Book review: There’s always a price tag- James Hadley Chase

My first sane post..read on:

Consider the age old plot; a man commits a murder and then tries to cover up by making it appear to be a suicide and escape scot-free. Renowned mystery and thriller author René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, better known by his pseudonym James Hadley Chase, turns this clichéd plot upside down in his book, “There’s always a Price Tag”. He offers us a reverse of this tale; about a man who attempts to make a suicide look like a murder to get his mitts on the massive insurance sum of the victim.

While loafing around a midnight bar, Glyn Nash, a freelancer rescues Hollywood mogul Erle Dester who is in an inebriated state, from being tagged by a speeding car. Impressed by the young man’s quick thinking and reflexes, Dester takes him home and soon appoints Nash his “chauffeur-cum-handyman job” where he “would be at his beck and call twenty-four hours of the day”.

Naturally Nash seems uninterested, considering how poorly most rich men treat their chauffeurs, but a voice from behind him, that of Dester’s sultry wife Helen roots him to the spot. Chase brilliantly describes Nash’s feelings upon seeing Helen as, “Have you ever fiddled with an electric fitment and got a shock up your arm? Of course you have; you know the kind of jolt it gives you: something you can't control; a jolt that hurts, but doesn't bruise; something that hits your muscles and leaves you a little breathless”.  It’s typically Chase here with his analogies and references to common objects to define someone so attractive!

Nash gets nosey and manages to find out that before marrying Dester, Helen was involved with another man in New York who dies under mysterious circumstances but Helen was unable to acquire the insurance money after his death. He also finds out that Dester has been insured for a huge sum of 750000 dollars which Helen would inherit in case of her husband’s death, for which she has been trying to knock him off.  Again Chase at the top of his game describing Nash’s sentiments; “A chill as cold and as creepy as the finger of death crawled up my spine”

With the situation very ripe for a conspiracy, Nash blackmails Helen about knowing all this and they both hatch a plan to kill Dester, who in any case was deep in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. It all goes well until a cruel twist of fate wherein Dester confides in Helen and Nash that he would be committing suicide and only if it can be proven as murder would Helen inherit all his wealth. Saying this he shoots himself.

Panicking, Helen and Nash dump the body in the freezer and think of a way to cover up the suicide as murder. They concoct a cock and bull story about Dester being out of town for a business trip while Nash comes up with a blitzkrieg idea about Dester being kidnapped on his way to a sanatorium. Helen and Nash hire a housemaid and use her as witness when Nash poses as Dester and slips out of the house. The plan is that Glyn would tie up Helen to show as if she is kidnapped so as to alert the police. But in his quest for realism, he accidentally strikes a fatal blow to Helen and kills her.

As fate would have it, Nash finds out that Dester had in fact left his entire fortune for him. Whether Nash succeeds in escaping to bag the money or falls to his doom by being nabbed by the shrewd and experienced Maddox – Harmers combination keeps the reader glued to the book.

An ingenious plot, subtle deception and  a great, fast paced storyline that keeps you captivated with some Chase specials, it’s a must read!