I Would Rather Stay Poor

First edition (publ. Robert Hale)
Cover artist Val Biro[1]

I Would Rather Stay Poor is a 1962 thriller novel written by James Hadley Chase. Unlike most novels of the thriller genre, it portrays the main protagonist in the negative.

Plot

Dave Calvin, divorced, dishonest and greedy but charming,handsome and well built, with a charm that women would fall for, is appointed as manager of the bank in Pittsville when the existing manager falls ill. On the advice of his simple and innocent secretary Alice Craig, he soon finds lodging with widowed Kit Loring staying with her young daughter who is in love with Ken Travers, the local police deputy sheriff waiting for a break through to get married to his lover.

Soon Calvin decides to steal a huge payroll of 300 thousand from the bank and get away with it, and ropes in Kit for the same, at the expense of even murdering poor Alice. But things don't go the way Calvin and Kit plan, and soon they find themselves in a puddle of troubles full of treachery, deception and murder. And to make matters worse for Calvin, he soon realizes that Kit is an alcoholic who can spill the beans anytime.

References

  1. ↑ Existential Ennui: Beautiful British Book Jacket Design of the 1950s and 1960s