Review: The Sentence is Death by Anthonty Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz's The Magpie Murders was an impulse purchase that put him on my author watch list. His next book, The Word is Murder, made me a devoted fan of of his crime novels. The Sentence is Death is the second in his Daniel Hawthorne & Anthony Horowitz crime novels and the sequel to The Word is Murder.

A prominent London divorce lawyer, Richard Pryce, has been messily murdered, bludgeoned and stabbed. Former detective Daniel Hawthorne is brought in to investigate. His first step is to let his reluctant biographer Anthony Horowitz,  know that they have a new case. With Anthony in tow, Hawthorne begins the investigation but this time he has competition, a female police detective who is determined to solve the case before Hawthorne. The only evidence they have to go on is the unknown person who rang the doorbell while the victim was on the phone and the mysterious three digit number painted on a wall at the crime scene. Could Richard's husband, with a sketchy alibi,  be involved. Or perhaps someone who thought they were wronged in one of his divorce proceedings. Or is there a connection with something what occurred years earlier in the North.

These books are so much fun to read that I don't wait for the US publication but order them from Amazon UK as soon as they appear.

Since this is a sequel you obviously need to read The Word is Murder if you haven't already done so. If you are new to this series here are some non-spoilery details. Anthony Horowitz is a character in his own book and details about his life and career are integrated into the story. Daniel Hawthorne was a police detective until he was fired after a paedofile "accidentally" fell down the stairs. However, he is such a good detective that the police hire him as a consultant to conduct an independent investigation for especially tricky cases. Afterworking with Horowitz as a consultant on a film, Hawthorne decided that he needed a biographer and selected Horowitz for that role.

More so than in The Word is Murder, you'll see parallels with Sherlock Holmes stories with Horowitz the Watson to Hawthorne's Holmes beginning with a nod to A Study in Scarlet. Not to mention that Hawthorne is essentially a consulting detective. This is a fun approach to the story when you consider that Horowitz has written two novels based on Sherlock Holmes. As in the Holmes stories, Horowitz as a Watson sees but doesn't observe which he finds frustrating because he often can't see where Hawthorne is going with his line of inquiry. There is a scene in the book that reminds me of something that happens in the first chapter of The Hound of the Baskervilles. It wouldn't be a spoiler exactly but you might want to wait until you finish this book before looking up that passage.

The competing detective, Cara Grunshaw and her asistant Darren are hostile and obstructive and make for fun counterpoints to Hawthorne and Horowitz. They also complicate things for Horowitz though Hawthorne seems more amused by them than threatened.

There is also the continuing mystery surrounding Hawthorne himself to which Horowitz is determined to get to the bottom. Hawhthorne continues to be abnormally reluctant to to discuss anything about his own past. If Howowitz's fictional three book publishing deal in these books carries over into real life then all should be revealed in the next book in the series. I'd be interested to know if you agree with my comparison.

The Sentence is Death is a clever and well constructed mystery with pleanty of false leads and an intriguing yet enigmatic detective with humor directed at the author himself. I love these books and can hardly wait to see what happens next. Highly recommended.

Review: The Enumerations by Máire Fisher

It took me nearly three times longer than usual for a book this length to read Máire Fisher's, The Enumerations. This wasn't due to the quality of the writing or lack of interest but because I needed to put the book down frequently to reflect on what I had just read.

Marie's book is a sensitive and compassionate exploration of an adolescent boy, Noah Groome, who has a crippling case of obsessive compulsive disorder. Noah's  OCD is manifested by his certainty that the only thing keeping himself and his family safe are the 5s. He also needs absolute order including a minute-by-minute schedule of his day including details such as allocating to the second low long to brush his teeth. Doing things in 5s and finding patterns of 5s is Noah's shield against the Dark. The Dark becomes another character in the story. The author shows how unimaginably tough this level of OCD is on the person and on the people around them. As I read, two threads kept running through my head: what if it were me; and what if it was someone in my family, how would I respond to them, would I be patient and understanding, or would I be impatient and push them away.

Noah has an encounter with the school bully that turns violent. The parents of the bully see their son as the victim and demand that something be done about the "danger" posed by Noah. Noah is the real victim but is incapable of defending himself. To get Noah out of this hostile environment, he is sent to a residential treatment centre, Greenhills.

Noah's treatment plan at Greenhills is interesting and a combination of group, personal counseling, setting goals, journaling. Juliet, a member of Noah's group therapy session takes a particular interest in Noah, taking him under her tutelage  and coaching how to appear to do what is asked of him. Nonetheless, we do see little changes in Noah's behavior. Juliet is the opposite of Noah, talking continuously while Noah says and reveals little.

We meet other adolescents at the treatment which contribute to our understanding of the the issues that these young people are facing. Juliet is the only one we get to know well but I wanted to know more about other members of Noah's group therapy session who have interesting back stories.

Writing a book like The Enumerations must require a delicate balance. The author isn't just making up a story but is building that story on something very real. The need to write a compelling story has to be balanced against the need for accuracy in the subject matter and respect for people suffering from the condition and their families. The story rings true and Máire is able to show us the working of a treatment centre for troubled adolescents within a story of people you come to like and perhaps related to.

I got an interesting insight into an author's creative process when I corresponded with her and she responded:

I didn’t deliberately set out to write about OCD, but once the subject presented itself, and once I ventured inside Noah’s head to see what it might be like to be him (or get as close to knowing as I could), I knew the onus was on me to research him as deeply as I could. That in itself was a mountain to climb, needing several stops along the way.

One thing the author does not do is treat Noah's condition as something humorous like we saw in the TV show, Monk. Máire, as much as is possible, helped me see the world through Noah's eyes.

The story switches between Noah trying to adapt to his treatment program and his parents and sister trying to cope. The mother is falling apart; the father remote, disengaged, and incapable of even looking his son in the eye; and the little sister who fiercely defends Noah and is actually the strongest member of the family. There is also a plot-line threading through the narratives of Noah and his family that I can't go into without spoiling but it actually pulls everything together in the end.

 I had to think about how Máire ends The Enumerations and several ways to approach the ending went through my mind. First, and this is due to my immediate reaction, is that the author was going for an intense emotional reaction from the reader.  While the ending does evoke an emotional response there is more to it than that. She doesn't wrap the story up into a neat package which would be dishonest to what we've seen. We do see the potential for hope and change but we still know that the characters have a long way to go and serious mental and emotional barriers to get past. There isn't going to be a group hug that sets everything right. I also thought that there is a strong young adult story type of ending. I don't want to say why because it would be a spoiler. Using the term young adult isn't meant to be pejorative, by the way, it's just that I saw some YA elements there. The author confirmed that she "reverted to a fairly classic young adult ending." Actually there is another YA flavored scene that I really enjoyed.

This is one of my favorite reads so far this year and likely will remain high on my list. The Enumerations has fascinating and compelling story with characters you come to care about and episodes that may leave you righteously angry. I don't think it possible not to empathize with the people in the story.  It is set in South Africa but other than a few small references you probably won't notice. Highly recommended.

Noir Film Review: No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1948 film)

UPDATE: The reviewer at Twenty Four Frames describes Jack La Rue's Slim as a violent second tier Rick Blaine straight out of "Casablanca" and the ending as an over dramatic combination of poignancy and cold human behavior. Describing Slim as a second tier Rick Blaine is pretty spot on and while I mostly agree about the ending, I still love the Casablanca-esque parting of Miss Blandish and Slim. The review also brings up Miss Blandish as a victim of Stockholm Syndrome but I think that is a stretch. Miss Blandish is obviously drawn to Slim from first meeting. The review points out how the accents are all over the place. The reviewer describes the accents as a mixed bag of crumpets and hot dogs. This is true and can be jarring if you let it bu but I decided to enjoy the accents as an artifact of the time and production.

 On the DVD Talk website, DVD Savant relegates No Orchids to camp. The reviewer writes:

No Orchids for Miss Blandish may take the prize for a well-made picture that seemingly gets everything "wrong", yet is a delight to watch. Time has transformed the once-shocking subject matter into an Airplane!–like parody of gangster and noir clichés. 

...the film bounces from absurd violence to mawkish melodrama to lengthy musical performances. Clowes' script and direction are wildly uneven, and together with the buzarre accents and goofy characterizations, the entire showcomes off as preposterous. Just the same, No Orchids for Miss Blandish is both exciting and funy. Something outrageous is happening every minute.

I have no arguement with this assessment although I don't think it fair to use the phrase noir clichés. The film came out in 1948, in the clasic film noir period, and they hadn't yet become clichés

St. John Legh Clowes wrote and directed this excellent film adaptation of James Hadley Chase's 1939 gangster novel of the same name. It is also a very nice film noir and actually more noir than the novel. There are substantial differences from the book but Clowes balanced the story and film requirements in a way that should satisfy both camps. I reviewed the book here.

The setting is shifted from the American Midwest to New York. As the credits roll, we see hands gift wrapping an orchid which is then delivered by a uniformed delivery person to the Blandish mansion. Along the way we see newspaper headlines announcing Blandish Heiress to Marry, Lucre Links Lucre. When Miss Blandish looks at the card that came with the orchid we see a pair of dice and the words "Don't Do It".  Miss Blandish directs her maid to respond "No orchids for Miss Blandish".

We see Miss Blandish as cold, haughty, and disinterested. Her fiancé, Foster Harvey, urges her to go to a road house where "The music will get in your blood and the ice will melt in your veins".

She is kidnapped during a robbery that leaves Foster and two of the robbers dead. Bailey is taking the unconscious Miss Blandish to Barney's, a gang neutral hidout when they are spotted by a rival gang, the Grisson's. The Grisson's show up at the hideout and take Miss Blandish for themselves, who intend to fence her heirloom diamond necklace, hold her for ransom, then dispose of her. But Slim, the son of Ma Grisson, has been in love with her from afar —he sent the orchids and notes seen in the opening— and Miss Blandish finds herself equally in love with him.

This results in a schism within the gang. At the same time, to police are closing in aided by reporter Dave Fenner who has figured out that the first gang, the Riley gang, had fallen to the Grisson gang and that Miss Blandish was being held in the club run by Ma Grisson.

With the police noose tightening and plotting within the gang putting Slim at odd with his mother, the tragic ending in inevitable.

The two major differences between the book and the film are the characters of Slim Grisson and Miss Blandish.

Instead of the yellow-eyed, impotent, psychopath, Slim becomes a strong-jawed Bogart style gangster who kills without remorse but is also tormented with his love for Miss Blandish. It is this love above greed that will ultimately lead to his end. Jack La Rue, one of the few US actors in the film and who lost roles to both Bogart and George Raft, is well cast as Slim. There is a beautifully noir scene when the Grisson gang has arrived at Barney's hideout to take Miss Blandish from Baley, the remaining member of the Riley gang. While the other characters are moving into place in the background, La Rue's Slim sits on the edge of a table in the forground, repeatedly tossing dice on a plate. The rattle of dice on the plate is unnerving, ratchets up the tension, and establishes Slim as a cold and merciless gangster.

With Miss Blandish back in Ma Grisson's club, The Black Dice, the tormented side of Slim comes out. Despite Miss Blandish's obvious attraction to him, he gives her back her jewels and tells her to leave which she reluctantly does. A he broods, off camera we hear the door open and hear him say that he's glad she came back.

It is perhaps an odd comparison, but No Orchids reminded me of Casablanca. If you remember, in Casablanca we see scenes of a smiling Rick and Ilsa in happier times in Paris. In No Orchids, Slim and Miss Blandish are shown living happily in the club, going to a rustic cabin in the woods and making plans to run away to Cuba. And the final scene before Slims goes to meet his doom has got to be an homage to Casablanca. Slim says to Miss Blandish,

I know you'll always remember I love you but forget you ever loved me.

And before he steps out of the cabin and dies in a hail of bullets from a Tommy gun, he tells Miss Blandish,

Be seeing you kid. 

For her part, Miss Blandish has a much more active role than in the book where she only had a few short scenes. As I wrote above, she starts out as cold, aloof, and without passion. When she is "saved" from being ravished by Bailey by the arrival of the Grisson gang at Barney's, we see the beginning of her interest in Slim. Later, black in the club, she professes that she feels alive for the first time in her life. She tells Slim that she knows what he is but doesn't care. Rather than being a victim of Stockholm Syndrome, she willingly embraces Slim despite knowing what he does. If anything, it is Slim that tries to do right by her. I wondered, had they escaped their fate in the film, to what lengths Miss Blandish would have stood by her man. Would she have become his partner in crime? I think that is possible.

The police and reporter Dave Fenner think they have rescued Miss Blandish not realizing the shock she is experiencing is not from her ordeal but from seeing the bullet-ridden body of her lover. Fenner takes her to a hotel room to await her father thinking he has done something good but not realizing how anguished she is. He hears a scream from the room and rushes in to find that Miss Blandish has thrown herself from the window and lies dead on the sidewalk below. The final scene is very nicely done and slickly framed and shows part of Miss Blandish's arm and people carelessly treading on an orchid.

No Orchids was filmed in England with a largely international cast which makes for some odd accents for a film set in New York. Lilli Molnar who played Ma Grisson was Hungarian. Reporter Dave Fenner was Scottish. Charles Goldner who played Louis the head waiter was born in Vienna when it was in Austria-Hungary; this actually fits his role well so doesn't jar. Zoe Gail who plays Margo the nightclub singer who assists Fenner, was South African. Only one other cast member was from the US and the rest, in addition to the one mentioned above, were from England, Poland, Austria, and Canada.

There are some great character actors in the film: Louis the headwaiter provides some comic relief; the erudite lush, Doc; the dim Barney who has a remarkable face that makes you recoil; the affable grandpa who runs the gas station and sews the arm back on his granddaughters doll. Accents notwithstanding, I liked the casting.

Clowes also included several night club acts that are pretty good. Margo sings two songs— But When He Got It, Does He Want It and Where Do We Go From Here— that reflect the relationship of Slim and Miss Blandish. But When He Got It ... has clever lyrics such as this interesting verse, Lancelot got hot pants a lot though he didn't care for romance a lot but damsels favors brought luck with them but when he carried them off he was stuck with em. There is also an amusing performance where a performer does an impression of both Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. And where would a 1940s nightclub be without an elaborate dance routine.

When No Orchids came out it was called one of the worst, most depraved, films ever made because if its violence and sexual content. This opinion is, of course, understandable for its time but now it is rather tame and might get a PG rating. One scene in particular you might not understand without having read the book. Cutie (Maisey is the book) is a hostess in the Grisson club. She wears a uniform jacket with a zipper which Fenner plays with noting the smooth action. In the book we know that Masie makes extra money by letting male patrons unzip her jacket and fondle her breasts. It's made obvious that Slim and Miss Blandish are sleeping together and Margo entices Fenner into her bed. We also see Margo's bare back which obviously means she is nude! The violence isn't extreme by our standards with brutal beating death of Miss Blandish's fiancé being the worst and most of that is implied.

I enjoyed the noir filming techniques with use of shadows, low angles, two-shots. My favorite scene is the one in Barney's hideout. Miss Blandish is coming down the stairs, Bailey is sweating and trying to negotiate his way out, and the actors are moving into place in the background. All the while Slim, impassive, is in the foreground tossing dice onto a plate. The mise en scène is just wonderful.

I'll probably update this post after I've read some other reviews. As an experiment, I thought I would put my thoughts down without outside influence. The Wikipedia reference doesn't count because I only looked at the first paragraph where the film's initial reception is mentioned.

Film reviews
No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1948) John Legh Clowes. Twenty Four Frames.

No Orchids for Miss Blandish. DVD Savant Review.

No Orchids for Miss Blandish. TCM

Newcomer (2018) by Keigo Higashino

Keigo Higashino's Newcomer is the sorbet after my heavy main course of noir and hardboiled. It made for a fun half-day read. Newcomer is the second Detective Kyochiro Kaga story and follows on the events of Malice.

Mineko Mitsui, a divorced woman living alone is found murdered. Mitsui was a newcomer to the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. Detective Kaga, first on the scene and only recently transferred to the Nihonbashi precinct where he is also a newcomer. Though the case is turned over to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and Kaga is but a "lowly local detective" he nevertheless proceeds with his unconventional investigative techniques.

Kaga makes me think of a combination of Columbo and Sherlock Holmes. Columbo because of his habit of showing up to ask just one more question. He is like Sherlock Holmes because he doesn't just see,  he observes. People underestimate Kaga at their peril. His seemingly aimless fascination with things all prove to have relevance. The organization of the book is clever. Kago traces each piece of evidence found in the murdered woman's apartment but it is done so in the form of stories about the lives of the merchants the dead woman visited. Kago reveals family secrets in what amounts to several mini–mysteries within the larger mystery of who murdered Mineko Mitsui. In one, perhaps two, of the mini stories, the emotions of the reader are shamelessly manipulated but it is done so entertainingly that you don't care. In some ways I also thought of Kaga as kind of a guardian angel and he gently guides people to realization that things might not be what they thought. You'll probably have a good idea whodunit though perhaps not why before the end but you don't really care because it is the journey and not the destination.

I will say that by end of the novel I had a real craving for Japanese rice crackers and pastries. And the author made this reader feel like he would like to visit the streets and shops with Kaga.

I found this a quick but satisfying read and I look forward to the next in the series.

Review: No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1939) by James Hadley Chase

I'd seen No Orchids for Miss Blandish on lists of noir books but the title made the book seem more cosy-like than my preferred reading (hardboiled, noir, and noirish) so I didn't pursue it. Then I ran across a review of it somewhere—probably one of the blogs posts linked below—and decided that it is my kind of book. I tracked down a copy and I couldn't have been more wrong in judging a book by its title.

At the bottom of this post I link to two blog reviews and two in depth analyses of Miss Blandish. I recommend checking them out.

There are massive plot details in this review so be warned if you read past the synopsis.

Synopsis: After a party where the daughter of the Meat King is presented with the family heirloom pearls worth $50,000, Miss Blandish and her escort Jerry McGovern go to the Golden Slipper club. Unknown to Miss Blandish, the Riley Gang knows about the pearls and, after she and McGovern leave the club, intercept their car on a lonely stretch of road. In a struggle, McGovern is killed. Because she saw the murder, the gang takes her with them as they escape. Unfortunately for the Riley Gang, they are spotted by members of the Grisson Gang who figure out that Miss Blandish is the unconscious girl in the car. They also figure that the Riley Gang will take her to a gang neutral hideout, Johnny's. Members of Ma Grisson's gang, led by her psychotic and depraved son, Slim, snatch Miss Blandish from the Riley Gang. It doesn't end well for Riley and his men.

The Grisson's find themselves in a sweet spot since everyone thinks that the Riley's still have Miss Blandish. They figure on disposing of her once they have collected the ransom but Slim has other plans for the heiress and she is held in brutal and debasing captivity.

The ransom is paid, ostensibly to the Riley Gang, and several months pass with no sign of Miss Blandish, alive or dead. Daddy Blandish approaches Dave Fenner, formerly a reporter and a now private detective, to find his daughter. Mr. blandish has little hope that his daughter will be found alive. Bur Fenner has contacts and methods not available to the police and Blandish figures he might be able to get closure. In an unusual twist, the police are actually okay with the private detective running the case. Fenner does crack the case fairly quickly and it becomes a race to get to Miss Blandish while she still lives.

My Take: James Hadley Chase was one of the pen names of the Englishman René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, who had never been to America. Chase seems an unlikely person to write an American-style gangster/hardboiled detective story. Indeed, there are several versions of how this first novel came to be. Did Chase, who was working as a bookseller for a wholesaler, see a marketing opportunity to exploit interest in American crime stories like The Postman Always Rings Twice or after reading James M. Cain's book, The Postman Always Rings Twice, read about Ma Barker and her gang, steep himself in American gangsters, then sit down with some maps and a slang dictionary and write No Orchids for Miss Blandish (Wikipedia). Did he really knock it off over six weekends? Was he trying to out write James M. Cain? Did William Faulkner's Sanctuary have an influence? John Fraser covers this in his "Sidebar 1: Some Orchids for James Hadley Chase" (link below).

Chase continued to write hardcore crime novels—over 90— and was even taken to court over one of his later books, Miss Callaghan Comes to Grief (1947) which was banned in the UK.

However it came to be, No Orchids is pretty tough book that tapped into the public's desire for American style gangsters compared to which the English variety paled. In 1944 it was extensively analysed by George Orwell in his essay, "Raffles and Miss Blandish". Orwell called it "a brilliant piece of writing, with hardly a wasted word or jarring note anywhere". He also said that Chase "seems to have made a complete mental transference to the American underworld." I don't agree with Orwell that No Orchids is aimed at the power-instinct—I think it is greed and lust—but I do agree when he writes:

In a book like No Orchids one is not, as in the old-style crime story, simply escaping from dull reality into an imaginary world of action. One's escape is essentially into cruelty and sexual perversion.

Both the Orwell and Fraser explorations of No Orchids are well worth the read to get a thorough perspective of the book.

The problem with reviewing No Orchids for Miss Blandish is which version are you reviewing. It was published in 1939, revised in 1942, and extensively revised in 1961. If you've read No Orchids, there is a good chance that you have the 1961 version because that seems to be the version most often sold. You'll know for sure which version you've read if you read on. I picked up a used copy only to learn that editions subsequent to the original are very different and much more toned down. It proved a bit difficult to find the original 1939 text. A certain large online seller of books claims to have the unabridged and unexpurgated edition but it isn't. The only copy of the original unexpurgated version I've found readily available is from Stark House Press. There isn't a direct title link but it is the sixth image down on this Stark House Press page. Both print and ebook versions are available which made me happy because I wanted the immediate gratification from downloading the ebook. Stark House Press also has other Chase titles including the censored Miss Callaghan Comes to Grief.

Here is a quick way to tell if you want to know if you are reading a revised edition. Look on the first page. If you see Highway 54 in the second paragraph you have the revised edition. Also, the dinner is named Minny's Hash House in the '39 edition  and only referred to as a gas station and lunchroom bar in later editions. I would argue that you are reading a different book if you have the '61 edition. Apparently Chase thought the prohibition setting of the '39 edition was too remote for modern readers prompting his revision.

Chase went all out when he wrote No Orchids and embraced the sex and violence that is implicit in gangster and hardboiled detective stories. At times there seems to be little difference between the gangsters and the authorities let by the private detective. The brutal interrogation of Grisson gang member Eddie stands out.

We might chuckle at the dialogue and slang and what we might now see as stereotypical characters but Miss Blandish is still a cracking good read. It is violent with few likable characters but it has power and even pathos as we witness the total destruction of Miss Blandish. Chase's interpretation of the gangster and hardboiled genres is very well done.

For me, the 1961 revision strips out all the hard-edged power of the original. What remains is shorter, perhaps more palatable, and a smoother read but it does so by sacrificing the impact of the violence and sexuality of the original. In '39, only one of the principle female characters makes it out alive but in '61 several fates are rewritten to soften the story but not for the better. Having lost its blood, I find the revised edition anemic in comparison. Like I said above, it is a different book.

Let's look at some comparisons between editions which will demonstrate why I prefer the original and illustrate how well Chase could present some very bad people, on both side of the law.

The first chapter is a good place to start. Bailey, a member of the Riley Gang, enters Minny's Hash House and sees the waitress.

1939

The blonde, who was leaning over the counter, gave him a smile that made Bailey think of a piano. She had worked on herself until she looked as good as any movie star until you got close to her, then she wasn't so hot. She patted her tight yellow curls and stretched, so that her large breasts poked at Baily through her thin dress.

Compare this to

1962

The blonde leaning over the counter smiled at him. She had big white teeth that reminded Bailey of piano keys, She was too fat to interest him. He didn't return the smile.

I don't know about you but I can see the blonde in the '39 edition but not really in the '62. The whole scene in Minny's is a more fun in '39 with Bailey and the waitress taking cracks at each other in the way you expect a thug and a blowsy hash house waitress would. This is cut out entirely in '62.

Baily in the hash house contrasts with Baily during the abduction of Miss Blandish. During the abduction he beats McGovern to the ground then savagely kicks him to death. In '62 he shoots him.

Ma Grisson's son, Slim, is one of the most chilling, degenerate, and psychotic character written, particularly for 1939. He favors the knife which I think engenders more visceral fear than the gun. This is how he takes care of Riley at Johnny's.

1939
"I'm givin' it you there," Slim said, pricking the shuddering flesh with his knife. "Right in the guts, Riley, an' you'll take a mighty long time to croak."
"Listen, mister, you wouldn't do that to me," Riley gasped. "You can't do that to me ... I'm a right guy all right... don't I keep tellin' you ...Slim, you know me ... Riley? For Christ's sake ...don't ... don't do it! ...Don't do it ... Slim!"
Slim, still grinning, held the knife-point just below Riley's naval and put his weight on the handle. The knife went in slowly as if it were going into butter. Riley drew his lips back. His mouth opened. There was a long hiss of expelled breath as he stood there. Slim stepped back, leaving the black hilt of the knife growing out of Riley like a horrible malformation. Riley began to give low, wavering cries. His knees were buckling, but the cord held him.
Slim sat on the grass a few feet away and gave himself a cigarette. He pushed his hat over his eyes and squinted at Riley.
"Take your time, pal."

That last sentence, "Take your time, pal", is all the more striking because of its casualness and what it implies. Compare that to the same scene in '62:

1962
Riley opened his eyes.
"Don't kill me, Slim," he panted. "Gimme a break! Don't kill me!"
Slim grinned. The moving slowly through the patch of sunlight, he approached the cringing man.

Ma Grisson is almost as bad as her son, as cold, dangerous, and ruthless a person as you would never want to cross. The way she protects and enables Slim's perversions is chilling. When she first meets Miss Blandish:

1939

"You're going to stay here until your old man comes across, she said. If you're lucky you won't be here long. It all depends on your pa. If he tries to be smart, I'm goin' to take you apart in bits, and those bits will be sent to your pa every goddam day until he learns to play ball. Before I take you apart, I'll throw you to the boys an' what they'll do to you ain't nobody's business. You're going to behave, and you ain't causin' trouble. Do you get all that?"

1962

"Listen to me," she said, "you may be Blandish's daughter but you mean nothing to me. You're staying here until your old man buys you back. It depends on him how long you do stay here. While you're here, you're going to behave. So long as you do behave, you'll be left alone, but if you start making trouble, you'll have me to reckon with, I promise you. You'll be sorry if you do cross me. Do you understand." 

Much more menace is conveyed by the 1939 passage.

Later in this chapter and too long to quote, we see just how debased and lacking in humanity mother and son are. She reflects on Slim's impotence and need to revenge himself for his failures with women. At one point Slim asks her to hold Miss Blandish while he rapes her but Ma tells him "You shall have what you want, but not now...When the dough comes you shall have her an' she'll like it." When slim goes to bed Ma takes a rubber hose and beats Miss Blandish telling her what's going to happen to her and that "Slim's been a good boy to me an' he's going to have what he want he wants." She also tells Miss Blandish that she will be drugged into acquiescence and implying that is something she's done before. Unfortunately for Miss Blandish, all this comes to pass. In '62, all this is watered down and conveys none of the gut wrenching terror Miss Blandish must have felt.

After the Grisson gang gets the ransom, they discuss disposing of Miss Blandish. Slim Grisson flies into a rage and claims Miss Blandish for himself. In the 1939 edition, as Slim ascends the stairs to claim his prize, Chase draws out the moment, raising the tension, getting into Slim's mind:

He has gone over and over the details in his mind, and he knew just what he wanted to do. He felt that he could do it now; nothing was going to stop him. It was his moment and he was almost blinded with the pounding of blood in his brain.

But in the 1962 edition this is changed to Slim asserting his power within the gang:

At last he had shown his power. He had scared them all. From now on, he was going to have his rightful place in the gang. Ma was going to take second place. He looked down the passage at Miss Blandish's room. It was time he stopped sitting by her night after night. He must show her he wasn't only master of his mother, but master of her too.

This shifts the motivation from greed and degenerate lust to a power struggle which I do not think works as well.

When Slim enters Miss Blandish's room there is a long passage in the 1939 edition showing Miss Blandish's fear and resignation in agonizing detail:

"You won't come near me until I have a drink?" she said. "I couldn't bear it without a drink"
"Can't you leave me alone? ... keep away just a little longer ... don't touch me ... please don't ..."
She whispered suddenly to him in a small panic-ridden voice: "You're hurting me ... don't you know you ... hurt!"

In 1962 this scene becomes:

Miss Blandish watched him come across the room. She saw his new confidence and she guessed what it was to mean to her.

Shuddering, she shut her eyes.

Yes, it lets you use your imagination and you might prefer it that way but the impact is weakened.

At the end of the '62 edition, Chase give Miss Blandish a long exposition that isn't in '39:

[when asked if she wants her father] "No." She looked up. Her eyes were like holes cut in a white sheet. "He wouldn't be able to help me. He would just be horribly embarrassed and upset. This is something I should be able to work out for myself, but the trouble is I'm not fitted to to cope with any major crises in my life. I have never had any reason to cope with anything. I have never had any sense of values. I've just enjoyed a good time all the time until this happened. I suppose it is a test for me, isn't it? But instead of a test, I feel it is a trap. I don't know if I'm capable of getting out of it. I'm ashamed of myself. I'm a person without any background, any character or any faith. Some people could cope with this because they believe in God. I haven't believed in anything except having a good time." She clenched and un-clenched her fists, then she looked up ; her fixed smile made Fenner feel bad. "Perhaps I had better see the doctor. He will give me something. Then, as you said, in a few days' time I'll be able to to face this thing." She looked away and went on as if speaking to herself. "You see how weak I am. I have to have someone to lean on. I haven't the equipment to rely on myself. It's because I have been brought up to rely on other people but it is my fault. I'm not blaiming anyone but myself."

This passage puts the book into the realm of noir but I agree with Fraser that it feels tacked on. I think it retro fits an explanation why Chase doesn't give Miss Blandish a first name. She feels she never really had an identity and doesn't deserve a first name? It does add an existential noir feel to the book so there is that.

In the 1939 edition Miss Blandish says about the now dead Slim:

"No, you're wrong," she said, her voice high-pitched and hysterical. "He's not dead. He's with me now, I know he is—at first I thought I was wrong, but I know I've got him with me. I've got him inside me, he wouldn't leave me alone, ever—and he never will."

The '39 edition gives the impression that Miss Blandish is suffering from a form of Stockholm Syndrome. It is still has an existential feel but I think is more natural.

The end result is the same in both editions, Miss Blandish throws herself from the hotel window. The '39 edition add a a cynical little aside with a wealthy woman miffed that her car is being held up because of the body in the street. This is left out of '62. Personally I like it, Miss Blandish is reduced to an inconvenience.

If you have stuck with me so far, thanks. Miss Blandish is a book that I appreciate more as I re-read it. It was interesting to me to see how different the editions are and how the impact of the story changes. Remember, if you are purchasing from Amazon, use the Look Inside feature and see if Highway 54 is mentioned on page one. I know for certain that this edition from Amazon is a revised one even if the description says otherwise.

Additional Resources
1. Sidebar 1: Some Orchids for James Hadley Chase by John Fraser. This part of a larger work called Found Pages: The Remarkable Harold Ernest ("Darcy Glinto") Kelly, 1899–1969. One of Darcy Glinto's books is Lady—Don't Turn Over which borrowed heavily from No Orchids.

2. Raffles and Miss Blandish (1944), an essay by George Orwell.

3. No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1939) by James Hadley Chase.  A review on the blog Tipping My Fedora, one of my favorite crime blogs.

4. The Book You Have to Read: "No Orchids for Miss Blandish," by James Hadley Chase. A review on the blog The Rap Sheet, another of my favorite blogs.

5. No Orchids for Miss Blandish, Stark House Press. This is the text of the 1939 edition, complete and unexpurgated. This is a page link and not a title link. Scroll down and you'll see find it.