Vic found himself fishing in waters so turbulent they made a maelstrom look like a millpond.
First, the note was written by a millionaire heiress named Janet Crosby—who'd died too soon to inherit! Second, it instructed Vic to investigate the affairs of Janet's wild wanton sister Maureen...
Never get involved with a girl like Maureen. Too late, Vic discovered her name meant Mischief, Misadventure, Mayhen and Multiple Murder!
Panther Books 1636, Feb 1964, 159pp, 2/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02443-3. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02443-3-2. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10765-4, 1978. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Carolyn Evans)
Dead
It rang through the silent house, a blood-curdling sound brought him to his feet and to the door. Before he could open it the house shook to a tremendous crash in the hall. Then he jerked open the door... she lay at the foot of the stairs in a huddled heap, her head bent back on her shoulder at a hideous, unnatural angle; one long naked leg pointed up the dark staircase like an accusing finger.
Hale, (Jun) 1953, 158pp, 2/-. Cover by Tayler
Panther Books, 1967, 3/6. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1969.
---- [3rd imp.] 1973, 190pp, 30p. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10716-6, 1978. Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
Corgi Books 0552-11659-9. Cover photo (Lalla Dean)
When Perelli saved Malloy's life, the private eye promised to return the favour – on the house, Grade A service... Three weeks later, Perelli was framed on a kidnap charge. The victim, Dedrick, was married to one of the richest women in the world, who'd paid half a million to get him back and wasted her money. When Malloy stared investigating, all his leads wound up dead. Dedrick was a man nobody loved, with a past nobody wanted to talk about-suddenly even his wife wanted to buy Malloy off, with the biggest fee he'd ever seen. But that left Perelli set for the gas chamber-and Malloy liked to pay his debts...
Panther 1103, Aug 1960.
---- [2nd imp.] Jul 1961.
---- [3rd imp.] Apr 1963, 191pp, 2/6. Cover by ?
---- [4th imp.] Mar 1964
---- [5th imp.] Aug 1964
---- [6th imp.] Jun 1965, 192pp, 3/6. Cover photo
---- [7th imp.] 1967
Panther Books 0586-01103-X [8th imp.] 1969. Cover photo by Keith Inman
---- [9th imp.] 1970
Panther Books 0586-01103-X-2 [xth imp.] Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10477-0, 1977, 189pp, 65p. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
Most people didn't object to having their photograph taken – and a street photographer like Harry Ricks had to take chances sometimes, it was part of the job. But when he snapped a beautiful girl one evening in Leicester Square, he didn't bargain on being beaten up in an alley and having the film torn from his camera...
And when that same beautiful girl became his fiancee, Harry was in deep trouble – there were too many questions he couldn't answer. She was a model used to the good times – what did she see in an ordinary guy like him? Where did the expensive gifts she gave him come from? And what kind of power did the man she called her agent have over her...?
Panther Books 1771, Jan 1965, 141pp, 2/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02442-5. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02442-5-2. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
For Murder
Bodyguard required. Ex-Commando preferred. Must be under thirty; strong and active. Good prospects and pay for the right man. Apply in own handwriting, giving details of past and present employment and war record. First class references essential. Box 1411.
That what it said: 'Bodyguard required'. Just up my street, I thought, so I applied... and walked straight into the arms of a redhead—and murder!
Hale, Jun 1953, 159pp, 2/-. Cover by Ray Theobald?
Hale, 1955, 159pp, 2/-.
Panther Books 2050, May 1966, 190pp, 3/6. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1966
Panther Books 0586-02050-0 [3rd imp.] 1973
---- [4th imp.] 1975
---- [5th imp.] 1977, 190pp, 60p. Cover photo by Andrew Cockrill
---- [xth imp.] Cover photo
Granada [xth imp.] Cover photo
Strictly for Cash is the story of how Johnny Farrar made his roll of money. He started out to make five thousand and ended up with a quarter of a million. But he didn't get it by legitimate means. And as a result, he found himself in big trouble. From the moment the reins of the richest casino on the Florida coast fell into his hands, he was sucked into a whirlpool of suspense, intrigue, murder and ruthless ambush from which he was unable to tear himself free.
Panther Books 1178, 1961.
---- [2nd imp.] Aug 1961; [3rd imp.] May 1963.
---- [4th imp.] Sep 1964, 159pp, 2/6. Cover photo
---- [5th imp.] 1965.
Panther Books 0586-02447-6 [6th imp.] 1968
Panther Books 0586-02447-6-2 [7th imp.] 1969, 159pp, 5/- (25p). Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10877-4, 1978, 65p. Cover photo
Death is too high a price to pay
She was a streetwalker. In her world everything had its price – even the unusual ring she'd found. But what she didn't know was that the price was death...
Colonel Ritchie and Inspector Rawlings knew all about the ring and what it stood for. But it was left to ex-commando Corridon to get to the vicious criminals behind the ring. To get to them – and teh world of terror they ruled.
Hale, (Jul) 1954, 160pp, 2/-. Cover by Oliver Brabbins
abridged, London, Panther 2257, 1967, 185pp, 3/6. Cover photo
abridged (diff to above), as Double Shuffle, London, Corgi 10562-7, 1974, 221pp, 35p. Cover photo
----, [2nd imp.] 1974
Corgi 0552-10562-7 [3rd imp.] 1977, 221pp, 60p.
Corgi [xth imp.] Cover photo
Why would an obscure blonde dancer who performed in a G-string – with a deadly snake for a partner – be insured for a million dollars? That was what Steve Harmas, special investigator, had to try and find out. It was supposed to be simply a publicity stunt – a trick to get Susan Gellert's name in the newspapers – but somebody stood to gain an awful lot of money if she died. And Steve was sure that whoever it was didn't intend to wait very long before collecting the compensation money...
Hale, Jul 1954, 2/-. Cover by Oliver Brabbins
Panther Books 0586-02382-8
Corgi Books 0552-11148-1, 1981. Photo cover
If he dies it'll be lost forever...
They arrest Paul Hater, international jewel thief, as he's trying to dispose of a necklace belonging to the famous stolen Chittabad collection...
Police 'persuasion' cannot make him talk. The secret of the treasure's hiding place goes to prison with him - for a sentence of twenty years. Everyone searches, fails, then settles down to wait for Hater's release, for his one false move...
Except a ruthless gang who would rather get there first, who don't want Hater in prison or free - but in their hands NOW. From then on things get tough, vicious, fast, as the smell of wealth incites men on to greed and anger.
Panther Books 1564, Aug 1963, 2/6. Cover by unknown
---- [2nd imp.] Jan 1965, 157pp, 2/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 01564, 3/6. Cover photo
Panther Books. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-09876-0, 1975, 204pp, 40p. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10862-8 [2nd imp.] 1977, 204pp, 60p. Cover photo (Susie-Ann Watkins)
He met her when he was down and out – guiding tourists round the sights of Milan. She was rich, beautiful and self-assured. He was a down-at-heel drifter on the run from the police. So when she suggested having lunch with him, David couldn't believe his luck.
But it wasn't really luck that had arranged their meeting. It was just a small part of the plan – Laura's plan – in which David stood to inherit over six thousand lire. All he had to do was help commit a murder...
Hale, (May) 1955, 160pp, 2/-. Cover by ?
Panther Books 0586-02383-6, 1968, 5/-. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-11196-1, 1979, 206pp, 85p. Cover photo
'Keep the police out of this – I'll bury my own dead'
Nick English's brother lies shot in his office, the gun near his hand.
Suicide – or murder?
Wealthy, respectable Nick English has no doubt. Tight-lipped he sets off on the track of his brother's killer, uncovering organised blackmail, causing a chain reaction of murder and violence, and coming at last face to face with the sinister Sherman – on a blazing boat, with one of them bound to die...
A dangerous, breathtaking drama of a man whose desire for revenge takes him to the heart of an underworld racket.
Panther 1390, 1962.
---- [2nd imp] 1963; [3rd imp.] 1963; [4th imp.] 1963; [5th imp.] 1965.
Panther Books 0586-01390-3-2, 1970, 156pp, 5/- (25p). Cover photo by Peter Akehurst
Corgi Books 0522-09934-1, (Dec) 1975. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo
When he gave her a lift, he picked up more than he could handle...
When garage-owner Harry Collins gave attractive, wanton Gloria Selby a lift after her car had broken down on a dark road, he let himself in for a king-sized load of trouble. By the time she'd finished with him his marriage was in ruins, his best friend had been murdered in a mail robbery and he was running from both the police and a vicious gang of big-time criminals. Harry was determined to get even, to avenge his friend's death and his wife's anguish. He had plenty of guts. And then he got himself a gun...
Hale, (May) 1955, 160pp, 2/-. Cover by ?
Panther Books, 1965
Panther Books 19707 [2nd imp.] 1967, 190pp, 3/6. Cover photo
---- [3rd imp.] 1969
Panther Books 0586-02836-6 [4th imp.] 1973.
---- [5th imp.] 1975, 190pp, 50p. Cover photo
---- [6th imp.] 1977
---- [7th imp.] 1978. Cover photo by Beverley Le Barrow (Suzanne Mizzi?)
'Miss Arnot is in the swimming pool – minus her head...'
The brutal murder of June Arnot, famous screen actress, and the massacre of all her servants is the curtain rraiser to this chill-a-page novel.
The District Attorney suspects that June Arnot was the mistress of Jack Maurer, billion dollar racket boss. For fifteen years he had been trying to bring Maurer to trial. Is this the opportunity he had been waiting for? His case depends on one terrified and unwilling eye-witness – but can she survive Maurer's vengeance and be persuaded to talk?
Panther 1473, 1963, 2/6.
---- [2nd imp.] 1963; [3rd imp.] 1965.
---- [4rd imp.] 1967
Panther Books 0586-01473-X [5th imp.] 1969
Panther Books 0586-01473-X-2 [6th imp.] 1970, 157pp, 5/- (25p). Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10575-9, 1977, 203pp, 65p. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Kim Mills)
Chad Winters was a small-time bank clerk – until he was put in charge of the Shelley account. Vestal Shelley was plain, a bitch... and worth over seventy million dollars. No one had ever dared stand up to her before – but Chad, determined to get his hands on her money, found the perfect way to treat her... and ended up as her husband. But he hadn't reckoned on falling violently in love with Vestal's secretary – a ruthless woman who also wanted her share of the fortune... and who cunningly turned Chad's thoughts to murder...
Hale, 1956, 160pp, 2/-. Cover by ?
Panther Books 2442, 1966. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1966; [3rd imp.] 1968; [4th imp.] 1969.
Panther Books 0586-02442-5 [5th imp.] 1974, 201pp, 50p. Cover photo
---- [6th imp.] 1975; [7th imp.] 1977
Granada 0586-02442-5 [8th imp.] 1980, 201pp, 95p. Cover photo by Beverley Le Barrow (Penny Irving)
---- [9th imp.] 1981
---- [xth imp.] Cover photo (Penny Irving)
One night of midsummer madness...
... and Ken Holland, a respectable, married bank official, jeopardises his happiness and his future. The sudden temptation to kick over the traces while his wife is away lands Holland up to his ears in a vortex of political intrigue and murder.
Set against a background of gangster politicians, blackmailers, gunmen and hard-boiled characters, the action of this explosive thriller takes place over a period of only thirty hours.
But what hours they are!
Panther Books 2308, 1967.
---- [2nd imp.] 1968
Panther Boooks 02308-9 [3rd imp.] 1969. Cover photo by Mike King
Panther Boooks 02308-9-2 [4th imp.] 1973, Cover photo Mike King
---- [5th imp.] 1975.
---- [6th imp.] 1978; [7th imp.] 1979.
Granada 0586-02308-9 [8th imp.] 1980, 175pp, 75p. Cover photo by Beverley La Barrow
Sudden death lurks along the canals of Venice.
That's what Don Micklem, millionaire American playboy on the trail of a disappearing one-time British agent, discovered the hard way. Had his quarry been murdered—or had he committed treason.
Micklem's adventures, his fight against a ruthless political organization and his narrow escapes from violent death, all set against a taut background of Venice's sinsiter waterways, make a deep-freeze chiller of a book that will compel the reader to read it through at a sitting.
Hale, 1956, 160pp, 2/-. Cover by John Pollack
Panther 1888, Jul 1965, 190pp, 3/6. Cover photo
Panther 01888-3 [xth imp.]. Cover photo
Panther 01888-3-2 [xth imp.]. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-09819-1, 1975, 40p. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10840-5 [2nd imp.] 1978, 204pp, 60p. Cover photo
It should have been easy to find night-club dancer Fay Benson. For she'd disappeared wearing only a bra, spangled shorts and a top hat. But after fourteen months the police still didn't know if she was dead or alive. So when Chet Sladen began his own investigations on the Benson case he didn't expect to find very much. But he did find that two people connected with Fay had been murdered, and a third was viciously stabbed to death just after divulging some vital information. Chet knew that to continue the case might be dangerous – but he didn't realise just how dangerous it was going to be...
Panther Books 2049, 1966.
---- [2nd imp.] 1969
Panther Books 0586-02049-7 [3rd imp.] 1975.
---- [4th imp.] 1977, 172pp, 60p. Cover photo by Dennis Rolfe
---- [5th imp.] 1979.
---- [6th imp.] 1981, 172pp, 65p. Cover photo by Beverley Le Barrow
The deadly Tortoise
For years the world-wide operations of a mysterious and ruthless extortioner who called himself the Tortoise had baffled Scotland Yard and the police forces of Europe. But, slippery thought he was, he was not match for the fast-thinking, fast-acting Don Micklem, a wealthy American who got on the Tortoise's trail and tracked him to his lair...
Hale, 1958 (Dec 1957), 192pp, 2/6. Cover by John Pollack
Panther Books 1852, 1965, 3/6. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1967
Panther Books 0586-01852-2 [3rd imp.] 1969, 188pp, 5/-. Cover photo
---- [xth imp.]. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10138-9, (Apr) 1976. Cover photo (Vicki Michelle?)
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
The diamond flight to death
'The world is made up of smart guys who get rich and suckers who stay poor,' Harry Griffin tells girl friend Glorie. 'I've been a sucker too long, now I'm going to be smart. I know where I can put my haneds on three million bucks so I'm going to take them!'
Harry does take them. He plucks them out of the air by hi-jacking in mid-flight a passenger aircraft carrying a consignment of industrial diamonds. But this sudden wealth doesn't bring the happiness or the power Harry is seeking – only danger, hatred and death!
Hale, 1958 (Dec 1957), 192pp, 2/6. Cover by unknown
Panther Books 2258, 1967, 189pp, 3/6. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1968
---- [3rd imp.] 1970, 189pp, 5/- (25p). Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-09744-6, 1975, 237pp, 40p. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10856-1, 75p.
Even for a redhead, Helen Dester was wild – she'd driven one guy to drink and made another jump out of a top floor window.
Glyn Nash realised that to tangle with her would be dangerous. But he had no option if he wanted to get a share in the three quarters of a million dollars insurance money which Helen stood to gain if her husband died accidentally – or even if he was murdered...
Hale, (Nov) 1959, 192pp, 2/6. Cover by John Pollack
Panther 2048, 1966. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02653-3. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0522-09603-2, 1974. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Kim Mills)
XX
Hale, (Nov) 1959, 192pp, 2/6. Cover by Henry Fox
Panther Books, 1966, 3/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02107-X, [2nd imp.] 1966.
Panther Books 0586-02107-X-2 [3rd imp.] 1969, 188pp, 5/- (25p). Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10564-3, 1974 60p. Cover photo (Marilyn Cole)
Corgi Books. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo
St. Raphael was the place they called Vacation City – a millionaire's playground of exclusive clubs and pretty girls with expensive tastes. Inquiry agent, Lew Brandon, flew to the City after receiving a message from his partner that he was involved on a big case and needed help – fast. Brandon didn't realise just how fast until he arrived in St. Raphael and found Jack Sheppey dead – pierced clean through with an ice-pick. Suddenly it seemed that everyone wanted Brandon out of town. The police made it clear he wasn't welcome and an influential millionaire threatened to make his stay very unpleasant. But somewhere in Vacation City a murderer was having himself a holiday. Lew Brandon meant to find him and the mysterious blonde who was the last person to see Jack Sheppey alive...
Hale, 1959, 192pp, 2/6. Cover by John Pollack
Panther Books, 1966, 3/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02107-8
Panther Books 0586-02107-8-2. Cover photo by John Prosser
Corgi Books 0552-09694-6, 1974. Cover photo
Corgi Books [xth imp.] Cover photo (Kim Mills)
Who murdered Lucille Balu, a rising young film star, found strangled in a hotel elevator?
Set against the background of the fabulous Cote d'Azur and the Cannes Film Festival, James Hadley Chase's new thriller tells the story of a young degenerate with an inner compulsion to kill.
Written with the speed, force and economy of style we have come to expect from the man who has been described as "the most remarkable amongst British and American thriller writers", this tense new novel throws a noose round the reader which will not be shaken off until long after the last page has been turned.
Hale, (Nov) 1959, 2/6. Cover by John Pollack
Panther Books, 1967. Cover photo
Panther Books. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0522-10656-9, 1978. Cover photo
Red for danger
James Hadley Chase's signature is always his women... tempting... dangerous... beautiful. Lucille Aitken is a girl in the classic Chase mould – young and fresh and with a body that made men stare and stare with the kind of eyes that you normally only find in hungry animals. The very thought of her gave Ches a sick, dry feeling in his mouth and made his heart thump. She was a scorcher. A luscious doll who had no business being married to a baby-snatching tycoon more than twice her age. Ches had only known her for five nights, and yet he knew he would never be more in love. Falling in love with a girl like Lucille was one of the most dangerous games a man could play. Making love to her was simply lethal. Why? Well, Lucille was just that kind of girl. Dynamite. Worse, Poison...
Panther Books 2543, 1964, 2/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02543-X, 1968, 3/6. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10226-1, (Oct) 1976. Cover photo (Beverley Pilkington)
Corgi Books (Jilly Johnson)
Beautiful – but fatal to love...
When a man desires a beautiful woman to the point of insane craving nothing will stand in his way – not even murder.
Terry Regan knew that before he could marry Gilda he had to get rid of her bullying, crippled husband. He hit upon an ingenious plan for the perfect murder – but even the best plans have a habit of backfiring...
Panther Books 1266, 1961. Cover by unknown
---- [2nd imp.] 1963; [3rd imp.] 1965; [4th imp.] 1967.
---- [5th imp.] 1969, 171pp, 5/-. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-01266-4, 1970
Corgi Books 0522-09820-5, 1975, 222pp. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-11381-6 [2nd imp.] 1979, 222pp, 75p. Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
The red-head started it all. Her name was Ginny. She was hard and bright as a diamond, and she came to Morgan's mob with the perfect scheme for a million dollar heist. It all sounded too easy... but the mob weren't affluent enough to be sceptical. And with two hundred thousand each, they'd have the world in their pockets...
Panther Books 1363, 1962, 2/6.
---- [2nd imp.] 1962; [3rd imp.] 1963; [4th imp.] 1964.
Panther Books 2444 [5th imp.] 1968; [6th imp.] 1969
Panther Books 0586-02444-1 [7th imp.] 1972
---- [8th imp.] 1975, 155pp, 50p. Cover photo by Sid Sutton
---- [9th imp.] 1977; [10th imp.] 1978;
---- [11th imp.] 1980; [12th imp.] 1981. Cover photo (Sian Adey-Jones)
Granada. Cover photo (Sian Adey-Jones)
She came out of his past to threaten his future...
Out of Jefferson Holliday's past comes Rima Marshall. She's got nothing to lose – she's sunk just about as far as a woman can go. But she still knows enough to put Jefferson in the hot-seat. And he knows that she knows. With the deck stacked this way, blackmail becomes a deadly dangerous weapon to fool around with...
Panther Books 1425, Oct 1962, 156pp, 2/6. Cover by unknown
Panther Books 1425 [xth imp.] 1964, 2/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-01425-X [xth imp.] 1969. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-01425-X-2. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10616-X, 1977. Cover photo
Corgi Books [xth imp.] 1981. Cover photo (Kim Mills)
Every convict dreams of making a break. I'd done it... and if they took me back it would be the slow death. She knew it, but she wanted the money badly, and I was just the sort of sucker she'd been waiting for – "Open the safe and get me the money or go back to jail." It was out of the frying-pan into the fire – with the flames only just beginning to warm up!
Panther Books 1518, 1963, 159pp, 2/6. Cover by unknown
----, [xth imp.] nd (1964?), 2/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02560-X [xth imp.] 1968, 160pp.
Panther Books [xth imp.] 1970, 160pp.
Corgi Books 0552-09743-8, 1975, 222pp, 40p. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10855-3, 75p. Cover photo
He found the diamonds by accident. Just one little tap and the wall had split open, revealing a million dollars worth of glittering gems – gems which Steve Jaffe had no intention of giving up. So when his houseboy threatened to run and tell the police, Jaffe had no alternative but to stop him. And that's when the second accident occurred... the accident of murder...
Jaffe had to get out of Saigon – quick. And the only person who could help him was Nhan Lee Quon, beautiful, trusting Nhan, the woman he'd used before, but never so cruelly or so selfishly...
Panther Books 1591, 1963, 142pp. Cover photo
Panther Books. Cover photo
Panther Books, 1968, 143pp. Cover photo
Panther Books. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-09466-8, 1974, 40p. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1975
Corgi Books. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Kim Mills)
A man will do almost anything when a rich and highly attractive woman offers him fifty thousand dollars just to make a telephone call. But when that telephone call is part of a fake kidnap plan to extract five hundred thousand dollars from one of the richest men in the world, only a sucker would gamble on the deal paying off in his favour. Harry Barber was a sucker.
After spending three and a half years in jail wrongly accused of manslaughter, Harry found his reputation had made it impossible to get work as a reporter. So with no job and no money he is the perfect target of a brilliant plan to make him the obvious suspect when a rich and beautiful young girl is savagely murdered...
Panther Books, 1964, 140pp, 2/6. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1966.
---- [3rd imp.] 1968; [4th imp.] 1969, 141pp. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02651-7. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-09491-9, 1974, 223pp, 35p. Cover photo (Nicki Debuse?)
Corgi Books 0552-10678-X, 60p. Cover photo (Debbie Smith)
Like most bank managers, Dave Calvin had acquired an irresistible charm that he could switch on whenever he felt the necessity. Underneath it he was cold, calculating, brutal – a perfect murderer...
For years he had waited – watching an endless stream of money pass through his hands – knowing that a risk is only worth taking if the reward was justified. And a three hundred thousand dollar payroll was justification enough – even for murder...
Panther Books, 1964. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1964.
---- [3rd imp.] 1966, 3/6. Cover photo
---- [4th imp.] 1968, 3/6. Cover photo
---- [5th imp.] 1969; [6th imp.] 1973. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02446-8-2 [7th imp.] 1976; [8th imp.] 1977, 127pp, 60p. Cover photo by Dennis Rolfe
Death of a call-girl...
It was the easiest three grand Nelson Ryan had ever made – but suddenly he was being played for a sucker. A telephone call, seemingly innocent enough, led him to the murder of a Chinese call-girl who'd talked too much. It also pitched him straight into the teeming, sordid night life of colourful Hong Kong. From now on, Ryan would stick at nothing to get to the killer who'd crossed him up...
Panther Books 2016, Mar 1966, 160pp, 3/6. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02016-0 [2nd imp.] 1967, 160pp. 3/6. Cover photo
---- [3rd imp.] 1969
Panther Books 0586-02016-0-2 [4th imp.] 1970, 160pp, 5/- (25p). Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-11197-X, 1979.
The corpse was worth a fortune – but the murderer did it for love...
'When a small-time clerk insures his life for fifty thousand dollars and then dies ten days later, I know this is is a phony claim.'
Maddox, the best man in the Insurance Claims business, is about to make trouble for someone. That someone is lush, auburn-haired Meg Barlowe, a woman with a past – and what a past...
One Bright Summer Morning (London, Hale, 1963; New York, Pocket Books, 1974)
Panther Books 1937, Oct 1965, 188pp, 3/6. Cover photo---- [2nd imp.] 1967, 188pp, 3/6. Cover photo
---- [3rd imp.] 1968. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02544-8 [4th imp.] 1969. Cover photo
---- [5th imp.] 1973; [6th imp.] 1977; [7th imp.] 1978; [8th imp.] 1980
---- [9th imp.] 1981, 188pp, 90p. Cover photo by Beverley Le Barrow.
Granada. Cover photo
... somewhere during his walk around the estate he had stepped into a puddle of blood.
Victor Dermott, a successful playwrite, rents an isolated ranch-house in the Nevada Desert. For two months all is ideal, then one bright summer morning he wakes to find his servant, his dog, his guns vanished—and the telephone dead. The terror had begun...
Panther Books 2309, 1967. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02309-7 [2nd imp.] 1968
Panther Books 0586-02309-7-2 [3rd imp.] 1969, 155pp, 5/- (25p). Cover photo
Corgi Books 0522-09602-4, 1974. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10677-1, 60p. Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Debbie Smith)
Val Burnett was the attractive daughter of a multi-millionaire. Her pleasantly organised life had been cruelly shattered when her husband, Chris, received severe brain injuries in a car crash. While convalescing in Florida, Chris disappeared for twenty-four hours – leaving no message or trace of his whereabouts.
During the same night an attractive blonde was found brutally murdered in a second-rate motel – her body hideously mutilated. But while the police were searching for the murderer, an unscripulous private investigator discovered evidence that Chris was the monster responsible for the killing.
Threatened with blackmail, but determined to prove her husband's innocence, Val set out to trace Chris's movements on the night of the murder and found herself on the trail of a maniac who didn't need a motive to kill again...
Panther Books 0586-02632-0, 1968, 203pp, 3/6. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-11233-x, 1979.
Robert Carey was a spy who had defected to Russia. When the news leaked out that he had changed sides again a ruthless manhunt was on from the glamour of Paris to the violent and scorched wastelands of West Africa.
There is Fat Rossland who doesn't recognise trouble when it sits on his lap; Girland, a dissatisfied agent who is greedy for money—and women; Janine Daulnay who fatally plays the ends against the middle; Radnitz, the sinister tycoon and Malik, the blonde Russian with whom Girland tangles in a lethal battle of wits.
Panther Books 0586-02707-6, 1969. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-11356-6, 1980, 203pp, 85p. Cover photo
Ticky Edris, the mis-shapen dwarf, and Phil Agir, the handsome con-man, devise a cunning plan to rob the safest bank in the world – the impregnable Florida Safe Deposit Bank.
Ruthlessly Edris sets the plan in motion; a junkie call-girl, Muriel Marsh, is murdered – so is her schoolgirl daughter Norena. Her father is the Vice President of the bank...
When sexy Ira Marsh, Muriel's sister, arrives at Paradise City, Florida's crime-free, millionaires' playground, the whole plan begins to look as if it is going to work...
Panther Books 0586-02538-3, 1968, 157pp, 3/6. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1969.
Panther Books 0586-02538-3-2 [3rd imp.] 1970, 157pp. Cover photo by Roger Moore
Corgi Books 0552-11251-8, 1980.
He was hell with women—till he met a woman who was hell with men...
Cade: famous, wealthy, he was a much sought-after photographer. He liked a drink—and he liked women...
Juana: beautiful, Mexican and just 17 years old, her long black hair reached to her knees, her skin was the colour of coffee-and-cream, her mouth a promise of sensual dreams. And her body was teh most perfect femanine equipment a man could imagine—or desire...
When Cade first saw her, she was lying on her back on the sand. A small strip of scarlet cloth covered her breasts, another her loins. Her eyes were closed. She was alone.
Cade had met his match—a girl who would reduce him to a ruined wreck, nearly beaten to death by America's white backlash, a useless lush, hounded and hopeless. But that first time, on the beach of Acapilco, she sure looked good...
Panther Books 0586-02428-X, 1968, 157pp, 5/-. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02428-X-2, 1972. Cover photo by Dennis Rolfe
Corgi Books. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Kim Mills)
'I told you to drop dead... Can't you stay dead?'
That's Mark Girland's reaction when he's asked to do another job by Dorey, Divisional Director of the C.I.A. in Paris. But this job has money in it – and perks. Pretending to be the husband of a beautiful Scandinavian girl who's lost her memory – that's the sort of job Girland likes...
...until he discovers that the tattoo on his 'wife's' buttock has made her a valuable piece of Cold War merchandise. Girland soon has to face the truth: marriage can be a deadly game...
Panther Books 0586-02823-4, 1969.
---- [2nd imp.] 1972
---- [3rd imp.] 1974, 158pp, 40p. Cover photo by Harvey Smith
Corgi Books 0522-11558-4, 1980. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] Cover photo
Serge Maisky had a record as long as your arm. In and out of jail all his life, he'd dreamed for years of the Big Steal that would set him up for good. Now he was all set to make it. He'd bribed one of the girls who worked in the vaults of the Paradise City casino. Nothing, but nothing was going to stand between Maisky, his four specially-recruited accomplices and all that loot. Especially not some punk of a guard who turned up just at the wrong moment. And it was just their tough luck if his partners-in-crime got themselves shot in the belly by a girl they'd taken time out to rape or knocked off by the cops. All to the good, in fact, as far as Maisky was concerned—it meant more money for him. So when lovely Sheila and her husband Tom heisted all this hard-earned cash from him, Maisky got mad. Real mad...
Panther Books 0586-02916-8, 1969. Cover photo
Panther Books 0586-02916-8-2 [2nd imp.] 1973, 159pp, 25p. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-11309-3. Cover photo (Kim Mills)
---- [xth imp.] Cover photo
They tried to crucify him – on a double cross
Mark Girland had worked for the CIA before. But only for the money. His sole interests were cool cash and hot women. When Dorey, head of the CIA's Western European department, offered him a bucket of blood money to rub out an agent in Prague, he accepted the mission. He didn't know then he was being set up as a fall guy. Once he tumbled he started playing real mean, rough and dirty. The only way he knew how...
Panther Books 0586-03339-4, 1970.
---- [2nd imp.] 1973; [3rd imp.] 1975; [4th imp.] 1976.
---- [5th imp.] 1977, 159pp, 50p. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Kim Mills)
They were after two million dollars in jewels. But they got more than their money's worth of trouble...
They were the most professional team of jewel thieves in the whole United States. And they came to the swank Florida resort town of Paradise City to relieve the rich of their expensive gems and trinkets to the sweet tune of a cool two million dollars. But no plan can cover the emergencies caused by explosive passions. Especially when these include lust, adultery and the blind love of a fast buck at any price...
Panther Books 0586-02961-3, 1970, 172pp, 5/- (25p). Cover photo
---- [xth imp.] 1979. Cover photo (Denise Perry)
Corgi Books 0552-11506-1, 1980. Cover photo (Kim Mills)
Corgi Books 0552-11506-1 [2nd imp.] 1985, 184pp, £1.50. Cover photo (Kim Mills)
The Russians will pay $4,000,000 for the top secret formula of a revolutionary new metal... and the CIA will do anything to stop them.
American inventor Dr Paul Forrester is the man that both sides want. For he alone can decipher the vital code. But for two years Forrester has been in a mental asylum – ever since that bloody day when he walked in on his beautiful wife and her lover...
So pretty Nona Jacey, Forrester's former lab-assistant, becomes a helpless pawn in the power struggle to possess the scientist... for she is the key to unlocking Forrester's mind.
Panther Books 0586-03540-0, 1970
---- [2nd imp.] 1971
---- [3rd imp.] 1973. Cover photo by John Brown
---- [4th imp.] 1975; [5th imp.] 1976; [6th imp.] 1977; [7th imp] 1979; [8th imp.] 1980.
Granada 0586-03540-0 [9th imp.] 1984, 174pp, £1.50. Cover photo
Safari to slaughter
A brilliant but sadistic safe-breaker... a beautiful professional seductress... an expert young white hunter... and an ace pilot with a shady past—this was the team that undercover operator Armo Shalik assembled to steal the priceless Borgia ring from millionaire Max Kahlenberg's closely-guarded fortress in the remote and deadly African bush. But Kahlenberg found out they were coming. And the gang's expedition turned into a strictly one-way safari—to slaughter...
Panther Books 0586-03286-X, 1970, 172pp, 5/- (25p). Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Kim Mills)
This was one blue movie that could rock the world
Mark Garland was tough and cynical as they come. An ex-CIA agent living in Paris, he'd do just about anything if the price was right. So when he was offered $20,000 in cash for one job, he didn't have much difficulty making up his mind. Especially as the job was to find three blue movies showing the daughter of the future President of the United States in a state of erotic abandon—and to locate the wayward girl herself. Trouble was, there were other people who wanted the films (and the girl) too. People like the Russian Secret Service, and a gang of very ruthless, very brutal, very determined international operators...
Panther Books 0586-03745-4, 1972, 159pp.
---- [2nd imp.] 1974, 159pp, 30p. Cover photo
Grafton 0586-03745-4, 1986, 159pp. Cover photo
Violent Summer
It seemed like a good idea at the time to ex-paratroop sergeant Harry Mitchell, home after three years in the deadly jungles of Vietnam. Head south to Florida, get a summer job, soak up some sun, relax a bit. But when he got to Paradise City he found himself drawn into a lethal set-up where dumped corpses, smuggling operations, over-ambitious cops, hired killers and a sexy little double-crosser called Nina combined to make life very unhealthy. It was just as well for Harry Mitchell that he'd learned to look after himself in Vietnam...
Panther Books 0586-03781-0, 1972
---- [2nd imp.] 1974
---- [3rd imp.] 1975
---- [4th imp.] 1976
---- [5th imp.] 1977. Cover photo (Helle Kjaer)
---- [6th imp.] 1979
---- [7th imp.] 1980
Granada 0586-03781-0 [8th imp.], 1984
---- [9th imp.] 1985, 157pp, £1.50. Cover photo (Helle Kjaer)
He had nine days to turn a gun-shy boy into an expert killer. Or else...
Jay benson had been one of the U.S. Army's top snipers. In Vietnam he'd killed eighty-two Vietcong. But making the School of Shooting he'd taken over outside Paradise City pay was a tougher proposition than the Vietnamese jungle. So when the sinister Augusto Savanto turned up with an offer of fifty thousand dollars if Jay turned his gun-shy son into an expert shot—in just nine days—he accepted. Then he discovered the horrific reason why Savanto wanted his son made into a marksman. But there was no backing out now for Jay. Savanto was holding his beautiful young wife Lucy as a hostage for his co-operation...
Panther Books 0586-03850-7, 1972. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1975, 158pp, 50p. Cover photo by Dennis Rolfe
---- [3rd imp.] 1977.
Granada 0586-03850-7 [4th imp.] 1979, 158pp, 85p. Cover photo by Beverley LeBarrow
---- [5th imp.] 1980; [6th imp.] 1980
The formula for fear
Poke Tohola, a Seminole Indian, was onto a smart racket. His formula was that fear is the key that unlocks the wallets and handbags of the rich. But Chuck, a cop-killer at 18, and Meg, beddable but dumb, didn't work to formula. The three of them turned Paradise City into Panic City. Then Detective Lepski lumbered in...
Corgi Books 0552-09424-2, 1973. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1974
Corgi Books 0552-10561-9 [3rd imp.] 1977, 173pp, 60p. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Carolyn Evans)
Corgi Books 09424. Cover photo (Kim Mills)
An Ace Up My Sleeve is a story of blackmail. It is a story of three people, all out for one thing: all determined to do anything to get it.
It is a story of bluff and counter-bluff – a game which develops into a deadly battle of violence and extortion.
From the moment Helga Rolfe, the elegant wife of one of the richest of tycoons, picks up a gum-chewing boy, young enough to be her son, events jump, bank and skid through a series of 180-degree turns and hair-raising gambits, racing to a climax of shattering impact – for both winners and losers...
Panther Books 0586-03782-9, 1973.
---- [2nd imp.] 1975
---- [3rd imp.] 1977, 158pp, 50p. Cover photo
---- [4th imp.] 1978, 158pp, 65p. Cover photo by Beverley La Barrow (Stephanie Marrian)
Granada 0586-03782-9. Cover photo (Stephanie Marrian)
Taking an old lady for a ride is a cinch – if you're her chauffeur...
It was just a matter of how. Alice Morely-Johnson was worth several million bucks, dead or alive. A retired concert pianist, she had a penchant for attractive young men, rings and riches. The man in the front seat was Bromhead, also a master forger. He infiltrated Sheila who was prepared to use her beautiful body whenever necessary, and Chris Patterson, the attractive young man with all the right connections. Alice's (sic) will become their target, which made the crime just a matter of time...
Panther Books 0586-03938-4, 1974
---- [2nd imp.] 1975; [3rd imp.] 1976; [4th imp.] 1976; [5th imp.] 1977
---- [6th imp.] 1979,172pp, 65p. Cover photo
Granada 0586-03938-4 [-] 1979, 172pp, 85p. Cover photo. * as 6th imp. * recover?
---- [7th imp.] 1981
Granada. Cover photo
Cracking the big-time was going to be a cinch...
Joey Luck and his beautiful daughter Cindy were ace shoplifters and pickpockets. But Cindy had bigger ideas. When they were joined by Vin Pinna, expert thief and thug on the run from Miami, prospects improved. But kidnapping ex-movie star Don Elliot wasn't such a good idea – until he made the trio a quartet in crime. The crime? Stealing stamps worth a million dollars. And the route to the stamps was Judy Larrimore, nympho daughter of their owner. She was just Vin's style...
Corgi Books 0552-09779-9, 1975, 40p. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1977. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-11656-4 [3rd imp.] 1980, 237pp, 95p. Cover photo
Johnny Bianda was a man with a dream – a dream which he could never afford to turn into reality. For ten years he'd been a top gunman for the Mafia, and as one of their most trusted men had collected millions of dollars on their behalf – without once stealing a cent. But then, one day, there was a record take in the Mob's safe – and Johnny had a duplicate key...
No one steals from the Mafia and lives to enjoy the rewards. But Johnny's plan was foolproof – or at least he thought until he lost his lucky medallion on the night he robbed the safe...
Corgi Books 0552-09648-2, 1974, 190pp, 35p. Cover photo
---- [xth imp.] 60p. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo
Corgi Books. Cover photo (Debbie Smith)
It isn't often a diamond expert from Paradise City becomes an unpaid welfare worker in a poor, industrial town like Luceville. But Larry Carr had gone there for a purely selfish reason – to help him forget the terrible tragedy which had ruined his life and his career.
At first the dirt and dishonesty of the town appalled him, but then, slowly, he became a part of it. He found himself enjoying the violence and the terror of life in the slums. But most of all he enjoyed being the slave of red-haired Rhea Morgan – a sensual beauty whose profession was crime. Obsessed by Rhea, Larry agreed to steal a diamond necklace for her worth 1 1/2 million dollars – but he hadn't bargained on committing murder too...
Corgi Books 0552-10841-3, 1976. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1978
---- [3rd imp.] 1982, 173pp, 95p. Cover photo
Steve Manison's magazine dealt in corruption: he attacked the rich, the powerful and the famous – and he made enemies. In a job like that, you couldn't afford to have dirty secrets of your own. With the whole town itching for you to make a slip, it was like living in a goldfish bowl. But Steve had lived clean – until his beautiful, extravagant wife was caught shoplifting, and suddenly he was up to his neck in the dirtiest secrets of all – blackmail and murder...
Corgi Books 0552-10681-8, 1975. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1977, 192pp, 60p. Cover photo
---- [xth imp.]. Cover photo (Lalla Dean)
Summoned by Bernie Olson, who'd been his boss in Vietnam, Jack Crane arrived in Paradise City, Florida, to find a job lined up for him. Bernie was now personal pilot to Lane Essex, the multi-millionaire. What he wanted Jack to do for Essex Enterprises was a piece of cake – or was it? Jack had his suspicions. Then he became involved with Lane Essex's gorgeous wife, Victoria, and she didn't leave him much time for thinking. But when Bernie finally came out with his plans to hi-jack his employer's ten million dollar plane, Jack had to think hard and fast...
Corgi Books 0552-10275-X, 1976, 171pp, 60p. Cover photo
Corgi Books, 1982. Cover photo
It was in Paradise City that the past caught up with Clay...
Clay Burden had married his sluttish young wife, Rhoda, because he was tired of being on his own. Val had walked out on him – and if he couldn't have Val, maybe marriage would make him forget her. Six years later, working in Paradise City, Clay met Val again. Married to the powerful and sinister Henry Vidal, she had changed... still beautiful and passionate, still compelling... but tense and nervous, driven by odd fears and anxieties... When Clay left his job and joined the Vidal empire, what had begun as a sneaking feeling of unease hardened into stone-cold certainty. Val must be released from the hypnotic influence exerted over her by her husband – even if Clay had to murder to set her free...
Corgi Books 0552-10426-4, (Apr) 1977, 174pp, 60p. Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
---- [xth imp.]. Cover photo
---- [xth imp.]. Cover photo
When Harman dies, she thought, I will inherit sixty million dollars and I will be free to do just what I like. I can have any man I want... when he dies!
Sun-soaked Nassau... Helga Rolfe, flying in to join her elderly millionaire husband, Herman, found plenty of bad news awaiting her. Crippled, suspicious Herman, guessing how she'd played around since their marriage, had decided to put a tail on her – and was proposing to write some naty-looking terms into his will...
Herman was right, of course – Helga's weakness was for handsome, sexy men – men like Harry Jackson, who she met on the beach the day she arrived. But Harry was not quite what she thought – and because of him she found herself in a nightmare world of blackmail, voodoo, and violence...
Corgi Books 0552-10574-0, 1977. Cover photo (Debbie Smith?)
---- [xth imp.] £1.50.
XX
Corgi Books 0552-10715-8, 1978, 173pp, 65p. Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
Corgi Books. Cover photo
Helga Rolfe was blonde, beautiful, and bright enough to control her own multi-million empire. But not to control her secret weakness... she was sex crazy. And former lover, Archer, knew it. He had an old score to settle with her and he needed cash. When handsome gigolo Christopher Grenville crossed his path, he'd found the way to both.
With Archer's coaching, Chris conned Helga into wanting him badly enough to propose marriage, and when Archer faked Chris's kidnapping, she was ready to pay the huge ransom. But events took a frightening twist when the local Mafia joined the action...
Corgi Books 0552-10708-0, 1978, 173pp, 65p. Cover photo
Corgi Books 0552-10876-6 [xth imp.], 95p.
'The Safest Bank in the World' they called it – at least, the Press did, when they gave it world-wide publicity on its opening. And Farrell Brannigan thought it was a pretty good name, too: he'd built it, and safeguarded it with the help of a brilliant electronics expert. Foolproof. But the man who planned on breaking into the bank was no fool – he was a ghost from Brannigan's past, with a king-size grudge... a long-time enemy with a pathological craving for revenge. Blackmail and murder were just games to him – and before long, a whole lot of other dirty things were crawling out of the past...
Corgi Books 0552-11042-6, 75p. Cover photo (Jilly Johnson)
---- [xth imp.] 189pp, £1.75. Cover photo
Kidnapping had become a national pastime in Italy – but was there another reason why billionaire Carlo Grandi put his beautiful daughter behind an electric fence, guarded by killer dogs and two fast shooting guards? Mike Frost, always on the look-out for big money and beautiful women, got the job as second gun – and soon realised he was guarding a hell-cat... When kidnappers sold him the idea of being the 'inside man', Frost didn't know which he wanted most, that beautiful body, or the five million dollars it could bring him...
Corgi Books 0552-11308-5, 1980, 187pp, 85p. Cover photo
---- [2nd imp.] 1987, 187pp, £1.95. Cover photo (Kim Mills)
---- [3rd imp.?] c.1990. Cover photo
There was only one clue: a small, golf ball button torn from a pocket and found near the horrifyingly mutilated body of a young hooker. A small button – but a large clue... for there were only four men in the city who wore those buttons. Detective Tom Lepski of the Paradise City police quickly settled for one of them – Ken Brandon, an insurance agent. But just as he was wrapping-up the case, the other murders began...
Corgi Books 0552-11598-3, 1981, 190pp, 95p. Cover photo
Private detective Bart Anderson was hired by Russ Hamel, a millionaire author, to shadow his beautiful wife Nancy. For Hamel had been receiving poison pen letters, claiming that his wife was having an affair...
But as Bart's investigation progressed, he discovered that he had opened up a can of worms... for Nancy is not the faithful wife her husband assumes...
Corgi Books 0552-11687-4, 1981, 187pp. Cover photo
Jerry Stevens, an out-of-work bit-part movie actor, is offered a job at a thousand dollars a day to impersonate John Merrill Ferguson, one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. Ferguson needs to finish a secret deal but hungry journalists are continually watching every move he makes. In order to complete it, Ferguson needs a 'stand-in'. For Stevens, the money is beyond his wildest dreams. But from the moment Steven's steps into Ferguson's shoes, he is thrown into a nightmare of intrigue, murder and stark terror.
Corgi Books, 1981.
Corgi Books 0552-11817-6 [2nd imp.] 1988. Cover photo (Lalla Dean)
---- [3rd imp.] 1990, 168pp, £2.50. Cover photo
When Claue Kendrick, owner of a shadily-run art gallery in Paradise City, was approached by Ed Haddon, the King of art thieves, to find a buyer for the priceless icon of Catherine the Great, he thought his greediest dreams had come true! For Herman Radnitz, the multi-millionaire, was prepared to pay six million dollars. But there was a catch – Radnitz wanted the icon delivered to Zurich as part of the deal.
To his joy, Kendrick learnt of a couple travelling to Europe. All he had to do was make sure that the icon was planted on them unawares... the couple in question were none other than Detective Tom Lepski and his pretty wife...
Corgi Books 0552-12047-2, 1982. Cover photo (Fia Morrow)
XX
Corgi Books 0552-12126-6, (Feb) 1983.
---- [2nd imp.] 1983.
Corgi Books 0552-12126-6, 1990, 188pp, £2.50. Cover photo (Kim Mills)
When Detective Don Lepski shot down the runaway killer on his beat in Paradise City, he unleashed a chain of events that would involve two sets of criminals and a honeymoon couple in one of the most exciting nights any of them had seen for a long time.
Wilbur Warrenton and his beautiful, grasping wife, Maria, are on their honeymoon in the luxurious Spanish Bay Hotel when their penthouse suite is the scene of a collision between a gang of jewel thieves, intent on stealing the famous Warrenton diamonds, and a gang of ransom-hungry Cubans – all determined to get exactly what they want – at any cost...
Corgi Books 0552-12275-0, (Oct) 1983, £1.25. Cover photo (Sian Adey-Jones)
XX
Granada 0586-06085-5, 1984, 189pp.
---- [2nd imp.] 1984.
---- [3rd imp.] 1986, 189pp, £1.95. Cover photo by Beverley Le Barrow (Helle Hjaer)
---- [4th imp.] 1990, 189pp, £2.75. Cover as above
Marriage, murder and mayhem...
Ruthless tycoon Sherman Jamison is determined to have an heir. He will let nothing stand in his way.
Not only is his wife unable to provide him with a child, but as a devout Catholic she will not consent to a divorce her husband so desperately wants.
And so Jamison decides to get rid of her. PERMANENTLY.
Grafton, (c.1986). Cover photo by Beverley Le Barrow? (Davina Laurie)
XX
Corgi Books 0552-13428-7, 1989, 191pp, £2.50. Cover photo (Susie Juul??)
The sleazy jungle of lamp-lit streets, faded hotel lobbies and soulless freeways is the setting for a menagerie of typically brash Hadley Chase characters: all-metal blondes that weaken the resistance, merciless thugs and third-rate double-crossers, in this collection of hard-boiled stories by the thriller master, first published more than forty years ago and now appearing in paperback for the first time.(* With thanks to a number of JHC collectors who have produced cover scans over the years for Flickr, Pinterest, eBay, etc.; also, many thanks to Keith Greenberg for help identifying some of the models used for covers.)
Fast-paced and crackling with wit, this classic anthology shows why James Hadley Chase is the unchallenged British champion of the tough American tradition.
