More Deadly Than The Male

by James Hadley Chase

George Fraser is a lonely man, and a bored man. But he has exciting dreams. In his dreams, he lives in a thrilling world of gangsters, guns, fast cars and beautiful women. And of course, in his dreams, he is the toughest gangster of them all. George Fraser prefers his dream world to his real, ordinary life so he begins to boast about it, pretending that he is, in fact, a hardened and ruthless gangster. But George Fraser boasts to the wrong people and suddenly his dream world becomes all too real.

Genres: Thriller, Noir, Fiction, Crime, Novels, Mystery

302 pages, Paperback

First published May 9, 1972

About the author

René Lodge Brabazon Raymond was born on 24th December 1906 in London, England, the son of Colonel Francis Raymond of the colonial Indian Army, a veterinary surgeon. His father intended his son to have a scientific career, was initially educated at King's School, Rochester, Kent. He left home at the age of 18 and became at different times a children's encyclopedia salesman, a salesman in a bookshop, and executive for a book wholesaler before turning to a writing career that produced more than 90 mystery books. His interests included photography (he was up to professional standard), reading and listening to classical music, being a particularly enthusiastic opera lover. Also as a form of relaxation between novels, he put together highly complicated and sophisticated Meccano models.

In 1932, Raymond married Sylvia Ray, who gave him a son. They were together until his death fifty three years later. Prohibition and the ensuing US Great Depression (1929–1939), had given rise to the Chicago gangster culture just prior to World War II. This, combined with her book trade experience, made him realise that there was a big demand for gangster stories. He wrote as R. Raymond, James Hadley Chase, James L. Docherty, Ambrose Grant and Raymond Marshall.

During World War II he served in the Royal Air Force, achieving the rank of Squadron Leader. Chase edited the RAF Journal with David Langdon and had several stories from it published after the war in the book Slipstream: A Royal Air Force Anthology.

Raymond moved to France in 1956 and then to Switzerland in 1969, living a secluded life in Corseaux-sur-Vevey, on Lake Geneva, from 1974. He eventually died there peacefully on 6 February 1985.

Reviews

[Paul Lothane · Rating 4 out of 5]

George, painfully shy, harmless by nature lives in a world of dreams and imagination. Alas his fate is sealed the moment he meets Cora, hard, cold, worldly wise and ruthless. She leads him on, manipulates the hulking idiot (yes, George!) till his whole world falls apart, and he is destroyed. He is ready to do anything to please and have her, but he fails dismally as the reality is that Cora can not even stand him in any way. George even goes so far as to attempt to rob a woman to divest her of her finery just to please Cora but - typical of him - this ends in farcical fashion. The truth is that George is a "prize imbecile", a loser, a sucker to the very end. It is a pathetic, moving, powerful story. At least there are some prose-nuggets in this work, eg " the children spotted them heads turning in their direction with the precision of a field of corn moving in a wind”; “the prostitutes, thieves, pimps, the touts…all moving in a steady stream, like a river of rottenness”; “he wavered before George like weeds in a fast moving river”; “the hush of the room, above the drone of the bees, and the rustle of the hollyhocks against the window..” Who says Chase was not a fine writer?

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in 1946, More Deadly Than The Male is a Chase original in every sense of the word. In it, he takes a noir crime novel and turns it on its head. The star of the novel is George Fraser, who is nobody’s idea of a tough guy. A mild-mannered loner living in a rooming house and working a dead end job, George lives in a fantasy world where he’s an American gangster who worked right with the toughest of them all. George not only indulges in his fantasies but tells these tales to those who befriend him. Of course, not everyone is a good guy in the real world and when George starts palling around with unsavory types, they put him and his bragging and his gun to the test. It’s a long con and you know they are playing dear old George for a sucker even if he doesn’t have a clue, bewitched as he is by Cora’s sweet promises. But hang on to your hats because there’s more to dear George than first meets the eye and he just may turn out to be more than anyone’s ever bargained for.

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one of those early Chase novels that begins ordinarily, or even irritatingly, enough, and then becomes something much, much more. Here, JHC creates a scenario where a Walter Mitty type meets up with a cheap London version of Al Capone and is drawn into a life more thoroughly degrading than anything short of what happened to Heinrich Mann's Professor Unrat. George Fraser is a lumbering misfit, fantasizing about life as an American gangster. He commits folly after folly in search of love and approval from friends, a sinister criminal colleague, and that colleague's "sister." The book is a tragicomedy, with a notable turns towards tragedy once Cora gets her claws into the easily duped George. Thereafter, things turn increasingly violent, although not as gruesome as many another Chase novels. Amidst the murders, crimes, and beatings, however, there is one comic passage where George utterly fails at robbing a London high society debutante and is made a fool of in front of two women. This will become a hallmark of later Chase novels, where comedy is interjected within an overall outline of brutality and mayhem, before proceeding to the eventual comeuppance for all involved.

[Kakha · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book from the bibliography of JHC. Although I can say this about any of his books. This novel is quite psychological. You shouldn't be mistaken about this, seeing only the detective line in the stories of unforgettable James Hadley Chase. Actually all his books are sapiential and quite didactic in real, everyday life. I always learn something important and necessary from the every single brilliant book of this legendary author.

[H M Al amin · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Fraser, a lonely, timid fellow,lived in a dream world of gangsters, gunfights and beautiful women. He began to imagine himself as the toughest gangster of them all- to bolster up his feelings of inferiority. But George boasted once too often- and to the wrong person.

From that moment, harmless George Fraser was caught up in a deadly net of intrigue and became a cat's paw for murder.

[Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Di ossessione in ossessione

George Fraser ha una sua ossessione.
Piazzista di enciclopedie per bambini e uomo solitario, anonimo nonostante la mole, vorrebbe vivere una vita da gangster.
A parte un gatto non ha amici, e per sembrare interessante agli occhi delle donne e di chi gli presta ascolto, crea storie avventurose vissute nell'illegalità spacciandole per vere.
Sogna di essere considerato un pericoloso criminale.

L'incontro casuale con Sydney, dai modi schivi e diretti come un treno, lo porta verso quella che diventa la sua seconda ossessione, Cora, donna furba che se lo rigira come le migliori manipolatrici sanno fare quando capiscono di avere a che fare con la cecità di un fesso innamorato.

Da quel momento George viene strappato dal suo personale mondo dei sogni e scaravento a forza in quella realtà che tanto smaniava, trascinato in una corrente incontrollabile che gli farà aprire gli occhi troppo tardi.

Chase prende un uomo qualunque e lo trasforma da fesso per indole a criminale per stupidità, lo mastica a piacimento attraverso Cora, una stronza di prima categoria, e lo risputa al lettore, che per certi versi è contento del cambiamento ma per altri si rammarica per il destino di quest'uomo cresciuto in fretta.

Storia dinamica, che parte ricca di colori per poi sfumare verso un grigio cupo, godereccia nonostante gli eventi drammatici.
Anche se George indubbiamente se l'è cercata, fa incazzare (e intenerire) vedere un uomo inoffensivo ridotto così. Fa incazzare.

3 ½

[Saikalyan Konduri · Rating 5 out of 5]

"She doesn't sound your type at all."
"She isn't really," George admitted,"but sometimes one can't help that. A girl like that gets in one's blood and there's not much one can do about it. I can't anyway."

[Pami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the concept, didn't like the characters 😓

[Mark Vickers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is a must read for all JHC fanatics, it's not very often that I give the maestro 5 stars. After reading this one for the third time in 40 years I still couldn't put it down from start to finish. George Fraser dreams of being a gangster and mixing it with the best of them, then he runs across two no gooders who frame him for murder......

[Mark Vickers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is a must read for all you fanatics, it's not very often that I give the maestro, " Sir James Hadley, Chase 5 stars. I couldn't put this one down from start to finish, George Fraser dreams of being a gangster and mixing it with the best of them, after boasting just one time too many, he runs across two no gooders who frame him for murder.....

[Emmanuel Wallart · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a sad story!
You can see a poor lonesome man, lost in his dreams, falling and falling, for a dirty little bitch. To read absolutly.