‘You Never Know with Women’ by James Hadley Chase

My Review (5 stars out of 5)

Professional stripper Veda Rux steals an expensive Cellini dagger from a millionaire’s house – seemingly during a sleepwalking incident. The woman’s agent, Cornelius Gorman, ropes in dodgy PI Floyd Jackson, in a bid to return the dagger to the millionaire’s safe before he learns it’s missing.

Jackson thinks there’s something fishy about the whole thing but as he’s desperate for cash, he decides to give it a shot. Unfortunately, Jackson isn’t aware of the whole story, and soon finds himself in a heap of trouble…

This is the first book I’ve read by this author (real name, René Lodge Brabazon Raymond). Both the plot and the dialogue are reminiscent of Raymond Chandler and there were times when I had to remind myself I wasn’t reading The Big Sleep et al. One or two of the characters are a tad misogynistic, but that’s hardly surprising for the time it was written (1949). The plot veers towards the slightly silly at times but on the whole is jolly good fun with plenty of bad guys and double crosses thrown in along the way.

An entertaining and amusing read.

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