Reviews for African American Poets II, Vol. 2

The average rating for African American Poets II, Vol. 2 based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-03-18 00:00:00 William Cicero 2019 bk 181. I started this book in March. I finished it the 2nd to last day of May. Don't get me wrong, the story of Craig Rice needed to be written. Back in the 1980's I had a reference book on American mystery authors and I tried to read at least one book by each author. I read 8 of Craig Rice's books. True, they were period pieces, but her characters felt like they could walk right into the room with you. In fact, I picked up Home Sweet Homicide to read concurrent with this biography as a refresher and what I felt about her characters and plotting held true to my memories. I only wish that the author of the biography had Rice's ability with characters. Rather than spring to life as a multi-dimensional woman / author / resident of the first - middle part of the 20th century, he let the tragedies of her life box her into a flat picture, not unlike the box around her picture on the cover of Time magazine. I know it is hard to write about people an author has never met. I did learn new things about Craig Rice and her family, but I was left feeling very flat and had to push myself to finish the book.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-08-02 00:00:00 Gaylord Kruse I read a couple of Craig Rice mysteries when I was in my late teens. They belonged to my aunt and uncle. I was surprised later when I discovered Craig Rice was a woman and even more surprised by reading her biography that she made the cover of Time magazine, something no other mystery writer has done. Not Chandler, Hammett or Agatha Christie who was almost chosen but Rice was American and at that time maybe even more popular than Ms. Christie. The creator of the famous Perry Mason mysteries, Earle Stanley Gardner was also extremely popular and was upset because he believed he deserved being the Time cover story more then Rice. Craig Rice, born Georgiana Craig (or was it Randolph) was actually combined from surname of biological and adoptive parents. She wrote like no one else. Hardboiled crime with a lot of wit and humor, her books filled with fun loving, hard drinking and chain smoking party people much like herself. She was an alcoholic who lived much like her characters who in her best books were John J. Malone who was an attorney who claimed he never lost a client and Malone's pals Jake and Helene. The closest thing to Rice's mysteries I can think of would be Hammett's Thin Man or the lesser known but still entertaining Johnny Fletcher - Sam Cragg mysteries by the underrated author Frank Gruber. Gruber was adept at writing good westerns as well as his mystery books. I'm glad that author Marks has written about this sadly, almost forgotten author, Craig Rice. Try to find a copy of The Corpse Steps Out or The Right Murder by Rice. I find her stuff entertaining and hope that her work will stay in print.