Who Was That Lady? Craig Rice: The Queen of Screwball Mystery

Rating:
Summary: Worth a read
Review: Craig Rice authored fourteen novels, countless short stories, some true crime pieces, and once rivaled Agatha Christie in popularity with the mystery loving fans. She lead a life as secretive as her work was public. In Who Was That Lady?: Craig Rice - The Queen Of Screwball Mystery, Jeffrey Marks unravels her fascinating biography based on original research and interviews with her contemporaries, family, and friends. A long needed memorial to an outstanding and time-forgotten author, this remarkable and engaging account of her life and work is enhanced with eight pages of photographs, footnotes, and index. Who Was That Lady? is a "must" for her fans and an invaluable contribution to the history of the literary genre in which she made her mark.

Rating:
Summary: Reviewed by Jo Rogers at MyShelf.com
Review: I received this book about 2 weeks ago. I'm not quite finished with it -- it's fascinating! -- but I must admit I had to stop reading it while I looked for some of Craig Rice's mysteries. I managed to find one recent print edition of her first book, 8 Faces at 3 and I just received an old copy of The Midget Murders (what a cover!) I bought on ebay. I can't believe I had never heard of her! In her prime, Craig Rice's book sales rivalled Agatha Christie's. She lived in Evanston, IL when my mom and her family lived there, and when her husband edited the Evanston Review it was regular reading material for my grandfather.

The thing is, I really don't like all these "funny, punny" mysteries -- I prefer a mystery to be a mystery. Agatha Christie's books might be called "cozy" but they did not try to make evil "cute" like some books do today. That's one of the things I always loved about Miss Marple -- the idea of nemesis being this skinny old lady in lace. I'm something of an expert on Christie, having read every word she's written many times over, and she is far and away my favorite. But thanks to Jeffrey Marks I can now add Craig Rice to this list -- her books have that Mary Roberts Rinehart period feel to them, and they are smart/quirky without being dumb/funny. Sort of a Nick and Nora Charles of the Midwest. Craig Rice's books are period pieces in a comfortably nostalgic way, but the mysteries can be pretty creepy, too.

Jeffrey Marks brings this troubled woman to life and gives us a deeper insight into her characters by revealing a checkered past and a woman whose life was shaped by a series of emotional upheavals. Once you read this, you will probably do what I did --start ransacking the bookshelves and used book stores to find Craig Rice mysteries, giving credit where it is due.

Thanks so much for introducing me to such a wonderful author -- I can't believe I've just discovered her!

Rating:
Summary: Pleased but disappointed
Review: If you're a Craig Rice fan, as I am, you'll be pleased by the publication of this book. Whether it's the first or only biography that will ever be written about an author whose work has been egregiously neglected by reprint publishers--to the detriment of the reading public--it furnishes the curious fan with some vital information about a fascinating but very troubled woman whose life was a far cry from the delightfully wacky works she's best remembered for.

So why am I disappointed?

Because a lot of Marks's writing is sloppy and thus confusing, which in turn suggests sloppy editing; and because the proofreader, if one existed, didn't do his or her job very well. Typos abound. Even the page numbers given in the index are incorrect!

Nevertheless, I applaud Marks for his scholarship and dedication to the project. Perhaps his book will spur future biographers to delve more deeply into Rice's life and works. Above all, perhaps it will spur a publisher into reprinting her novels and story collections to reach new readers.

Rating:
Summary: Very highly recommended
Review: In this fascinating biography, Jeffrey Marks delves into the life of author Craig Rice, proving that her life was even more mysterious than her work. While Rice carefully obscured the facts regarding her life, Marks attempts to clarify the important role this woman played in the evolution of the mystery genre. Indeed, Rice pushed comedy to the forefront of the mystery genre.

Wishing to be accepted by the good old boy network of journalism, early in her career, Rice used a masculine pseudonym, and frequently did not acknowledge her gender in the text of her work. Rice thrived on misleading the press and others who would pinpoint her life with any accuracy. Just as her very choice of penname assures ambiguity, she also obscured how many times she married, and even what novels, novellas or short stories she actually wrote.

The same can't-be-beat optimism that imbued Rice's characters also characterizes her own life. Despite manic depression, acute alcoholism, and desperate mishandling of income, Rice manages to maintain her optimistic nature. A female publishing phenomenon of the 1940s, Rice annoyed such giants of the mystery genre as Erle Stanley Gardner when she was on the cover of "Time". Rice's reoccurring to matrimony demonstrate her to rely upon others for security. She marries perhaps five times, with many other men also entering her life temporarily, many hoping to allow her to support them. Abandonment, absent fathers, and orphans become life long themes of her work as a result of her own life.

Rice's method of writing was notable. She wrote without outline, character sketches, or any idea of the conclusion. This incredibly focused effort would keep her up days writing maniacally, and she would not surface until the work was complete. This writing style clearly demonstrates the mania side of bipolar disorder, and explains her downfall once she began self-medicating with alcohol. It also explains her publisher's displeasure with work that wasn't adequately polished late in her career, but read like a first draft.

While much of Rice's work reads like a Shakespearean tragedy, her strength and determination still shine through in Mark's prose. While acknowledging Rice's weaknesses, Mark balances them with her wit, talent, and sparkle. Capturing the flavor of the eras in which Rice was both at her best and at her worst, Marks doesn't spare the truth when he discusses the author's fatal flaws, including her family relationships, mental instability, and money problems.

Marks' thoughtful literary criticism adds a remarkable, yet fascinating depth to WHO WAS THE LADY. Not only is his research impeccable, but he also goes beyond the life of Craig Rice to provide insight regarding how she affected the development of the comedy mystery. While the beginning of the book is a bit slow going, once the background material is in place, the pace picks up, becoming a fascinating read. While Rice was a troubled woman, she deserves notice for her writing talent and strength of spirit despite the debilitating liabilities she faced. Mark's consummate handling of the material demonstrates both a deep love of the comic mystery genre, and a sincere respect for the remarkable Craig Rice. Very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Pleased but disappointed
Review: It's nice to see the witty, vital work of Craig Rice finally getting some scholarly attention. Jeffrey Marks has done a thorough job of research, and he deserves praise for untangling such apparently Gordian knots as Rice's real name, the history of her marriages, and her confused publication history. However, his biography is more of a necessary first step than a truly engaging work in itself. While he details the sorrows of Rice's life, he never really shows us why her contemporaries referred to her as funny, bright, and lively. His analysis of her place in the history of her genre is cursory at best (surprisingly, given his knowledge of the field), and he tends to summarize rather than discuss her novels. The book is also quite badly proofread. Nonetheless, he has performed a true service for Rice fans and critics, who I hope will use this book in order to do more analytical work.

Rating:
Summary: A Valuable First Step
Review: It's nice to see the witty, vital work of Craig Rice finally getting some scholarly attention. Jeffrey Marks has done a thorough job of research, and he deserves praise for untangling such apparently Gordian knots as Rice's real name, the history of her marriages, and her confused publication history. However, his biography is more of a necessary first step than a truly engaging work in itself. While he details the sorrows of Rice's life, he never really shows us why her contemporaries referred to her as funny, bright, and lively. His analysis of her place in the history of her genre is cursory at best (surprisingly, given his knowledge of the field), and he tends to summarize rather than discuss her novels. The book is also quite badly proofread. Nonetheless, he has performed a true service for Rice fans and critics, who I hope will use this book in order to do more analytical work.

Rating:
Summary: Worth a read
Review: Jeffrey Marks does a fairly good job writing about a woman who lived such a hard and bizarre life. Finding details for Craig Rice's life story must have been a real challenge. I am Craig's grand-daughter and I learned more about Craig's life from this book than from conversations with those who knew Craig. The book must have required exhaustive research on Mr. Mark's part. He ties the story of her life together and includes a great deal of information about Craig's novels, her movie scripts and her short stories.