The Right Murder by Craig Rice Narrator: Johnny Heller
Series: John J. Malone #4
Published by Blackstone Publishing on March 17, 2020 (first published 1941)
Source: Library
Genres: Vintage Mystery
Length: 5 hrs 36 mins
Pages: 260
Format: Audiobook
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It's 11:59 p.m. on New Year's Eve and criminal lawyer John J. Malone is nursing his blues in a Chicago dive bar. He's been two-timed by his inamorata and abandoned by his favorite gumshoe partners, crime reporter Jake Justus and socialite Helene Brand, for their Bermuda honeymoon. But Malone's not lonely for long. Suddenly, a stranger staggers into the bar, calls out the attorney's name, and drops dead--stabbed in the back. In his possession is a key that could unlock the cold heart of Mona McClane, a wealthy and beautiful thrill-seeker who once challenged Jake in a high-stakes gamble: She'd bet him she could get away with murder.
Is this dead man a pawn in Mona's game? If so, thank goodness Jake and Helene's honeymoon turned as a sour as a margarita. They're already back in town, at odds, yet ready to play. With a crazy wager like Mona's, Malone fears they'll be ringing in the New Year with a countdown of corpses.
The Right Murder was my last read of 2025, which worked well, since the book starts on New Years Eve. Defense lawyer John J. Malone is getting drunk in a bar – no surprise – and missing Jake Justus and Helene Brand, who are on their honeymoon. This is a direct follow-up to The Wrong Murder, in which Mona McClane bets Jake her Casino that she can murder someone in a public places and get away with it. In that book a murder is solved, but Mona was not the killer and she states that they had ‘followed the wrong corpse,” so the question of who she killed is still hanging out there. Then a man staggers into the bar, calls for Malone, and falls down dead, stabbed – and we’re off. I don’t think I’m giving away anything the title doesn’t by saying this time the murder is connected to Mona.
Before Malone and Chicago Police Captain von Flanagan have made any headway, Helene and Jake return from their honeymoon – separately and not speaking to each other, but both intent on winning the bet with Mona. Helene, along with a batch of eccentric guests, is staying with Mona at her mansion. And then one of them is stabbed to death. Of course, the crimes are connected and it’s up to our trio to figure out what’s going on.
This is another fun, slightly off-kilter, book. The plot is complicated, but put together well. The characters are entertaining and witty and more than willing to break the rules. Rice’s mysteries have been described as “mad-cap,” which I think fits well.
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.
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