Author Jeffrey Marks’ biography of Craig Rice is nominee for 2001
Who Was That Lady? Craig Rice: The Queen of Screwball Mystery
By Jeffrey Marks
Delphi Books - ISBN 0966339711 – LCCN 00-191858 - $21.95 US


June 9, 2002: BERKELEY, CA: The Mystery Readers International organization, which produces the Mystery Readers Journal (www.mysteryreaders.org) announced the nominees for the 2001 Macavity awards. The awards are named after Macavity, the mystery cat in T.S. Eliot's works. Among the nominees for Best Non-Fiction Work was Who Was That Lady?: Craig Rice: the Queen of Screwball Mystery by Jeffrey Marks. Marks’ biography of Rice took three years of research to come to fruition. The manic author of some twenty novels and untold short stories had lived life by the seat of the pants. Records and documentation of her life and loves was nearly impossible to come by.
The release of the biography has fueled a resurgence in Rice’s reputation which has languished in recent years. A new collection of her short work, edited by Marks, is due out this month from Crippen and Landru. Murder Mystery and Malone will be the first new release of Rice’s work in thirty-eight years. Additionally, Rice's Home Sweet Homicide has been picked up for reprint as well.
Jeffrey Marks is the author of the US Grant mystery series that began with The Ambush of My Name and A Good Soldier. He is also the editor and a contributing author to Magnolias and Mayhem (Silver Dagger anthology) and the upcoming Criminal Appetites (Silver Dagger anthology). His work has been nominated for a Maxwell award (from the DWAA), an Edgar from Mystery Writers of America, an Agatha from Malice Domestic, and an Anthony award from the World Mystery Convention. He writes from his home in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“Every writer may deserve such a dedicated biographer, and Rice’s life is interesting (especially for hardcore mystery fans . . .” Publishers Weekly 3/26/2001.