[Dr. Drib]

Another fun-filled murder fest by Craig Rice, this time featuring characters Bingo and Handsome, and originally published in 1942.

Here's a review from Amazon:

"Craig Rice's The Sunday Pigeon Murders is the first novel which features Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak (there's also The Thursday Turkey Murders and The April Robin Murders, the latter finished by Ed McBain after Rice's death in 1957). It's an odd book, sort of a cross between the screwball mysteries of Constance and Gwyneth Little and the hardboiled mysteries of Fredric Brown or even Elmore Leonard.

"Bingo and Handsome encounter one of New York City's beloved eccentrics, the Sunday Pigeon (so named because of his tradition of feeding the pigeons in Bolivar Square) on the seventh anniversary of his disappearance. Knowing that in just a few days Pigeon is to be declared dead and that an insurance policy in the amount of $500,000 will be paid out to his business partner the two cook up a kidnapping and extortion scheme. The first problem arises early on when Bingo and Handsome realize they really like Mr. Pigeon. The difficulties increase as the bodies pile up, starting with Mr. Pigeon's business partner.

"Rice writes well, her plots twist and turn (an most importantly, make sense) and she populates her stories with well-drawn, conflicted characters. This is a light mystery, full of humor and coincidences, and the author has a terrific way with slang."

Like all the books I assemble on MobileRead, this too was assembled to reflect human intervention and artistic judgment.

I hope you enjoy it.

Don