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Overview: Craig Rice (1908–1957), born Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig, was an American author of mystery novels and short stories described as “the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction.” In 1946, she became the first mystery writer to appear on the cover of Time magazine. Best known for her character John J. Malone, a rumpled Chicago lawyer, Craig’s writing style was both gritty and humorous. She also collaborated with mystery writer Stuart Palmer on screenplays and short stories, as well as with Ed McBain on the novel The April Robin Murders.
Genre: Fiction > Mystery/Thriller
The G-String Murders (1941) (as by 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.
Telefair (1942) aka Yesterday’s Murder
If it hadn’t been for his great-uncle Philip, David Telefair would’ve grown up unwanted, forlorn, and poverty stricken in a New England parsonage. But for twenty years, David’s generous benefactor paid for his education, yearly summer camps, living expenses as he grew older, and any amenities he ever needed. Odd that David had never spoken to him in his entire life. Odder still that after all this time, the aging Philip has now extended an invitation for David to meet him at his isolated estate on Telefair Island in the Chesapeake.
From the moment David arrives, something feels . . . off. First was the local minister’s daughter’s queer way of describing David’s visit: inevitable; then the unaccountable loathing in the eyes of a Telefair servant; and finally a perilously pale female cousin who welcomes David with a warning: “You ought never to have come.” This is less a family reunion than an ingeniously designed trap of murder, madness, and nasty family secrets.
Jethro Hammer (1944) (as Michael Venning)
Once you have read the introductory chapter, nothing short of fire or flood will prevent you from finishing Jethro Hammer.
Will Donahue, blacksmith, was a simple-hearted friendly man who loved children, stray cats, and everything lonely and helpless. It was only natural, when the pale, undernourished baby was found wailing in a church, that Will take him to his home, give him a name (Jethro Hammer), and raise him as one of his own children. After Will’s death, his now fully grown family, selfish to the core, declined to cut Jethro in on the fortune the blacksmith had amassed. The disappearance of Jethro Hammer (which lasted twenty years), his return, his revenge and his death unfold with a dramatic simplicity that well makes felt the embittered strength of the cast off man.
Crime on My Hands (1944) (as by George Sanders)
You’re George Sanders, actor, bon vivant. It’s the early 40’s, long before you’ll meet Zsa Zsa, and All About Eve hasn’t been written. Still you’re a hit in B-movies, but you’ve played the Saint and the Falcon so often, you’re bored.
Now you’re offered the part of a lifetime. You’ve crossed over. You’ve made it. You’re cast in the lead in an A-production. Well, okay, it’s a little shaky, but it’s the lead nonetheless. And so what if it’s a Western? You go on location in the desert, they stage this big gunfight scene, and Bang! There’s a dead body of an extra body not called for by the script.
You’re in the middle of nowhere and naturally everyone turns to you. After all, it’s a routine situation for the Saint of the Falcon. Dead body, disappearing weapon, no clues. Piece of cake. Only trouble is that you’re not Simon Templar or Gay Lawrence. Yes, you know it, but you wonder–does the murderer?
Stranger at Home (1947) (with Leigh Brackett (as by George Sanders) )
Four years. That’s how long it took Californian playboy Michael Vickers to regain his memory and come home. Four years. That’s how long Vickers spent battered, bruised and south of the border, following the attack which sought to end his life – all because he’d mistaken a mortal enemy for a friend. Or a lover. And now Vickers is looking for four years’ worth of payback from the devil responsible for his near-demise. But within days of Vickers’ return, a murder attempt is made on one of his suspects – and this time it succeeds. Enter a very shrewd detective, whose eyes are on everyone. Especially Vickers.
Innocent Bystander (1949)
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 Quentin, with a score to settle. Smith knows he’d better find her first, but Ellen is leading both men into a hall of mirrors where illusions of guilt and innocence can shatter with a single gunshot.
Mother Finds a Body (1953) (as by Gypsy Rose Lee)
It’s supposed to be a quiet honeymoon getaway for celebrated stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and Biff Brannigan, ex-comic and ex-Casanova of the Burly Q circuit, settled as they are in a cozy trailer built for two. If you don’t count Gypsy’s overbearing mother, a monkey act, and Gee Gee, a.k.a. the Platinum Panic. Not to mention the best man found shot to death in the bathtub. Strippers are used to ballyhoo, but this time it’s murder.
Leave it to Gypsy and her latest scandal to draw a crowd: Biff’s burnt-out ex-flame, a sleazy dive owner with a Ziegfeld complex, a bus-and-truck circus troupe, and a local Texas sheriff randy for celebrities. But when another corpse turns up with a knife in his back, Gypsy fears that some rube is dead set on pulling the curtain on her bump and grind. She’s been in the biz long enough to know this ghastly mess is just a tease of things to come.
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