Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Chase: Knock, Knock, Who's There?


James Hadley Chase was an opportunist writer who changed his style to fit the current mood. In Knock, Knock, Who's There (1973) he has switched to Mafia stories that were a fad in the early seventies due to the Godfather movies. It's a story about Johnny Bianda, the bagman for a small-time mafioso. Bianda decides to get off the boat and robs the money he's gathered on his daily racket round. The book focuses on him trying to stay one step ahead of the Mafia guys. It's a bit weak in the middle, but all in all one of the better Chases. The ending is very cynical and not so flat as in the some other Chase novels I've read so far.

No comments: