Chase's first novel, set in and around Kansas City, was exceedingly popular when it first came out. Based on Ma Barker's gang, and inspired by Faulkner's Sanctuary: Miss Blandish - innocent, exquisite, vulnerable heiress - is kidnapped by a gang of ruthless hoods who've never tried big-time crime. Foiled by their own vicious ineptitude and the greed of a superior mob, the kidnappers lose their million dollar prize. Blandish, terrified and broken, is now the captive of Ma "Grisson" and her sadistic, sexually deviant son Slim.
