Craig Rice

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Craig Rice portrayed on the January 24, 1946, cover of Time Magazine

Craig Rice (pseudonym of Georgiana Ann Randolph Walker Craig; 1908–1957) was an American author of mystery novels and short stories, sometimes described as "the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction." She was the first mystery writer to appear on the cover of Time Magazine.

Gritty but humorous, Rice's stories uniquely combine the hardboiled detective tradition with no-holds-barred, screwball comedy. Most of her output features a memorable trio of protagonists: Jake Justus, a handsome but none too bright press agent with his heart in the right place; Helene Brand, a rich heiress and party animal par excellence (to become Mrs. Justus in the later novels); and John Joseph Malone, a hard-drinking, small-time lawyer (though both his cryptic conversation and sartorial habits are more reminiscent of such official or private gumshoes as lieutenant Columbo). Against the odds and often apparently more by luck than skill, these three manage to solve crimes whose details are often burlesque and surreal, sometimes to the point of grand guignol.

Craig Rice also ghostwrote for a number of celebrities, including Gypsy Rose Lee and George Sanders, and collaborated with fellow mystery writers Stuart Palmer and Ed McBain on several stories (and, in the case of Palmer, novels).

She married Lawrence Lipton and had several children.

Emulating the wild lifestyle of her characters, Rice developed chronic alcoholism and made several suicide attempts. She also suffered from deteriorating health, including deafness in one ear and blindness in one eye with incipient glaucoma in the other. She died of apparently natural causes shortly before her fiftieth birthday.