For the love of Chase!

Others might look on this legendary writer as another author, but when it boils down to spinning first -rate crime stories, he simply is a prodigy par excellence. Allow me to introduce James Hadley Chase. I know some might shriek and jump out of sight at the very mention of his name; others might feign ignorance and a few others might actually be fascinated by him, which is quite an astonishing act considering that most intelligentsia looks down on him.  Not that he isn’t a prolific writer but because he writes sleazy stuff. Well, I stand for what I believe; therefore I stand with my elementary belief; he is an awesome writer who holds many aces up his sleeve and would outsmart anyone in the game of storytelling. 

I became an official aficionado of his works, when I passed out my secondary education and became a pre-university student. How did it all began? Actually, my friends surprised me on my birthday by presenting a Chase. The cover as usual was a seedy one with a half-naked woman holding on to whatever remained of an unbuttoned shirt. Initially, I got scared to receive such a book and decided not to touch it with a barge pole. However, an avid book reader among the gang guaranteed that the cover was always a grossly misleading picture of the actually story within. “Most stories are clean with adventurous twists and turns,” he affirmed. 

Taking him on his word, I ventured out to reading one. One was enough to get me hooked. It was opium. I became an addict.

God! I was surprised why I haven’t read him before.  The sleuth in me surfaced and went hunting for his books in every nook and corner of the city. Soon, within a span of six-months I must have read almost all his titles. There were times when I read three books in a day flat. That was the time, my elder brother and sister, who had graduated to reading more serious stuff like the Kafkas, gave me irate looks which explicitly stated: time you grew up kiddo! 

Thanks to the soul of steel I possessed then, I didn’t easily give up. So, I stuck to ‘Chases’ while they chased other writers who never were within my immediate intellectual parametres. Thus began my love for Chase.

Although I have traversed many miles with other authors as guides, philosophers, magicians, storytellers, friends, intellectuals, navigators, problem-solvers, extremists, lovers… I haven’t come across anyone that was as fast-paced and as mercurial as Chase.Even today, when there’s a holiday or a long journey on the cards I ensure a Chase is tucked in along with my other books and necessities.  In fact, Chase will always remain a favourite no matter what.  For those who give me those shady looks for reading him, I can only say ‘Go, have a life’ while I have mine on my own terms.