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.
Craig Rice (1908–1957), born Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig, was an American author of mystery novels and short stories, sometimes described as the “Dorothy Parker of detective fiction.” She was the first mystery writer to appear on the cover of Time magazine, on January 28, 1946.View all by Craig Rice