He won the Fawcett Gold Medal Paperback Award for his third novel, Black Wings Has My Angel,[3] which has been reprinted in three editions since the original.

[1] Prior to World War II, Chaze began his journalism career as a reporter for the New Orleans Bureau of the Associated Press.

[4] Chaze also wrote articles, humorous essays, and short stories, which he published in popular magazines of the time, including Collier's, Cosmopolitan, Life, Reader's Digest, Redbook, as well as the more literary The New Yorker.

"[1] In an interview regarding his motivation for writing fiction, Chaze said: "Primarily I have a simple desire to shine my ass—to show off a bit in print.

His work was rediscovered in the 1980s, when Black Wings Has My Angel was republished as One for the Money, and four of his crime novels were published for the first time.

Producer Chris Pedditto attempted to make a movie of Black Wings Has My Angel for more than 17 years, casting Tom Hiddleston and Anna Paquin as the leads at one point.

[6][7] In 1990, French film director Jean-Pierre Mocky brought Black Wings Has My Angel to the screen under the title Il gèle en enfer (translation: "It's freezing in hell").