Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice

Craig Rice (Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig) has been called the "Dorothy Parker of Mystery", for her witty style. Her popular detective mysteries went so far into comedy, she created a new sub-genre - the 'Screwball Mystery'. Married four times, she was a single mother of two daughters and a son, fathers unknown.

Home Sweet Homicide reads like a home-baked mystery, as it features a mystery writing mother of two girls and a boy who spends most of the time finishing her latest novel, while the precocious kids discover the bodies, dig for clues, and manage the police to a result.

On the front porch, the kids - Dinah, April and young Archie - can hear the purr of the typewriter as Marian Carstairs writes another bestseller - when, next door at the Wallace Sanfords, a shot rings out. Running over, they see two cars drive away, and find the pretty movie star Polly Walker outside the house. She has no good excuse for being there, but they know she didn't kill Flora Sanford. Enter Lieutenant Bill Smith of Homicide Bureau and Sergeant O'Hare. Rather than help the police, the kids begin their own investigation, which includes planting false evidence, lying when questioned, and diverting the police so they can break into the crime scene. Plus, the kids agree: the Lieutenant would be perfect for mother, she needs to get hitched again. Throwing suspicion off Polly, Alice claims a man ran away from the house and invents the false name Rupert vanDuesen - until that man turns himself in to police, claiming he was blackmailed by Flora! Wallace Sanford finds out his wife has died, but to protect himself he hides out in the kids backyard playhouse - you see, it looks like he was dating Polly.

This crime has to do with blackmail and the kids discover several victims who may have killed Flora - Mrs. Carleton Cherington, who grows the best roses in the neighbourhood; Pierre Degranges, a French painter; and Flora's lawyer Mr. Holbrook. Even Rupert VanDuesen and Polly had something to hide. The kids ferret information out of everyone, leaving time of course to make all the meals while mother works, hold a massive treasure hunt party for the neighbourhood kids, bake chocolate cakes - and should I add, the kids have their own coded language - the King Tut alphabet (a sort of pig latin).

This feels like the most convoluted mystery, including an abundance of characters and motives - as well as the most leisurely as nothing much happens. There is barely a police presence, it's entirely focused on the kids. There is even time for five pages preparing for Mother's Day, complete with presents and a maple-iced cake. The background is filled with attempts to coax Mother and Bill Smith together, including inviting him unbeknownst for dinner (and on the day Mother had her hair and nails done - the $3 manicure, not just the $1), showing him the pleasure of a home-cooked meal, complete with lemon pie.

Did I mention the extra body found in the empty Sanford house, which disappears? The burlesque star who kidnapped herself? The man with the second family? The picture without an eye? The incognito screenwriter?

This was an interesting curio, quite popular at the time, that has been recently republished by Otto Penzler.

Home Sweet Homicide was a hit film in 1946 starring Randolph Scott and Lynn Bari.

Craig Rice also wrote for Hollywood, including the screenplay for Lady of Burlesque starring Barbara Stanwyck, and two films in The Falcon mystery series.

1944 / Hardcover / 311 pages