BookSeriesInOrder.com





Book Notification

Craig Rice Books In Order

Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.

Publication Order of John J. Malone Books

Eight Faces at Three / Death at Three (1939)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Corpse Steps Out (1940)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Wrong Murder (1940)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Right Murder (1941)Description / Buy at Amazon
Trial by Fury (1941)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Big Midget Murders (1942)Description / Buy at Amazon
Having a Wonderful Crime (1943)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Lucky Stiff (1945)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Fourth Postman (1948)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Double Frame / Knocked for a Loop (1957)Description / Buy at Amazon
My Kingdom for a Hearse (1957)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Name is Malone (1958)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder, Mystery and Malone (1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
But the Doctor Died (1967)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak Books

The Sunday Pigeon Murders (1942)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Thursday Turkey Murders (1943)Description / Buy at Amazon
The April Robin Murders (With: Ed McBain) (1958)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Yesterday's Murder / Telefair (1942)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Man Who Slept All Day (As: Michael Venning) (1942)Description / Buy at Amazon
To Catch a Thief (1943)Description / Buy at Amazon
Home Sweet Homicide (1944)Description / Buy at Amazon
Crime on My Hands (As: George Sanders) (1944)Description / Buy at Amazon
Stranger at Home (As: George Sanders, With: Leigh Brackett) (1946)Description / Buy at Amazon
Innocent Bystander (1949)Description / Buy at Amazon
Once Upon a Train (1950)Description / Buy at Amazon
Don't Go Near (1953)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

I'm a Stranger Here Myself and Other Stories (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Gypsy Rose Lee Plays

as Gypsy Rose Lee, Arthur Laurents
Gypsy: A Musical Suggested by the Memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee (With:Arthur Laurents) (1994)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Anthologies

The Locked Room Reader: Stories of Impossible Crimes and Escapes(1968)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder Plus(1992)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder On The Railways(2003)Description / Buy at Amazon

Craig Rice
Craig Rice is the pen name of Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig. She was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 5, 1908.

Shortly after her birth, she was abandoned by her mom so that she could go back to her husband overseas. It left Georgiana to travel from one relative to another. They came back in 1911 so that they could meet their now three year old daughter but left for Europe once more, moving on to India once the war broke out.

By that time, she had found a permanent home in Wisconsin, living with Mr. and Mrs. Elton Rice, her paternal uncle and aunt. Elton Rice has been credited with stirring up her interest in mysteries by telling her the stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe.

Around 1930, she began working for radio stations, first WCLO before moving to the Beacon Syndicate the following year. She created her first fictional character, called Professor Silvernail, for WCLO Syndicate Serials (1933).

For several years, she tried unsuccessfully to write music, novels, and poetry, however it wasn’t until she first wrote about John J. Malone. It was published under her birth surname and adopted surname of Craig Rice that she finally found some hard-won success for herself.

She wrote many short stories and novels, as well as various true crime pieces, rivaled the likes of Agatha Christie in sales. And in the year 1946, she appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, making her the first woman to ever do so. Over time, however, she wound up falling to relative obscurity.

Georgiana also used pen names such as: Michael Venning, Gypsy Rose Lee, George Sanders, and Daphne Sanders.

She had two daughters and a son and was married four times, once to a beat poet named Lawrence Lipton.

Like a lot of her characters she was an alcoholic and tried to kill herself several times.

She died in Los Angeles, California on August 28, 1957 at the age of 49, with the cause of death being an alcohol and barbiturate overdose.

“The Amazing Mr. Malone” was adapted for both radio, and for television, with Gene Raymond playing him for the most part on radio. On television, Lee Tracy played the character the one season it aired. A few of the stories from the “John J. Malone” series have been adapted for film as well. This includes “Having Wonderful Crime” (1945) which features Carole Landis, Pat O’Brien, and George Murphy as the trio of detectives and “The Lucky Stiff” (1949) which stars Brian Donlevy as John Malone.

Georgiana wrote the “Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak” series and the “John J. Malone” series, as well as some stand alone novels. Her debut novel, called “8 Faces at 3”, was released in the year 1939.

“8 Faces at 3” is the first novel in the “John J. Malone” series and was released in the year 1939. Helene Brand and Jake Justus met over Aunt Alexandria’s corpse. It was probably a good thing that someone chose to stab her three times and just leave her to freeze to death into terrible rigidity right in front of the open window.

Holly Inglehart, the niece of the murdered woman, is the chief suspect. Jake couldn’t really blame the cops for not believing Holly’s wild story about the alarms going off, the dream, every clock that was in the house set for three, and a killer that made beds. Jake starts investigating, and his first find was Helene, the socialite friend of the Ingleharts and much too gorgeous for Jake’s piece of mind. Also much too smart for the cops.

Jake knew that Holly needed some legal help, so he called hard-drinking and hard-boiled John Joseph Malone, a Chicago lawyer. It came to pass that Jake met Helene and Helene also met Malone. Here is formed the daffiest of detective trios to romp their a bit inebriated way right through forties mystery fiction.

“Trial by Fury” is the fifth novel in the “John J. Malone” series and was released in the year 1941. In 32 years, the tiny town of Jackson, Wisconsin had not had a murder. This was before Helene and Jake Justus, who are trying to get a hunting license, show up at the county courthouse right when an unknown party decides to shoot former Senator Pevely. Rather than asking any embarrassing questions of any of the leading citizens in the town, the bumbling Sheriff Kling decides these new arrivals are likely suspects and tosses Jake into jail. Helene sends off to Chicago to get help, and John J. Malone, the best friend of the couple and the little lawyer is quickly on the case.

Tiny towns have huge secrets of their own, and right when this trio start to investigate, skeletons begin turning up. And not just in closets either. During the search for the killer, Helene puts a search together for Jake, Jake learns all about the hazards of drinking Dollar Gin. Malone, suffering from laryngitis, confronts a lynch mob with the help of Hercules, a wonder bloodhound.

“The Big Midget Murders” is the sixth novel in the “John J. Malone” series and was released in the year 1942. Jay Otto, or the Big Midget as he is better known, is the star of the show at Jake’s new nightclub. That ends the same night Otto is discovered dead in his dressing room, having been strangled by somebody that used eleven silk stockings to make a noose. Jake, Helene, and John find Otto’s body and decide to hide his body temporarily in a bass fiddle case, in the hopes they can avoid any bad publicity for their nightclub.

However, when they head back to remove Otto’s corpse, it mysteriously vanished, just to resurface sometime later in the midget’s own bed. The empty fiddle case was found parked right outside the door to Justus’ apartment. Operating on not much sleep, but a lot of alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco, the trio use their amateur detective skills in order to figure out who killed Jay Otto. As well as the two other murder victims whose deaths in some way feature silk stockings.

Book Series In Order » Authors » Craig Rice

One Response to “Craig Rice”

  1. Barbara Franklin: 3 years ago

    I am reading Home Sweet Homicide and enjoying it very much. First time I’ve heard about Craig Rice. I like that style of book.

    Reply

Leave a Reply