Craig Rice: 24 books

A Chicago cad blackmails a torch singer in this thriller: “Why can’t all murders be as funny as those concocted by Craig Rice?” (The New York Times)   Radio star Nelle Brown is known coast-to-coast for her sweet and sultry voice. But her press agent and manager, Jake Justus, is familiar with...

A cynical Chicago attorney butts heads with a beautiful killer socialite—from “the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction” (William Ruehlmann). Press agent Jake Justus doesn’t care if all of Chicago drops dead. He’s just tied the knot with debutante Helene Brand, and a Bermuda honeymoon...

The Fourth Postman by Craig Rice, the first mystery writer to be featured on the cover of Time magazine. "Mass murder of postmen in a posh Chicago suburb interests lawyer Malone, Jake and Helene Justus, and other well-remembered Riceomaniacs. Plot and people as wacky as ever, with...

From Hollywood’s Black Dahlia to the Arkansas Bluebeard: an anthology of true crime profiles by “the grand dame of mystery” (Ed Gorman). Whether venturing into a blood-spattered farm in Texas, down a lonely mountain road in Alabama, or into the deceptively sunny Ohio suburbs, acclaimed...

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...

This Thanksgiving, two birds of a feather are about to get plucked—****“Why can’t all murders be as funny as those concocted by Craig Rice?” (The New York Times) Former con-artist photographers Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak are en route from the grit of New York City to the glitter...

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...

“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...

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,...

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...

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...

“The Dorothy Parker of detective fiction” (William Ruehlmann) ghostwrites for silver-screen sleuth George Sanders in this **“thriller with laughs on the side”**(New York Herald-Tribune). The snarky and debonair actor George Sanders (who would go on to win an Academy Award for his performance...

Craig Rice was a popular mystery author of the mid-20th century, penning twenty novels and many short stories. She had a devoted readership, and in 1946 became the first mystery writer to appear on the cover of Time magazine. 'Once Upon a Train' is one of her best-remembered stories. The Many crime...

From the “grand dame of mystery mixed with screwball comedy”: The children of a widowed mystery writer play amateur sleuths and matchmakers (Ed Gorman, Ellery Queen Award–winning author). When your mom’s a mystery writer, a talent for detection is only natural. So when the three children...