Craig Rice Books In Order

John J. Malone Books In Publication Order

  1. Eight Faces at Three / Death at Three (1939)
  2. The Corpse Steps Out (1940)
  3. The Wrong Murder (1940)
  4. The Right Murder (1941)
  5. Trial by Fury (1941)
  6. The Big Midget Murders (1942)
  7. Having a Wonderful Crime (1943)
  8. The Lucky Stiff (1945)
  9. The Fourth Postman (1948)
  10. The Double Frame / Knocked for a Loop (1957)
  11. My Kingdom for a Hearse (1957)
  12. The Name is Malone (1958)
  13. People vs. Withers & Malone (With: Stuart Palmer) (1963)
  14. Murder, Mystery and Malone (1963)
  15. But the Doctor Died (1967)

Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak Books In Publication Order

  1. The Sunday Pigeon Murders (1942)
  2. The Thursday Turkey Murders (1943)
  3. The April Robin Murders (With: Ed McBain) (1958)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. The G-String Murders (As: Gypsy Rose Lee) (1941)
  2. Yesterday’s Murder / Telefair (1942)
  3. The Man Who Slept All Day (As: Michael Venning) (1942)
  4. Mother Finds a Body (As: Gypsy Rose Lee) (1942)
  5. To Catch a Thief (1943)
  6. Home Sweet Homicide (1944)
  7. Crime on My Hands (As: George Sanders) (1944)
  8. Stranger at Home (As: George Sanders, With: Leigh Brackett) (1946)
  9. Innocent Bystander (1949)
  10. Once Upon a Train (1950)
  11. Don’t Go Near (1953)

Short Story Collections In Publication Order

  1. I’m a Stranger Here Myself and Other Stories (2010)

John J. Malone Book Covers

Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Short Story Collections Book Covers

Craig Rice Books Overview

Murder, Mystery and Malone

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.

The G-String Murders (As: Gypsy Rose Lee)

A mystery set in the underworld of burlesque theater, The G String Murders was penned in 1941 by the legendary queen of the stripteasers the witty and wisecracking Gypsy Rose Lee. Narrating a twisted tale of a backstage double murder, Lee provides a fascinating look behind the scenes of burlesque, richly populated by the likes of strippers Lolita LaVerne and Gee Gee Graham, comic Biff Brannigan and Siggy the g string salesman. This is a world where women struggle to earn a living performing bumps and grinds, have gangster boyfriends, sip beer between acts and pay their own way at dinner. The story unfolds in a New York theater modeled on the legendary Minsky s, prone to raids by corrupt city cops and fierce competition among strippers. When one performer is found strangled with a g string, no one is above suspicion. But when a second murder follows, the trail and the action really heats up. In the police procedural that follows, a host of clueless coppers faces off against the theater’s tough talking guys and dolls, and it s clear that Gypsy and her cohorts will have to crack the case themselves. The basis of the 1943 film Lady of Burlesque starring Barbara Stanwyck, The G String Murders was the first of two murder mysteries written by Gypsy Rose Lee. A natural born raconteur, Lee also contributed short pieces to The New Yorker and hosted her own television talk show; even her unparalleled stardom in the burlesque world was attributed more to her witty banter than to her risqu moves. It is this fabled wit, along with Gypsy s brassy sociology, that make The G String Murders a must read primer of sex, commerce and urban living.

Stranger at Home (As: George Sanders, With: Leigh Brackett)

Give a man enough rope and he’ll hang someone! A book written to cash in on the success of film actor George Sanders, and ghost written by Leigh Brackett, whom the supposed author claims never to have met. Stranger at Home is the story of Mike Vickers, back home from the dead, and trying to find out who among his family tried to get him out of the way in the first place.

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