Readers of this blog may recall that back in March I contracted with McFarland Press, publishers of my Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery (2012), to edit a collection of essays (a festschrift) in honor of the distinguished academic mystery genre scholar and John Dickson Carr biographer, Douglas G. Greene. Since August I have been very busy with all my various editing duties. With all the essays (nearly thirty, on Victorian/Edwardian mystery/Golden Age detection/Hard-boiled crime/short stories, radio mystery and pastiche) now in, it's down to completing my own introduction for the book, but I'm near deadline so am busier than ever with it.
My Friday Forgotten Book review is going to be of Craig Rice's The Fourth Postman (1948), but I'm running late with it, so why don't we try thinking of it as Saturday's Salutary Reminder?
Craig Rice (Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig, 1908-1957), is one of my favorite American mystery writers. Her stuff is madcap, even screwball, and the characters frequently are boozed to the gills, but there's usually a good mystery plot underneath it all. And the humor is a great plus for me too. Craig Rice is fortunate in having been the subject of a biography, the cleverly-titled Who Was that Lady? (2001), by my friend Jeffrey Marks.
After the Rice review, I'm going to try to get uploaded a review of the first season the British mystery series, Endeavor, the prequel to the deservedly much-beloved Morse. In a nutshell, I found Season 1 lived up to the brilliant promise of the pilot. More soon!
The Passing Tramp: Wandering through the mystery genre, book by book.
I had some problems with the Marks bio, but I do think it's the best work of scholarship we've got on Rice.
ReplyDeleteKelly, I read your review, when I was looking up material on her husband Larry Lipton. What an interesting story that was!
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