Book review - The Things Men Do

James Hadley Chase wrote this fast-paced crime novel in 1953 using the pen-name Raymond Marshall. My paperback was published in 1970 (having been published also in 1962, 1963 (3 times), and 1965. (It has an uninspiring cover, but doubtless one of a sequence following a visual theme at the time). A very popular author, indeed, Chase wrote 90 mystery novels under five names, beginning his writing career with No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1939) .

It’s a first person narrative with mid-Atlantic vocabulary – car hood for bonnet, for example - though it's set in early 1950s London. Garage owner Harry Collins gives a lift to an attractive woman, Gloria when she was stranded. A typical manipulative femme fatale, she wantonly insinuates herself into his thoughts even after they’ve parted, though he loves his wife Ann. Harry’s business isn’t doing so well, so when Gloria turns up at the garage with a suggestion for him to make a little money by hiring out an area for storage, he jumps at the chance – not least because it means he can see more of her. His guilt is evident, too: ‘Ann hadn’t seen her, sheltering as she had been under the umbrella. I suddenly noticed Tim’s head poking out from under the car. He looked at Ann, then at me. I felt like a pickpocket caught in the act.’ (p30)

The book blurb gives away too much plot for my liking, so I won’t mention a couple of salient interesting incidents that crank up the suspense. Suffice for me to say that there are nefarious reasons for Harry renting out garage space to Gloria's pals... 

The narrative is slick, drawing the reader in, knowing that Harry is heading for a fall, yet he can’t avoid it. It’s a page-turner, with hardly any words wasted in its 150 pages. Chase is a visual storyteller: ‘Tim came in, pushing his bicycle. He was wearing a yellow mackintosh cape, and his tow-coloured hair was plastered flat by the rain.’ (p23)

There’s a sordid aspect, as you’d expect from the set-up, yet Chase doesn’t go in for graphic violence or explicit sex, that’s left to the reader’s imagination. Double-cross, deceit, unstinting love, poignant murder – it’s all there, in what is in effect a moral tale, well told.

Iwan Morelius 14 Nov 1931-21 June 2012

My wife Jen and I were saddened to learn that Iwan died suddenly last month, leaving his wife Margareta.


I only knew Iwan for the last four years of his life when I discovered by chance that he lived a half-hour’s drive away from me here in Spain.

Iwan was a consummate bibliophile. Margareta loves reading too – and music. Indeed, Iwan and Margareta’s home is a bibliophile’s heaven, with so many signed copies.

Born in Stockholm, Iwan and his family moved some eleven times in fourteen years. His parents owned a private library of about 400 books and Iwan caught the reading bug early. He devoured the translations of English and American authors and finally began collecting the Dennis Wheatley novels. In 1961 he wrote to Wheatley and struck up a lifelong correspondence. In 1971 Iwan was invited for dinner at Wheatley’s London home in Cadogan Square.

Iwan with Dennis Wheatley
Rather than wait for a Swedish translation of his favourite authors, Iwan bought the English versions and read those. He began writing to many of his favourites – Alistair MacLean, Helen Macinnes, Ian Fleming, Desmond Bagley, Hammond Innes, Leon Uris, Joe Poyer, James Hadley Chase, James Leasor, Edmund Crispin, Georges Simenon among others. Almost all of them answered his letters and several continued to keep in touch over the years.

In 1968 Iwan brought out the first issue of DAST magazine – (Detective, Agent, Science Fiction and Thriller). In 1974 Iwan was commissioned by Lindqvist Publishing to acquire a strong list of thrillers and mysteries – Hedman Thrillers, publishing many Swedish translations of Iwan’s favourite authors, among them Jack Higgins.

Iwan became a good friend of Geoffrey Boothroyd – Ian Fleming’s and Bond’s armourer – and they visited each other’s home regularly. Indeed, he visited a number of authors in their homes in the US, including Joe Poyer and Raymond Benson. He interviewed Ray Bradbury at the time of Bradbury’s first mystery being published and kept in touch. Bradbury is one of Margareta's favourite authors.

Margareta with Ray Bradbury, 1988
The list of authors Iwan has met, interviewed and kept in touch with over the years is quite remarkable: Mickey Spillane, Brian Garfield, Isaac Asimov, Colin Forbes, Duncan Kyle, John Gardner, Tony Hillerman, Frederick Forsyth, Michael Avallone, Elmore Leonard and Ed McBain, to name but a few. He taped some interviews, for example with Jack Higins and Leslie Charteris, and I have copies.

In 2009 I wrote an article about Iwan for the Levante Journal: ‘The Bond Connection’, one of a planned series that didn’t get taken up. For some time Iwan had badgered Raymond Benson to set one of his James Bond books in Spain; Raymond duly obliged with his thriller Doubleshot, written in 2000, which is partly set here. It also features a number of acknowledgements, not least Iwan. And to top that, on p233 there is a ‘Dr Iwan Morelius, a Swedish plastic surgeon’ who works for the villainous organisation! (As an aside, I’ve included Iwan as a Swedish chef in my novel The $300 Man (Hale Black Horse Western, as by Ross Morton). I also dedicated my crime novel A Sudden Vengeance Waits to him.

Geoffrey Boothroyd
Iwan was a generous host and virtually ran a private lending library for his friends. He had so many fascinating tales to tell, often with that distinctive twinkle in his eye. He will be missed.