The This week by popular request, we're headed back to the Windy City for another

adventure of the amazing Mr Malone, the crafty criminal defense attorney created by Craig J Rice.

John J Malone cracked cases in books and films and on radio and television.

While he was a celebrated attorney, Malone worked cases more like a Paul Drake than a Perry Mason, playing detective to clear his clients.

In the books, it was usually dumb luck that won the day from alone rather than his

deductive prowess but the character's adventures proved popular with readers.

Craig Rice was the pen name of Georgiana and Randolph Craig, a writer hailed as the Dorothy Parker of Detective Fiction.

Her books presented readers with a unique concoction, a blend of zaney screwball comedy with hard-boiled detective

tropes.

She introduced Malone, the Rumbled Hard Drinking Attorney in 1939's Eight Faces at Three.

That novel introduced two other characters who frequently joined in Malone's

Adventures, Press Agent Jake Justice, and Aris Helene Brand.

Twelve Malone novels and dozens of short stories followed,

including some that found Malone partnered with Stuart Palmer, Spinster Gumshoo, Hildegarde Withers.

Outside of her novels and short stories, Rice co-wrote two of the films in the popular

Falcon B-movie series, The Falcon's Brother, and the Falcon In Danger.

And in 1946, she became the first mystery writer to appear on the cover of Time magazine.

In 1945, Rice's characters hit the big screen in having wonderful crime, an adaptation of Rice's

1943 novel of the same name.

Pat O'Brien played Malone in that movie,

with George Murphy and Carol Landis in supporting roles. It wouldn't be long before Malone made his way to the airwaves.

The Radio Adventures of John J Malone premiered on ABC as Murder and Mr Malone on January 11th, 1947, with Frank Lovejoy in the title role.

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