Murder, Mystery and Malone — Craig Rice

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.