Craig Rice (1908-1957), the pseudonym of Georgiana Craig Rice, was the author of an extraordinary series of screwball mysteries about John J. Malone, a bibulous, blonde-fancying lawyer, who claims never to have lost a case. In the twelve stories first collected in this book, Malone investigates a killing in an undertakers' parade, a psychiatrist's patient who dreams of murder, an unknown man killed in a rented sailor's suit, and a terrified memory expert. As a special bonus, two of the stories feature Rice's lesser known sleuth, Melville Fairr, a little grey man but a formidable detective. Rice's biographer, Jeffrey A. Marks, has chosen and written new prefaces to each story.**

Wrongly convicted of murder, a death-row chorus girl lives for revenge, in this novel from "the grand dame of mystery mixed with screwball comedy" (Ed Gorman). Anna Marie St. Clair was a normal Wisconsin-farm-girl-turned-mistress when she was framed for the murder of her racketeer boyfriend, one of Chicago's sleaziest politicians. Sentenced to death, and only hours from getting fried, a lucky hitch sets Anna Marie free, but she blackmails the corrupt warden into informing the tabloids that she took her volts like a real trouper. What better payback than to haunt the lives of those who tried to steal hers? As the shapeliest ghost in the Windy City, she's going to prove that dying well is the best revenge. Even luckier for Anna Marie, she has enthusiastic backup: attorney John J. Malone, who's got a soft spot for scrappy dames; her best friend, nightclub stripper Milly Dale; and crime reporter Jake Justus and his wife, Helene, who are always game...

For a Windy City attorney, the clues to a triple murder lie somewhere between the sinking of the Titanic and the dead letter office. Rodney Fairfaxx is influential and wealthy enough for his family to ignore the Chicago magnate's one little quirk: Ever since his sweetheart sank with the Titanic three decades ago, he's been anxiously awaiting her letter assuring him she's dry, on the mend, and coming home soon. Now, attorney John J. Malone is defending the harmless eccentric against a charge of murder. The victims: three postmen, clubbed to death. The alleged motive: failure to deliver. Malone's good friend, socialite Helene Justus, has been close to the Fairfaxx family for years and she's not buying it. However, her intuition may be as unreliable as the mail. The respectable clan yields a cluster of certified suspects—from Rodney's crafty niece and nephew to the tight-lipped housekeeper to Rodney himself, who may not be as...

A Chicago attorney scours the Big Apple for a missing bride and a wedding-night murderer in a mystery that's "Miss Rice at her best" (The New Yorker). On a break from the Windy City, aspiring crime novelist Jake Justus and his wife, Helene, are acquainting themselves with Manhattan's finest cocktail lounges when they befriend Dennis Morrison, a blind-drunk groom. The handsome former male escort thought he'd found his bounty in homely heiress Bertha Lutts, but while their wedding night may have been a bust, the morning after turned out to be the real horror. It seems Bertha has vanished from their bridal suite and in her place is an unidentified beheaded woman. Having taken a shine to Dennis, Jake and Helene call on his best defense: Chicago attorney John J. Malone. Winding his way through both the city's low lives and its high society, Malone quickly discovers a link between the nameless victim, the missing bride, and a slick gigolo: a...

A dozen murders and counting—and any one of them could lead a Chicago attorney to a hotheaded female tycoon. It's 11:59 p.m. on New Year's Eve and criminal lawyer John J. Malone is nursing his blues in a Chicago dive bar. He's been two-timed by his inamorata and abandoned by his favorite gumshoe partners, crime reporter Jake Justus and socialite Helene Brand, for their Bermuda honeymoon. But Malone's not lonely for long. Suddenly, a stranger staggers into the bar, calls out the attorney's name, and drops dead—stabbed in the back. In his possession is a key that could unlock the cold heart of Mona McClane, a wealthy and beautiful thrill-seeker who once challenged Jake in a high-stakes gamble: She'd bet him she could get away with murder. Is this dead man a pawn in Mona's game? If so, thank goodness Jake and Helene's honeymoon turned as a sour as a margarita. They're already back in town, at odds, yet ready to play. With a crazy wager...

"The grand dame of mystery mixed with screwball comedy" introduces her popular, sharp-witted Chicago lawyer/sleuth (Ed Gorman, Ellery Queen Award–winning author). John J. Malone, defender of the guilty, is notorious for getting his culpable clients off. It's the innocent ones who are problems. Like Holly Inglehart, accused of piercing the black heart of her well-heeled and tyrannical aunt Alexandria with a lovely Florentine paper cutter. No one who knew the old battle-ax liked her, but Holly's prints were found on the murder weapon. Plus, she had a motive: She was about to be disinherited for marrying a common bandleader. With each new lurid headline, Holly's friends and supporters start to rally. There's North Shore debutante Helene Brand; Holly's groom's press agent, Jake Justus; the madam of a local brothel, and Alexandria's hand-wringing servants. But not one of them can explain the queerest bent to the crime: At the time of the...

Ten stories featuring the Chicago attorney-turned-sleuth from "the grand dame of mystery mixed with screwball comedy" (Ed Gorman). From suburban cocktail parties to music halls to the precarious ledge of a high-rise, Chicago attorney John J. Malone is willing to take on any case—as long as it'll pay his bar tab. In this ten-story collection of murder most offbeat, a wedding anniversary party turns deadly for an unlucky housewife; a client's supposed innocence hangs by a thread after a suicide attempt; a forlorn ballad may contain the key to a mystery; a relatively harmless lady wrestler gets pinned for cracking her husband's skull; an old flame's diary reveals a poisonous past; and a surprising obituary forces Malone to investigate his own suspicious death. The hero of fourteen novels, more than three-dozen short stories, three feature films, a radio show, and a television series, "Malone is an inspired creation . . ....

Two New York City street photographers develop a deadly get-rich-quick scheme in this novel from "the grand dame of mystery mixed with screwball comedy" (Ed Gorman). Resourceful Bingo Riggs and his partner, Handsome Kusak, are in the sucker-bait business, snapping candid pics of tourists off Central Park. Their fly-by-night enterprise can be irresistible to souvenir lovers, but with one camera in a pawnshop and their developing room in the bathtub of a two-room dump near Hell's Kitchen, their venture is wretchedly underexposed—until they stumble upon an insurance fraud scheme between the allegedly dead eccentric Mr. S. S. Pigeon and his business partner and beneficiary. There's only one way for Bingo and Handsome to muscle in on that half-million-dollar claim: Kidnap Pigeon and blackmail his coconspirator. Unfortunately, their foolproof plan comes with mobsters, a dodgy chorus girl, multiple murders, a refrigerated corpse, and the...

A midway murder sends a terrified eyewitness running for her life—from a cop, a con, and her own secrets—in this mystery by the author of the John J. Malone series. The best carnival barker in the business couldn't have drawn a crowd like the one now gathered around the Ferris wheel on the pier. In one of the cabs, still rocking with the ocean breeze, is a dead man—a bloody knife protruding from his back. Why the notorious gambling boss Jerry McGurn was killed is no mystery. Who did it is. And there's only one probable witness to the crime. As bystanders go, Ellen Haven comes across as innocent: pretty enough, plus her blue eyes well up with tears at the mere mention of something as awful as murder. Homicide detective Art Smith wants to believe she didn't see a thing. Why would she lie? Then again, why else would she suddenly vanish? And Smith isn't the only one looking for her; so is a brutal ex-con, fresh out of San...

A Chicago lawyer must save his big-city friends from small-town corruption in this "triumphantly rowdy" mystery (Time) that's also "exciting [and] hard as nails" (The New Yorker). When club owner Jake Justus and his wife, Helene, flee a sweltering Chicago summer for rural Jackson County, Wisconsin, they expect sweet-as-apple-pie locals and calm lakes for fishing. Instead, they become the bait: When the town's two-term senator is shot to death, Jake and Helene are held as material witnesses—and, if the fathead sheriff has anything to say about it, suspects. Attorney John J. Malone comes to help out his friends, but in a town where everybody knows everybody—be it by blood, sex, or church socials—only out-of-town strangers are fit to be accused. Oh yeah? So what's their motive for the second murder? Or the third? And the fourth? To find out, Malone will turn Jackson County upside down—with pleasure—and...