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I'm not big on "charm". When someone tries charming me, I'm immediately suspicious. John J. Malone is a charmer and I don't warm to him. He never has money, he's always borrowing or conning his way into stuff, or cajoling or, charming. But he's not a total loss. Crippen & Landru has started offering "lost classics" and I'm awfully pleased that they've chosen to highlight Craig Rice in one of the first editions in this hardcover series. Rice is a little-known author and this collection, edited by Rice biographer Jeff Marks, shows off her skills. These stories are clearly dated; things happen that just couldn't work now. Not too many secretaries would put up with a boss who can't manage to pay them for weeks on end, guys who drink all the time, cops who add "Von" to their names so they don't sound like cops (oh yeah, I really buy Von Flanagan as an upscale kind of guy.) So you suspend your disbelief and read tightly woven, uniquely plotted stories that have odd twists and plots and a cop who's constantly getting peeved at John J. Malone, the "little lawyer", a ne'er-do-well attorney who spends half his work week it seems, at the City Hall Bar, drinking whisky and solving crimes. There are also two stories in this anthology that feature a very nondescript and very clever private eye, Melville Fairr. Rice (despite the name, for those who are not familiar with this author) is one of the few tough women writers of the 40s and 50s, when women were girls, or gals, and those who weren't were often dames. The stories are often a bit unbelievable, but Rice excelled at rather wacky stories and rather than buy into them as real, you just should sit back and enjoy the ride.
Reviewed by Andi Shechter, August 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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