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A cynical Chicago attorney butts heads with a beautiful killer socialite--from "the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction" (William Ruehlmann). 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 show more John J. Malone, agrees. Only a day before, wedding guest Mona McClane, notorious jetsetter 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. The first mystery writer to ever make the cover of Time magazine, Craig Rice was known for her fizzy cocktails of hard-boiled noir and screwball comedy, prompting the New York Times to ask: "Why can't all murders be as funny as those concocted by Craig Rice?" show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Quite funny all the way through, but a bit too long and too many characters! Heller is perfect as the audiobook narrator, and he makes spending time in the company of the book's characters a real pleasure. It's a story of a crazy bet, murder on a busy Chicago street during Christmas season, and a whole lot else. After a while, however, you need a scorecard to remember the relationship of one character to another.
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#JustTheFacts2020Gold
48 works; 1 member
#MysteryBingo2020Gold(Original)
36 works; 1 member
#MysteryBingo2020Gold(Revised)
36 works; 1 member
Author Information
52+ Works 1,905 Members
Awards and Honors
Notable Lists
Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Wrong Murder
- Original title
- The Wrong Murder
- Original publication date
- 1940
- People/Characters
- John J. Malone
- First words
- LATER, THEY WERE ABLE TO TRACE the little man in the rusty black overcoat as far south as Van Buren Street.
- Last words*
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)“Imagine my surprise,” she said, “when I found you were solving the wrong murder!”
- Original language*
- English US
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 79
- Popularity
- 400,142
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.50)
- Languages
- English, Finnish, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 3
