Don't think for a minute that Phoebe Atwood Taylor was alone in seeing the (occasionally) funny side of murder. No indeed. There were a great many more, including the amazing Craig Rice, whose mysteries about shady Chicago attorney John J. Malone and his two friends and willing accomplices Helene and Jake Justus earned Rice a distinction in 1946 as the first female author ever to appear on the cover of Time Magazine. Over the years, I've written about a half-dozen reviews of some of her better (and still available) books, including a classic from 1945, The Lucky Stiff. I think this transcript of that audio review done for the Classic Mysteries podcast will give you a good idea of the kind of off-the-wall but brilliant plots of which Craig Rice was capable. The transcript, as usual, has been lightly edited:
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When the prison guards came for Anna Marie, she thought her life was over. Condemned for a murder she didn’t commit, she was scheduled to die in the electric chair at midnight. But a last-minute, deathbed confession from the real killer, only minutes before her scheduled execution, suddenly turned her into a free – if very much wronged – woman. But what Anna Marie did next is going to surprise you. And the results are set out for us in The Lucky Stiff, by Craig Rice.
If I use the terms “noir” and “screwball comedy” together in discussing a mystery, there’s a pretty good chance that I must be talking about a book by Craig Rice. For nearly twenty years, beginning in 1939, she turned out a number of excellent mysteries which combined a hard-boiled attitude with often-surrealistic and slapstick comedy – and if you don’t think a bomb thrown through a window at a funeral parlor could possibly be funny, you really don’t know Craig Rice.
The Lucky Stiff, first published in 1945, stars three characters who, working together, are featured in many of her best novels. There’s John J. Malone, a criminal lawyer, and his two close friends, Jake Justus a small-time press-agent (and, in this novel, bar owner), and Jake’s wife, Helene. All tend to get involved in fairly wild plots – and that certainly describes the situation in The Lucky Stiff.
It begins with Anna Marie and her narrow escape from death. But, when taken to the warden’s office (instead of the electric chair), she forces both her ineffectual lawyer and the rather shady prison warden to tell the press – and everyone else – that word of her innocence came too late to save her – and that she died in the electric chair. For Anna Marie has no intention of walking out of prison meekly. She was framed – and she intends to discover who framed her, and why – and to get revenge.
In other words, Anna Marie intends to reappear from time to time – and in carefully selected places – as a ghost, to force a number of highly superstitious people to confess (or otherwise find ways to placate a vindictive ghost).
And the first people she enlists on her side are Malone and Jake and Helene, all of whom feel guilty about her supposed death and prove more than eager to help her.
And off we go on what becomes a wild romp, with several murders along the way, and a lot of really dark humor thrown in – including that scene I mentioned about the bomb in the funeral parlor. Malone manages to get himself mauled on more than one occasion, and there’s enough violence for hard-boiled detective fans, although it’s usually done as slapstick and farce rather than blood and guts.
Rice was a gifted writer, and she could use humor as a tool to support both her plots and her characters. At one point, for example, Anna Marie is talking to Malone about the man she supposedly murdered, Big Joe Childers.
“Listen, Malone, Big Joe Childers had his failings, but he was a good guy. You know, a good guy. He was a crook, all right, sure, but he was one of the most honest crooks I’ve ever met, and I’ve met a lot of them.”
Not bad as a character description, is it?
For that matter, consider this early conversation between Malone and his secretary, Maggie, and what it tells you about Malone:
Maggie came in and reported:
I got Mr. Wirtz’s ticket fixed. I sent Mr. Wirtz a bill for seventy-five dollars. He’ll pay at least forty of it. Fran Herman says his brother is innocent, he never was near the place, nobody saw him, and he didn’t leave any fingerprints. He wants an alibi. I’ve already arranged with Mrs. McDonald to fix him up, and I told Herman I’d let him know the cost as soon as I found out how much trouble and expense it would be to you. Miss Fontaine does have that negligee in gray, size twelve. Do you want rose, blue, or green ribbon ties, and do you want it wrapped as a gift?”
“Green,” Malone said, “and just tell her I’ll wear it home. Maggie, you’re wonderful.”
“You mean invaluable,” she said icily, “and my name is not Maggie.”
From that exchange do we get a better understanding of Malone’s character – and an idea of the kind of law he practices? I think we do. The whole book is filled with incidents and conversation like that. And – don’t get me wrong; in addition to several murders, there are some pretty grim and noir-ish plot twists as well that will entertain and occasionally shock the reader. But it really is an excellent book, and I think The Lucky Stiff makes a good introduction to Rice’s trio of detectives, who almost stumble their way through their discoveries to solve a pretty ingenious and intricate plot.
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You can listen to the complete original audio review by clicking here.
Next: The Golden Dagger, by E.R. Punshon
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