The G-String Murders — Craig Rice

It's a killer bump and grind for Gypsy Rose Lee, the Queen of Burlesque, in this rich and lusty bestselling mystery ( Life ). Strippers gotta have a gimmick, but being strangled to death is a pretty short-lived stunt. Ask class-A headliner Gypsy Rose Lee. The ecdysiast extraordinaire has just found sewer-mouthed Burly Q tart Lolita La Verne in the dressing room with a rhinestone G-string wrapped tight around her freshly powdered neck. It's enough to give a decent dame the shakes. It's also casting a hot-pink spotlight on a roster of suspects including Dynamic Dolly, notorious for her backstage brawls. Not to mention the loitering thugs, oily managers, frustrated sugar daddies, and any number of low-end Times Square artistes looking for a bump up on the bill. But when La Verne is only the first runway quiver-girl to get wrung out, it's up Gypsy to put the moves on the killerand fast. She's feeling pretty exposed herself right now. Adapted into Lady of Burlesque , the 1943 film starring Barbara Stanwyck, The G-String Murders remains a lurid, witty, and highly competent detective story... that builds up to a hair-raising climax ( Time ).