The Wrong Murder by Craig Rice Narrator: Johnny Heller
Series: John J. Malone #3
Published by Blackstone Publishing on February 11, 2020 (originally published 1940)
Source: Library
Genres: Vintage Mystery
Length: 5 hrs 55 minutes
Pages: 288
Format: Audiobook
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Press agent Jake Justus doesn’t care if all of Chicago drops dead. He’s just tied the knot with debutante Helene Brand, and a Bermuda honeymoon is only three in-flight martinis away. But the shooting death of a man in broad daylight, on the busiest shopping day of the year, with plenty of witnesses, is particularly ill timed. Jake’s pal, attorney John J. Malone, agrees. Only a day before, wedding guest Mona McClane, notorious jetsetter and tipsy big-game hunter, bet the two men she could bag an innocent stranger and they’d never be able to prove a thing.
Then Malone discovers that the victim wasn’t so innocent. Any number of people wanted him dead. And if Mona is only one of them, Malone’s wagering there’s much more to this murder than just the thrill of getting away with it.
The Wrong Murder is another one that I finished at the end of December. I actually wanted to read #4 in the series, The Right Murder, which opens on New Year’s Eve, but all the reviews said to read #3 first, which was the right choice. The Wrong Murder has a self-contained mystery, but it is also the set-up for The Right Murder – and I love those titles. This is also the first of Rice’s book I’ve read. I don’t know how I missed her.
Jake Justus and Helene Brand have just gotten married and they are at a reception hosted by her father. Everyone is drinking – everyone is always drinking in these books. Jake runs into socialite Mona McClane and she ends up making what seems to be an absurd bet, but both she and Jake take it quite seriously. Mona bets that she can commit a murder in broad daylight with lots of witnesses and get away with it and offers Jake the ownership of a profitable Chicago nightclub if he can pin the murder on her.
And of course, a man is murdered, shot on a Chicago street filled with holiday shoppers. Jake, convinced this is Mona’s murder, turns to defense lawyer, John J. Malone, for help proving it. Jake and Helene and Malone make a good team, along with the grumpy police chief. They get stuff done, but it’s all a little haphazard but in a good way. As they dig deeper into the victim’s life they soon discover that many of the wedding reception guests have a good reason for wishing the man dead – except Mona. We’ve got a few twists and the Chicago 1940 setting is appropriately grimy and boozy. It’s plotted well, entertaining, and funny. On to The Right Murder.
About Craig Rice
Craig Rice (born Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig; June 5, 1908 – August 28, 1957) was an American writer of mystery novels and short stories, described by book critic Bill Ruehlmann as “the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction, she wrote the binge and lived the hangover.” Known for her hard-boiled mystery plots combined with screwball comedy, Georgiana ‘Craig’ Rice was the author of twenty-three novels, six of them posthumous, numerous short stories, and some true crime pieces. In the 1940s she rivaled Agatha Christie in sales and was featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 1946. However, over the past sixty years she has fallen into relative obscurity.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
Ooooh, she’s new to me. I’m going to have to check her out!
She was new to me too. I’ll definitely read more in this series.