CORSEAUX, Switzerland -- James Hadley Chase, prolific British thriller writer whose books produced 28 films, died at his home above Lake Geneva Wednesday after a long illness, his family said. He was 79.
Chase wrote more than 60 books, most of them thrillers featuring tough private detectives. His best-known novel was also his first, 'No Orchids for Miss Blandish,' written in 1939.
Chase's real name, which he used in everyday life, was Rene Raymond. It was as Raymond he was listed in the telephone directory for Corseaux, a village at the eastern end of Lake Geneva.
'Death came during sleep in the early hours of Wednesday after a long and very serious illness,' a family member said.
Born in 1906, Chase was the son of a former Indian army officer during British colonial rule. He left his family home in Hastings, in southern England, at the age of 17, and got a job selling encyclopedias door-to-door.
It was while working for a wholesale book business in the 1930s that his writing career started. While sending books out to lending libraries he noticed that one in particular -- James Cain's 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' -- was having a big success.
'The libraries just couldn't get enough copies,' he once said.
So he decided to write a book just like it and 'No Orchids for Miss Blandish' was the result.
It was an immediate success, partly because of the title, which he said came to him in the bath.
His early books were set in America, though his knowledge of the country was second-hand -- guide books, city plans, a dictionary of American slang and the movies provided the background.
When the film of the book was released in Britain in the late 1940s it caused outrage -- including questions in Parliament -- because of excessive violence. Chase agreed, calling it a 'rotten film.'
Movies were eventually made of 28 of his books, and he kept on writing.
He considered himself a book manufacturer and once told an interviewer, 'Money is the biggest driving force in the world. You can never get enough of it.'
