British · 1906–1985
English thriller writer who set his novels in an America he'd never seen. Born René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, he worked as a book wholesaler and wrote No Orchids for Miss Blandish in six weekends using maps and slang dictionaries. The novel scandalized postwar Britain with its violence and sex. George Orwell attacked it as symptom of moral decline. Chase wrote ninety more novels without visiting America until late in life. The books sold fifty million copies; the prose is hardboiled pastiche; the influence on British crime fiction is measurable.