People VS. Withers & Malone collects the screwball comedy/mysteries of Stuart Palmer and Craig Rice. Ellery Queen’s “Introduction” gives the details of Palmer’s and Rice’s friendship over the decades.
This collection of stories features the collaboration of two sleuths, John J. Malone, alcoholic and womanizing lawyer of Craig Rice’s mystery books, and the canny schoolteacher, Hildegarde Withers, created by Stuart Palmer. These stories were written by Stuart Palmer, with Ms. Rice contributing an idea or plot point, but otherwise apparently not involved in writing process.
I really liked the title story, “People VS. Withers & Malone,” where Withers and Malone hunt for a missing witness in the murder trial of a Malone client and wind up pulling off some courtroom pyrotechnics in Perry Mason style.
In “Cherchez la Frame,” the two sleuths travel to Hollywood to look for the missing wife of a Chicago gangster and find her strangled with Malone’s tie in his hotel bathroom. As usual, Withers has to crack the case to save Malone.
The first Withers and Malone collaboration, “Once Upon a Train” (original title: “Loco Motive” and published in 1950) sets the pattern for the rest of the series. This spoof of the Murder-on-the-Orient-Express genre takes place on the Super-Century train traveling from Chicago to New York. A naked dead man is found in Withers’s compartment while the murder weapon was conveniently planted in Malone’s adjoining compartment. A clever combination of quick thinking by Malone and a revealing dream by Withers solves the murder.
If you’re in the mood for some screw-ball mayhem with a dollop of humor thrown in, I recommend People VS. Withers & Malone. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
AN INFORMAL INTRODUCTION BY Ellery Queen — 7
PREFACE BY SUART PALMER — 13
Once Upon a Train — 17
Cherchez La Frame — 49
Autopsy and Eva — 81
Rift in the Loot — 115
People VS. Withers & Malone — 151
Withers and Malone, Brain-Stormers — 203
I don’t think I ever read any of the HIldegarde Withers or John J. Malone novels, but I have read the short stories and enjoyed them. For once Hollywood did a good job when they cast Edna May Oliver as the spinster schoolteacher, so those early ’30s movies (starting with THE PENGUIN POOL MURDERS in 1932) are worth looking for.
Jeff, I was surprised that the Withers & Malone stories held up so well. Sure, they’re silly, but the mysteries are intriguing.
Oops, singular – PENGUIN POOL MURDER. Interestingly, it was set at the New York Aquarium (the oldest continuously operating aquarium in the U.S.), which was located at Battery Park, and only moved to its famous, current location in Coney Island in 1957.
Jeff, I think I have a copy of THE PENGUIN POOL MURDER around here somewhere. I enjoyed these stories so I may give the Withers and Malone novels a try in the month ahead.
I refuse to read mysteries investigated by little old ladies. Just as I refuse to read mysteries in which a detective’s cat has a helping hand.
Steve, I’m with you on investigative cats, but I’m been a fan of little old lady investigators since I read Miss Marple mysteries as a kid.
I read this a long time ago but the details are a blank! I do remember liking the stories, tho!
Bob, I enjoyed these stories a lot. And, so much so that’s I’m featuring more stories in this vein next Wednesday!
Todd, thanks for the heads up on WORDPRESS clipping my review. The mischievous WORDPRESS gremlins love to truncate my writing and the WORDPRESS spell checker substitutes words freely. This is one maddening program!
Having just seen the remarkably awful fake-tough-guy film SHARKY’S MACHINE for the first time (I should’ve waited another forty years…or more), I’d be willing to take a clever cat mystery as an antacid. (Cat-acid?)
You review’s last sentence was clipped….
These writers are new to me–at least in terms of having read their work.
Patti, I’m trying to read books I’ve had on my shelves for years. PEOPLE VS. WITHERS & MALONE was a fun read!
Stuart Palmer recently swam back into my ken (I did the Palmer entry in 20CC&MW long ago). Arthur Vidro wrote that Palmer’s widow was looking for a copy of the Jonathan Press digest THE RIDDLES OF HILDEGARDE WITHERS. She was assembling a collection of Palmer’s first editions. I thought I had it, but couldn’t find it, however some months later it surfaced and I sent it off to her. I liked Palmer’s work – a good deal more than Rice’s – and was and am a fan of Hildy, and of Oliver’s spot-on screen characterization, ably abetted by James Gleason as Oscar Piper. I have all these stories in my EQMM collection and am tempted to pull them out and read them again. By the way, who published this collection; couldn’t find it online?
Art, I’m going to be featuring another Hildegarde Withers classic next Wednesday. I agree with you on liking Stuart Palmer’s work more than Craig Rice’s. Here’s the link to the International Polygonics, Ltd, version I read: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/r/craig-rice/people-vs-withers-and-malone.htm
IP always wanted to package their books cartoonishly, despite it not being a good idea most of the time.
Todd, I have a few International Polygomics volumes in my collection. You’re right about their covers.
Postscript: I won’t have to root through my double-shelved EQMMs to get the stories. I discovered I already have (and am sure read, long ago) the first paperback edition of this collection from Award Books, 1965. Features an attractive redhead on the cover (what else?), certainly not supposed to be Hildegarde.
Art, the International Polygomics edition seems to be a reprint of an earlier hardcover edition from 1963 published by Simon & Schuster.
The first of these stories Once Upon a Train was changed into Mrs. O’Malley and Mr. Malone. I couldn’t find it on any streaming service, but it is available on DVD.
Crippen & Landru is putting out a second collection of Hildegarde Withers stories next month. These stories have never been collected before.
Jeff, thanks for the info! I have the second collection of Hildegarde Withers stories on order from Crippen & Landru.
Have never read these detectives. I think I’ll start with the novels first.
Neeru, I like Stuart Palmer more than I like Craig Rice, if that helps.