Craig Rice (1) (1908–1957)

Sadly, hardly anyone remembers Craig Rice today. She was such a popular mystery writer during the 1940s that she graced the cover of Time Magazine — yep, that’s correct — and her sales rivaled those of Agatha Christie. Her style was unique, blending screwball with mystery, her protagonist a hard-drinking lawyer fond of blondes. Her best stuff was breezy and fun, and people couldn’t stop reading her. Her own drinking and romanticism contributed to her slide into absolute obscurity, but didn’t dim her optimism, apparently. In many ways, she had the same bottom’s up belief that many of her characters did.

I first ran across her work years ago, when I saw a wonderful film based on her work, Having Wonderful Crime. It starred Pat O’Brien — as her main character, John Malone — and the lovely but doomed Carole Landis. The film had charm, and moved at a wonderful pace. Later I tracked down a copy of the book and realized Craig Rice was something very special. Like many great writers who had something special, she is out of vogue today. Even those who peruse the sub-genre of mystery and noir dismiss her, I suppose. She doesn’t write mean, unpleasant, dark or twisted, and the drinking in her books all leads to murderous fun. Craig Rice isn’t considered cool, therefore. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

While this isn’t her best John Malone short story, it is delightful fun, and will give readers a sense of how she wrote. I vacillate between whether her novels or short stories were better, but tend to prefer — only by a hair — her shorter John J. Malone stories. He has his hands full in Don’t Go Near — make that singular, since he’s dousing his throat with gin with the other — at a circus trying to figure out who has been killing lions, or if they have. Rice paints the circus very colorfully, in a pulp sort of way, and luckily for Malone, there’s a sexy blonde speed demon to make time with while he and a girl nicknamed Bitsy — because of her size — help him protect Leopold the Lion. The plot’s a bit gossamer, the ending implausible — and a tad abrupt — but it’s also harmless and fun. It’s short, breezy, and leaves you wishing it were much longer, which is always a good sign. Hopefully she’ll get reprinted one day, and readers will get reacquainted with her work. But since she didn’t write dark dreary tales about losers on the fringes, I wouldn’t hold my breath.… (mere)

While readers might be tempted to dismiss this one as one of those lightweight novelty mysteries due to the cover and its “written by an old film star” origins, that would be a terrible mistake. First of all, though there is some hokum about George Sanders writing this, it has Craig Rice’s fingerprints all over it. While he may have “helped” with some movie-set ambiance and other details, there is no doubt in my mind after reading this breezy and incredibly entertaining murder mystery that Rice not only penned it, but she gave it the full monty in regard to her talent. While the grittier aspects of her delightful Malone series are softened a bit, the story and the surroundings, and the dialog all sparkle like champagne. Even more astounding is how perfectly Rice has captured George Sanders, from his voice to his keen wit and droll humor.

The murder mystery itself is well done, and nothing to sneeze at. Sanders, as himself, is finally getting a break from playing The Falcon and The Saint films by making a Western. Someone is shot during a scene, despite all the guns supposedly being loaded with blanks. When it’s quickly discovered it may have been Sanders’ gun that did the killing, he removes the evidence. He’s suspected anyway, yet can’t reveal what he’s done because it will only make him look more guilty. So Sanders must use everything he’s learned playing The Falcon and The Saint in order to find the real killer.

What transpires is a delicious mystery with a likable protagonist in the “real” George Sanders — just as you remember him from the movies. The supporting cast of personal assistants, actors, directors, producers and other movie-related people, and Sanders’ interaction with them as he seeks to ferret out a killer among them, make for an entertaining murder mystery. A missing piece of film comes into play for a while, and there are people attempting to cover for other people, even confessing at one point. There is tons of atmosphere in this humorous — yet slightly deadly — mystery; Sanders himself has more than one close call, and a couple more murders occur before our suave hero can figure it all out.

There is a completely different listing for Crime On My Hands under Craig Rice's name which is the same book, and it may eventually be merged with these editions. Rice and Sanders could easily have mailed this in way back when, but they did anything but, making it a breezy delight to read. Great fun!… (mere)

The Corpse Steps Out
by Craig Rice

This book was first published in 1940. The story is based on radio actors and singers. Because of the era of the publication, I found a couple of phrases that would certainly be banned today. I also checked out the author and although the name is that of a man, she is really a woman using an alias.

The story really is pretty good. A fun plot where it seems everyone had found the dead body and no one reported it! Then the body disappears! Different people have different ideas of who might have done it and try to cover for said person. So many people are messing around! It's quite clever and silly. I thought it was insanity at its best! Soon another body is found! Now what? If the publisher had corrected the phrases then it would be a solid 5 star just for the zany body capers!… (mere)