View source for The G-String Murders

{{Short description|1941 novel by Gypsy Rose Lee}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book| <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = The G-String Murders
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = G-string murders.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = First edition
| author        = [[Gypsy Rose Lee]] or possibly [[ghostwriter|ghost-written]] by [[Craig Rice (author)|Craig Rice]] (authorship in dispute)
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  =
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        =
| genre         = [[Mystery novel|Mystery]], [[Detective novel|Detective Novel]]
| publisher     = [[Simon & Schuster]]
| release_date  = 1941
| media_type    = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]])
| pages         =
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   =
}}

'''''The G-String Murders''''' is a 1941 [[detective novel]] written by [[American burlesque]] performer [[Gypsy Rose Lee]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wills |first=Matthew |date=2019-07-07 |title=Who Really Wrote The G-String Murders? |url=https://daily.jstor.org/gypsy-rose-lees-revealing-letters/ |access-date=2025-11-07 |website=JSTOR Daily |language=en-US}}</ref> There have been claims made that the novel was written by [[Mystery fiction|mystery writer]] [[Craig Rice (author)|Craig Rice]],<ref>Hubin, Allen J. ''Crime Fiction, 1749–1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography.''  New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1984, p. 243</ref> but others have suggested that there is sufficient documented evidence in the form of manuscripts and correspondence to prove Lee wrote at least a large portion, if not the whole, of the novel under the tutelage of editor/friend [[George Davis (editor)|George Davis]] with some essential guidance from her good friend Rice.<ref>Tippins, Sherill. ''February House: The Story of W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee, Under One Roof in Brooklyn.''  Houghton Mifflin Company Publishing, 2005.</ref>  The novel has been published under the titles ''Lady of Burlesque'' and ''The Strip-Tease Murders''. Set in a burlesque theater, Lee casts herself as the detective who solves a set of homicides in which strippers in her troupe are found strangled with their own [[G-string]]s.

In 2005, Feminist Press of the [[City University of New York]] republished the book as one of its ''Women Write Pulp'' series.

==Plot summary==
Gypsy Rose Lee narrates her way through a tale of a double murder, backstage at the "Old Opera"  burlesque theatre on 42nd Street, New York City.

The story depicts a world populated by strippers, comics, and costume salesmen, where crime is part of the norm and where women struggle to earn a living.

The narrative is a "wise-cracking" and humorous tale of murder in a burlesque house, and with the [[G-string|unusual weapon of the title]]. Eventually, Gypsy discovers that an elderly male stagehand, Stachi, is the assailant, given that he was traumatised when he discovered that his grand-daughter, Lolita La Verne, was one of the performers. Fortunately, he is apprehended before he can kill Gypsy in his turn, due to a prearranged police trap in which she offered herself as 'bait.'

==Characters==
* Gypsy Rose Lee, narrator
* Lolita La Verne, stripper
* Gee Gee Graham, stripper
* Biff Brannigan, comedian
* Siggy, costume salesman

==Literary significance and criticism==
"Anyone keen about sex in fiction will admire this workmanlike job for its account of a performing group, its use of technicalities—if that's the word—about stripping, and its handling of the clues by a likeable lieutenant…  This is one of a handful of books about backstage murder that are tolerable.  It is not made worse by being told in the first person, or by a bit of sentimental lovey-dovey between the narratrix and one of the cast of characters."<ref name= "COFC">Barzun, Jacques & Taylor, Wendell Hertig 1989 [1971]. ''A Catalogue of Crime''.  New York: Harper & Row, rev. & enlarged ed. {{ISBN|0-06-015796-8}}</ref>

==Adaptations==
{{unreferenced section|date=September 2015}}
The novel was filmed in 1943 as ''[[Lady of Burlesque]]'', directed by [[William Wellman]], starring [[Barbara Stanwyck]] as Dixie Daisy (the Lee character), [[Michael O'Shea (actor)|Michael O'Shea]] as her romantic interest, and [[Pinky Lee]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Wellman |first=William A. |title=Lady of Burlesque |date=1943-05-01 |type=Comedy, Music, Mystery |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036094/ |access-date=2024-06-14 |others=Barbara Stanwyck, Michael O&apos;Shea, J. Edward Bromberg |publisher=Hunt Stromberg Productions}}</ref> It is a fairly faithful, if [[Thomas Bowdler|bowdlerized]], representation, but notable for the addition of music and songs, including "Take It Off the E String, Play It on the G String", sung by Stanwyck. The film attempts to show what the censors of 1943 would allow with respect to the precise nature of "bumps" and "grinds" as well as the slapdash nature of burlesque shows.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* Lee, Gypsy Rose. ''The G-String Murders''. New York: Feminist Press of the City University of New York, 2005, {{ISBN|1-55861-504-0}}.

{{Gypsy Rose Lee}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:G-String Murders}}
[[Category:1941 American novels]]
[[Category:American mystery novels]]
[[Category:Novels by Gypsy Rose Lee]]
[[Category:Novels set in New York City]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Simon & Schuster books]]