Point of view

We were always taught from the day we were little intelligent that good people survive and bad people would come to bad end. In fact my kids, nieces and nephews used to ask while watching a movie, is this a good uncle or bad uncle? bad auntie or good auntie?

With this training when I first read some of the Chase novels I was flabbergasted is the least to say. The hero used to narrate the story in first person and whatever he says sounded true. He used to even justify the crimes he committed be it murder, robbery or even adultery!

A sort of sympathy engulfs you by the time we come to the end of the story. After all, the hero is a human being. He tries to live well. But the circumstances, fate won't let him. No wonder we feel sad for the hero when he dies or gets caught by the police at the end of the story.

But the narration, his justification gets etched in your mind. That is why James Hadley Chase is known as Master Story Teller! The story is told from the point of view of the culprit. May be he is one of the first writer to write that way?