There's an old British music hall comic song from the 1930s called "He's Dead But He Won't Lie Down." That piece of trivia admittedly was running through my mind as I read - with considerable pleasure - the difficulties facing Craig Rice's three central characters in a very funny 1940 mystery called The Corpse Steps Out, the subject of this week's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast. As always, you can listen to the full review by clicking here.
The Corpse Steps Out begins with the problems of a radio star named Nelle Brown. She has a husband whom she loves but who is certifiably insane - that's not just a figure of speech here - and she has a boyfriend on the side, whom she really doesn't care about. And she also has a blackmailer. But when Nelle Brown goes to meet the blackmailer to buy back some incriminating letters, she finds him dead - murdered.
Fortunately for Nelle, she has a number of willing helpers eager to get her out of this mess. There’s her press agent, Jake Justus, who goes to find the blackmailer - and makes the startling discovery that the victim’s body has vanished. There’s socialite Helene Brand, whose primary interests in life are drinking, driving and trying to get married to Jake, a project of which he wholeheartedly approves. And there’s Jake and Helene’s good friend, John J. Malone, a short, balding, usually-inebriated and distinctly shady Chicago lawyer who specializes in winning acquittals for a variety of mostly-guilty clients. Jake, Helene and Malone volunteer to do what they can to protect Nelle Brown, even if it means that Jake and Helene have to postpone their wedding a bit. And the three of them are not above moving a body or two themselves. Come to think of it, they'll have plenty of opportunities to do so before everything gets resolved...
If all that sounds complicated, well...it is. But it's also hilariously funny - and pretty well clued, for readers to follow. The humor is offbeat, to be sure, and sometimes pretty dark - but it really is laugh-out-loud material which works well in a solid, well-plotted mystery, a classic from the tail end of the American Golden Age of Detective Fiction. The Rue Morgue Press has republished The Corpse Steps Out, and I recommend it very highly.
The Corpse Steps Out is another entry in the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge under way at the My Reader's Block blog, in the category "The Old Bailey," a mystery featuring a lawyer. John J. Malone may be ethically challenged, but he is a lawyer...
Parts of this review first appeared in Sally Powers' excellent I Love a Mystery Newsletter, which should be on the reading list of every mystery lover, no matter what kind of mystery or crime fiction you prefer.
Les - You always have a gift fo reminding me of authors whose work I haven't read in far too long. Rice is one of them. I will definitely have to read this one, as it's one of his that I'm not familiar with.
Posted by: Margot Kinberg | July 01, 2013 at 07:44 AM
I'm sure you know that Craig Rice was actually a woman, Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig, which I discovered on Fantastic Fiction. Two of her mysteries are available for free download at Many Books for Kindle. One of them, The Lucky Stiff, is in the John J. Malone series and the other, The Sunday Pigeon Murders, is part of another short series. I haven't yet read either of them, but I'm looking forward to them.
Posted by: Joan Kyler | July 01, 2013 at 03:57 PM
Joan, I reviewed "The Lucky Stiff" some time ago - it's another really good mystery. You might also enjoy one of her non-series books, "Home Sweet Homicide," which was also made into a very funny movie. Craig Rice is a joy - and another very unjustly forgotten writer. You can find the earlier podcasts on the backlist page, linked on the right side of this page.
Posted by: Les Blatt | July 01, 2013 at 04:50 PM
Margot, I hope you get a chance to read this one. The screwball comedy balances the mystery nicely!
Posted by: Les Blatt | July 01, 2013 at 07:55 PM