Eight Faces at Three
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
"The grand dame of mystery mixed with screwball comedy" introduces her popular, sharp-witted Chicago lawyer/sleuth (Ed Gorman, Ellery Queen Award–winning author).
John J. Malone, defender of the guilty, is notorious for getting his culpable clients off. It's the innocent ones who are problems. Like Holly Inglehart, accused of piercing the black heart of her well-heeled and tyrannical aunt Alexandria with a lovely Florentine paper cutter. No one who knew the old battle-ax liked her, but Holly's prints were found on the murder weapon. Plus, she had a motive: She was about to be disinherited for marrying a common bandleader.
With each new lurid headline, Holly's friends and supporters start to rally. There's North Shore debutante Helene Brand; Holly's groom's press agent, Jake Justus; the madam of a local brothel, and Alexandria's hand-wringing servants. But not one of them can explain the queerest bent to the crime: At the time of the murder, every clock in the Inglehart mansion stopped dead. And that's only the first twist in a baffling case of "aunty-cide"—because Alexandria won't be the last to die.
Making his debut in this fun and funny novel, Craig Rice's one-of-a-kind Chicago attorney is "an inspired creation . . . an unapologetic champion of the defense bar . . . a defender of the guilty whose contempt for society outstrips his contempt for criminals" (Jon L. Breen, Edgar Award–winning author).
Eight Faces at Three is the 1st book in the John J. Malone Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chicago attorney John J. Malone debuts in this sharp blend of humor and fair-play from Rice (1908–1957), first published in 1939. When Holly Inglehart awakes in the middle of the night from a disturbing dream of being hanged, she sees her bedside clock has stopped at 3 o'clock, "although she's sure it's actually much later." When she checks the room of her twin, Glen, it's empty, but Glen's clock, too, stopped working at 3 a.m., as has the hallway clock. In the room of her elderly aunt, Alex, Holly finds Alex in a chair by an open window, frozen stiff, with a knife sticking out of her chest. Sure enough, Alex's clock has also stopped running—at 3 a.m. Holly's fingerprints on the murder weapon and a possible motive—the dead woman's threat to disinherit Holly should she wed—make her the prime suspect. Holly has just secretly married, and her husband's assistant reaches out to the astute, disheveled Malone to clear her name. Amusing prose is a plus ("His ties and collars never became really close friends, often not even acquaintances"). This is another reissue worthy of being designated an American Mystery Classic.
