John J. Malone

Radio star Nelle Brown is known coast-to-coast for her sweet and sultry voice. But her press agent and manager, Jake Justus, is familiar with another side of the darling of the airwaves: her crackpot marriage to a penniless tycoon, disastrous string of lovers, and propensity for flying into spectacular fits of rage. Now, it appears she's being burned by an ex-flame who's holding her scandalous love letters for ransom. The missives could ruin Nelle's career, but so could the scoundrel's murder. For Nelle and Jake, reporting the crime is out of the question-not to mention pointless, as the corpse has vanished along with the incriminating evidence. John J. Malone, Chicago's rumpled yet resourceful legal beagle, is tasked with finding both. But as every new unscrupulous lead turns up dead, Malone isn't sure whether Nelle is orchestrating a killer cover-up to save her pretty neck or if she's about to belt out her own swan song.

Press agent Jake Justus doesn't care if all of Chicago drops dead. He's just tied the knot with debutante Helene Brand, and a Bermuda honeymoon is only three in-flight martinis away. But the shooting death of a man in broad daylight, on the busiest shopping day of the year, with plenty of witnesses, is particularly ill timed. Jake's pal, attorney John J. Malone, agrees. Only a day before, wedding guest Mona McClane, notorious jet-setter and tipsy big-game hunter, bet the two men she could bag an innocent stranger and they'd never be able to prove a thing. Then Malone discovers that the victim wasn't so innocent. Any number of people wanted him dead. And if Mona is only one of them, Malone's wagering there's much more to this murder than just the thrill of getting away with it.

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 Big Midget is the hit of the show in Jake Justus's night club, until someone puts an abrupt end to the Midget. Why were eleven unmatched silk stockings used as a noose? Who conked Jake when he got on the killer's trail? John J. Malone finds all the answers with the energetic and hilarious assistance of Jake Justus and the beautiful Helene.

A Chicago attorney scours the Big Apple for a missing bride and a wedding-night murderer. On a break from the Windy City, aspiring crime novelist Jake Justus and his wife, Helene, are acquainting themselves with Manhattan's finest cocktail lounges when they befriend Dennis Morrison, a blind-drunk groom. The handsome former male escort thought he'd found his bounty in homely heiress Bertha Lutts, but while their wedding night may have been a bust, the morning after turned out to be the real horror. It seems Bertha has vanished from their bridal suite and in her place is an unidentified beheaded woman. Having taken a shine to Dennis, Jake and Helene call on his best defense: Chicago attorney John J. Malone. Winding his way through both the city's low lives and its high society, Malone quickly discovers a link between the nameless victim, the missing bride, and a slick gigolo: a bohemian Greenwich Village poetess who is free with her verse, knows more than she realizes, and is becoming more frightened with every New York minute. But when Dennis disappears as well, Malone's left with the itchy feeling that another dead end is right around the corner.

Wrongly convicted of murder, a death-row chorus girl lives for revenge. Anna Marie St. Clair was a normal Wisconsin-farm-girl-turned-mistress when she was framed for the murder of her racketeer boyfriend, one of Chicago's sleaziest politicians. Sentenced to death, and only hours from getting fried, a lucky hitch sets Anna Marie free, but she blackmails the corrupt warden into informing the tabloids that she took her volts like a real trouper. What better payback than to haunt the lives of those who tried to steal hers? As the shapeliest ghost in the Windy City, she's going to prove that dying well is the best revenge. Even luckier for Anna Marie, she has enthusiastic backup: attorney John J. Malone, who's got a soft spot for scrappy dames; her best friend, nightclub stripper Milly Dale; and crime reporter Jake Justus and his wife, Helene, who are always game for adventure. But when navigating the criminal underworld gets a little too spirited, there's no telling who's going to end up dead.

Being framed for murder is the least of a Chicago attorney's problems in this dizzying thriller. Attorney John J. Malone, steadfast, barfly, and proud defender of the guilty, has a lot enemies, but few more formidable than Chicago financier and anti-vice crusader Leonard Estapole. So it doesn't look good when Estapole's corpse turns up in Malone's office, liberated from this life by a bronze Buddha to the skull. But when the stiff's stepdaughter is kidnapped, and Malone is implicated, it's a frame job gone too far. Especially when Malone is suddenly saddled with the obnoxious abductee-a dimpled little extortionist who refuses to go home. If only Malone could count on his friends, Jake and Helene Justus. Unfortunately, Helene's disappeared from a Wyoming dude ranch and her friendship with Estapole's trophy-wife widow is too coincidental for comfort. Now, with every blindsiding twist of the case, Malone is starting to feel more and more like a hostage himself. The first mystery writer to ever make the cover of Time magazine, Craig Rice is a "composite of Agatha Christie's ingenuity, Dashiell Hammett's speed, and Dorothy Sayers's wit" (Louis Untermeyer). And in Knocked for a Loop, she's in "top form" (Jon L. Breen, Edgar Award—winning author).

There has never been a woman as beautiful as top model Delora Deanne. But Delora Deanne doesn't really exist. Unknown to the panting public, Delora is a composite of many women. Her face is played by Gertrude Bragg. Torso and legs by Eula Stolz. Hands, Eva Lou Strauss. Brains, Hazel Swackhammer. But now, Delora is coming apart. Hazel Swackhammer receives the first in what is to be a series of beautifully wrapped presents. Inside, she is surprised to find a pair of pale lavender gloves ... containing the hands of Delora Deanne.

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.

One postman! Two postmen! Three postmen! All murdered! John J. Malone sticks his nose into the case of the dead postmen and picks up a crack on the head, an Australian beer hound, and six redheaded twins. It all begins when he takes on a new client, Rodney Fairfaxx. Rodney was tabbed for the postmen murders because he hadn't received a letter from a dead girl for more than thirty years. Malone doesn't think that this is enough reason to kill, but he can't prove it.

A Chicago lawyer gets swept up in a conspiracy of spies, double-crosses, brainwashing, and murder. Defense attorney John J. Malone may be a habitué of Windy City dive bars, but he's never lost his balance-until now. Not only is he shaken by the contract killing of his latest client, but one of his best friends, socialite Helene Justus, is turning into a complete stranger. At the urging of a mysterious old college chum, the job-phobic heiress has suddenly taken a low-level position at a top-secret chemical research lab. What's more, Helene is spending her mornings on the couch of an esteemed hypnotherapist. It's confusing as hell to her husband, Jake. To Malone, too. The last time he saw Helene she had no idea who he was. Now it's up to Malone to shed some light on the shadows of Helene's secret life. Somebody's playing mind games-and the power of suggestion is turning Helene into its most dangerous pawn.