Jake Justus and Helene Brand met over the corpse of Aunt Alexandria. So it was probably a good thing that somebody had decided to stab her three times and leave her to freeze into horrible rigidity in front of the wide-open window. The chief suspect was Holly Inglehart, the murdered woman's niece. Jake couldn't blame the police for not believing Holly's crazy story about the dream, the alarms going off, every clock in the house set at three, and a murderer who made beds. When Jake set out to investigate, his first discovery was Helene, socialite friend of the Ingleharts - much too beautiful for Jake's piece of mind, and much too smart for the police. Jake knew that Holly needed legal help, and he called in hard-boiled, hard-drinking, Chicago lawyer John Joseph Malone. And it came to pass that Jake met Helene and Helene met Malone, and thus was formed the daffiest trio of detectives to romp their somewhat inebriated way through '40s mystery fiction.

Written by the first mystery author ever to appear on the cover of Time, this is a thriller about an arson ring, an illegally transported dead body, and a great deal of alcohol.

There's the bet Jake made on his wedding day when socialite Mona McClane announced that she could get away with murder. Features socialite Helene Justus. Set in Chicago.

A dozen murders and counting—and any one of them could lead a Chicago attorney to a hotheaded female tycoon. 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 first mystery writer to ever make the cover of Time magazine, Craig Rice is "the Queen of the Surrealistic Crime Story" (Thrilling Detective). The Right Murder is the 2nd book in the John J. Malone Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A Chicago lawyer must save his big-city friends from small-town corruption in this “triumphantly rowdy” mystery (Time) that’s also “exciting \[and\] hard as nails” (The New Yorker). When club owner Jake Justus and his wife, Helene, flee a sweltering Chicago summer for rural Jackson County, Wisconsin, they expect sweet-as-apple-pie locals and calm lakes for fishing. Instead, they become the bait: When the town’s two-term senator is shot to death, Jake and Helene are held as material witnesses—and, if the fathead sheriff has anything to say about it, suspects. Attorney John J. Malone comes to help out his friends, but in a town where everybody knows everybody—be it by blood, sex, or church socials—only out-of-town strangers are fit to be accused. Oh yeah? So what’s their motive for the second murder? Or the third? And the fourth? To find out, Malone will turn Jackson County upside down—with pleasure—and give it a good shake. It might be easier than finding a decent bar! “The Dorothy Parker of detective fiction” is back with the unbeatable trio of sharp-witted attorney John J. Malone and snarky high-society couple Jake and Helene (William Ruehlmann). Trial by Fury is the 5th book in the John J. Malone Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

It’s murder backstage for a cynical Chicago attorney—from “the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction” (William Ruehlmann). It’s part casino, part nightclub, and part circus. For its new owners, Jake Justus and his socialite wife, Helene, it’s also a gamble. Luckily they have Jay Otto. Next to a bouncy burlesque bit, Otto’s high-wire act is the hottest draw in the joint. But the crowd isn’t the only thing left breathless. The performer has just been found in his dressing room, doped up, dead, and hanging by eleven silk stockings. The method is fetching. The probable motive? Otto was the nastiest, most hateful, devious, blackmailing little cuss on the circuit. But Jake’s friend, attorney John J. Malone, thinks this is more than a case of justifiable homicide—especially when Otto isn’t the last on the bill to get all choked up. Now Malone has a lot of secrets to untangle so he can collar the killer, because Jake and Helene’s necks could be next on the line. The Big Midget Murders is “expertly timed . . . and frenzied . . . with lavish accompaniment of good wise-cracking. Verdict: Superior” (TheSaturday Review of Literature). “Call it screwball noir, call it hard-boiled farce, call it whatever you want . . . Craig Rice did it with John J. Malone, her ne-er-do-well bibulous attorney” (Thrilling Detective).

When Jake Justus and his beauteous wife Helene arrive in New York for a vacation, very strange things are likely to happen. And do happen. Especially when Jake spends many mysterious hours locked in his room, and Helene finally sends an SOS to John J Malone. The impact of this trio on Manhattan is terrific.

“Anna Marie St. Claire died in the electric chair at one minute after midnight this morning, with smile on her lips … “ Brooding over his gin in Joe the Angel’s City Hall Bar, John J. Malone read those headlines, and the story of how, half an hour too late, a dying gangster’s confession had proved Anna Marie innocent. She had been too beautiful to die. Malone knew if he had defended her she wouldn’t have had to die. Suddenly he turned white. For there, floating through the swinging doors, came a lovely apparition, curves outlined by a chic gray suit—Anna Marie, dressed just as she had been the day her gangster lover was bumped off. Malone muttered a prayer and fled. Anna Marie followed him … So begins a giddy Craig Rice manhunt, combining mirth, mixed drinks, murder, and that talented trio, John J. Malone and Helene and Jake Justus. BIO: Craig Rice (pseudonym of Georgiana Ann Craig; 1908–1957) was an American author of mystery novels and short stories, sometimes described as "the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction." She was the first mystery writer to appear on the cover of Time Magazine, on January 28, 1946. Gritty but humorous, Rice's stories uniquely combine the hardboiled detective tradition with no-holds-barred, screwball comedy. Most of her output features a memorable trio of protagonists: Jake Justus, a handsome but none too bright press agent with his heart in the right place; Helene Brand, a rich heiress and hard-drinking party animal par excellence (to become Mrs. Justus in the later novels); and John Joseph Malone, a hard-drinking, small-time lawyer (though both his cryptic conversation and sartorial habits are more reminiscent of such official or private gumshoes as Lieutenant Columbo). ¬— via: Wikipedia

John J. Malone, down and out alcoholic lawyer, is called to serve as legal advisor to wealthy Roderick Fairfaxx after three postmen have been murdered and a fourth assaulted.

Chicago lawyer John J. Malone finds himself framed for the murder of anti-crime crusader Leonard Estapoole and implicated in the kidnapping of Estapoole's stepdaughter Alberta Commanday. While trying to find the real murderer, or at least clear his name, Malone is befriended by ex-chorus girl Tommie Storm and aided by crime boss Max Hook. Things get more complicated when Malone's old friend Jake Justus reports that his wife Helene has gone missing after rushing to Chicago to visit the Estapooles, an affable but complex combined family full of suspects. Malone's efforts to solve the case are further complicated by a kidnap victim who insists on staying kidnapped and a second murder. Along the way, he falls for a "thoroughly nice" girl and manages - barely - to keep himself and his friends out of jail.

When one by one the models who play the role of Delora Deanne are murdered, their lawyer, J.J. Malone is determined to find and stop the killer

Ten stories featuring the Chicago attorney-turned-sleuth from “the grand dame of mystery mixed with screwball comedy” (Ed Gorman). From suburban cocktail parties to music halls to the precarious ledge of a high-rise, Chicago attorney John J. Malone is willing to take on any case—as long as it’ll pay his bar tab. In this ten-story collection of murder most offbeat, a wedding anniversary party turns deadly for an unlucky housewife; a client’s supposed innocence hangs by a thread after a suicide attempt; a forlorn ballad may contain the key to a mystery; a relatively harmless lady wrestler gets pinned for cracking her husband’s skull; an old flame’s diary reveals a poisonous past; and a surprising obituary forces Malone to investigate his own suspicious death. The hero of fourteen novels, more than three-dozen short stories, three feature films, a radio show, and a television series, “Malone is an inspired creation . . . [of] deductive brilliance, malaprop speech, diminutive stature, rumpled appearance, fiscal imprudence, and Irish romanticism . . . closer in spirit to John Mortimer’s Rumpole of the Bailey than to his contemporary Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason, whose clients are always innocent” (Jon L. Breen, Edgar Award–winning author).

Schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers and lawyer John J. Malone collaborate in solving a series of cases

Craig Rice (1908-1957), the pseudonym of Georgiana Craig Rice, was the author of an extraordinary series of screwball mysteries about John J. Malone, a bibulous, blonde-fancying lawyer, who claims never to have lost a case. In the twelve stories first collected in this book, Malone investigates a killing in an undertakers' parade, a psychiatrist's patient who dreams of murder, an unknown man killed in a rented sailor's suit, and a terrified memory expert. As a special bonus, two of the stories feature Rice's lesser known sleuth, Melville Fairr, a little grey man but a formidable detective. Rice's biographer, Jeffrey A. Marks, has chosen and written new prefaces to each story.