James Hadley Chase is probably the best know synonym of René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, an English writer also known by other pen names, including James L. Docherty, Raymond Marshall, R. Raymond, and Ambrose Grant. He is one of the best known thriller writers of all time. He was influenced by American crime writes and writers of hard-boiled pulp fiction, but he rarely visited the United States and the books are based on knowledge acquired by reading and using reference materials. He has written some 90 books, almost half of which have been made into movies.