Chicago lawyer John J. Malone's mission in life is to keep every blonde—or brunette—or redhead—from going to the chair. Luckily for Holly Inglehart she's a redhead because that's just about the only thing she's got going for her when she's discovered unconscious on the floor next to dead body of the aunt who was about to disinherit her for marrying band leader Dick Drayton. She's also got Drayton's press agent, Jake Justus, and her best friend, neighboring deb Helene Brand, on her side. Helene's no ordinary deb. She can drink Malone and Justus under the table and if the rye holds out this trio of wisecracking sleuths just might get her off. It isn't going to be easy because just about everyone else in the case has an airtight alibi for the time of the murder—3 a.m.—which is when every clock in the Northshore mansion stopped. Originally published in 1939, this screwball gem was the first of a dozen books to feature these hard-drinking sleuths and helped make Rice not only the highest paid mystery writer in the country but also the first to appear on the cover of Time.

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