The Sunday Pigeon Murders

The Bingo Riggs and Handsome Kusak Series, Book 1

By: Craig Rice

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

In this novel, two New York City street photographers develop a deadly get-rich-quick scheme.

Resourceful Bingo Riggs and his partner, Handsome Kusak, are in the sucker-bait business, snapping candid pics of tourists off Central Park. Their fly-by-night enterprise can be irresistible to souvenir lovers, but with one camera in a pawnshop and their developing room in the bathtub of a two-room dump near Hell’s Kitchen, their venture is wretchedly underexposed - until they stumble upon an insurance fraud scheme between the allegedly dead eccentric Mr. S. S. Pigeon and his business partner and beneficiary.

There’s only one way for Bingo and Handsome to muscle in on that half-million-dollar claim: Kidnap Pigeon and blackmail his co-conspirator. Unfortunately, their foolproof plan comes with mobsters, a dodgy chorus girl, multiple murders, a refrigerated corpse, and the strange Mr. Pigeon himself, who, it seems, likes being a hostage.

In fact, he has no intention of escaping. It’s the surest way to protect his own secret - which could be Bingo and Handsome’s biggest threat.

©1942 Craig Rice (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Clever and intriguing

I liked the time period! The descriptions of New York ‘back in the day’; the cost of groceries and clothing; the innocence; the thought of trustworthy deals on only the word of another; the simplicity of life.

Good fun!

Really enjoyed this book! Like listening to a classic noir movie on TCM. Lovable main characters and interesting plot with plenty of humor.
Highly recommend!

not my usual read

it had good pacing.
it wasn't as fast or as intense as I usually like but it did have a way of keeping me engaged enough I didn't want to stop.

another great story

Rice's buddy mystery is a fantastic who-done-it and Johnny Heller's performance is absolutely perfect.

Genuine buddy drama/murder mystery c1942

Johnny Heller has an airy and whimsical delivery amenable to the telling of this tale.
As I listened, I didn’t know when it was written until the end and was marvelling at how unsophisticated yet realistically 1940’s it was.
The plot involves scraping by with minimal money or prospects until an insurance fraud caper is concluded in one week’s time. It’s complicated by threats from competitors while trying to make an honest living, sort truth from lie and solve some murders. It’s a worthy whodunnit.
(The most overused trope of the time, an unemotional and fearless PI who gets hit on the head every time he walks in a room and sees a body is totally avoided. Dead bodies are found and maybe there’s a drunken beauty past her prime or a waved handgun or a bent nosed mobster, but some stereotypes are avoided.)

The theme is friendship and integrity and faith. I found this aspect refreshing in its purity compared to any recent literature. A side-plot: 2 guys are dedicated friends who both love a young girl (portrayed as a paragon of virtue and beauty in a way also not available in contemporary lit.). Essentially, both guys are humble and willing to give the girl to the other one as he’s the better man.

Craig Rice doesn’t turn a phrase like PG Wodehouse or portray a setting like Steinbeck but he will immerse you in the mood of the time and steadily tell a good tale with the values of faith, loyalty and friendship held high to the end.