May Read/9

Title: The Case of the Screaming Woman

Author: Gardner, Erle Stanley

Genre: Mystery

Book Description (from amazon.com):

            Joan Kirby doesn't believe her husband's story about picking up a stranded woman in the middle of the night and dropping her off at a hotel. She asks Perry Mason to cross-examine him. Mason uncovers a much murkier trail involving murder, illegal adoption, stolen narcotics and blackmail.

May Read/8

Title: The Case of the Worried Waitress

Author: Gardner, Erle Stanley

Genre: Mystery

Book Description (from the inside flap):

            It was against the restaurant rules for a waitress to beleaguer customers for advice, but Katherine Ellis was not only young and beautiful, it was obvious that she was deeply worried..

            So when Perry Mason finished lunch, he left her a note: “My usual fee for an office consultation is ten dollars. The tip under the plate is eleven dollars.” Then he said laughingly to Della that if the girl didn’t turn up, the Bar Association would have grounds for accusing him of soliciting business!

            But turn up she did, and in no time at all, Perry discovered that Katherine Ellis had full cause for worry-in fact, she was in serious trouble indeed….

May Read/7

Title: The Case of the Deadly Toy

Author: Gardner, Erle Stanley

Genre: Mystery

Book Description (from the back cover):

When Norda Allison saw her husband-to-be slap his young son, she immediately called off the wedding. Now she is terrified. Her ex-fiancé has beat up her new boyfriend. Anonymous newspaper clippings are flooding her mailbox—articles graphically depicting what jilted men do to the women who leave them. Then Norda’s life takes an even darker turn. It begins with a barking dog, a child’s scream, a gunshot, and the discovery of a very dead body—and ends when Norda is arrested, charged with a brutal murder.

Now only brilliant courtroom strategist Perry Mason stands between Norda and a sentence of certain death.

May Read/6

Title: The Case of the Fugitive Nurse:

Author: Gardner, Erle Stanley

Genre: Mystery

Book Description: (from the Inside Flap):

Death And Taxes... And Murder?

The affairs of her husband -- financial and otherwise -- are what concern Steffanie Malden. The young and stunning bride of a prominent physician killed in a private plane crash, the widow Malden stands to inherit more than just a sizable estate. Unfortunately, she's also the unwilling heir to an IRS investigation. It appears that the deceased was squirreling away a king's ransom in undeclared cash -- with the able assistance of his head nurse and secret paramour, Gladys Foss.

Mrs. Malden wants Mason to flush out Miss Foss and recover the AWOL income -- without trouble from the taxman. But when she's suddenly charged with engineering her husband's death, the matter turns from the monetary to the murderous. Stuck in the middle, Mason must match wits with both sides of the law, to find out just who got the doctor slaughtered....

May Read/5

Title: The Case of the Careless Cupid

Author: Gardner, Erle Stanley

Genre: Mystery

Book Description (from the inside flap):

            A widow in distress, her attentive, very wealthy swain, and his overly-protective nieces and nephews provide Perry Mason with one of the most challenging cases of his brilliant legal career.

            It all began when the attractive Mrs. Anson came to Perry Mason for advice on how to handle a shadow-a real, live shadow, that is. Mason figured that where there was a shadow of any description, there was substance. The point was how much substance, and what kind?

My Read:

            I enjoyed so much at this part when Perry Mason chased down his running away client and had to improvise how to get his client out of the mess she had created. “Inspiration,” said Mason when asked “Just what are we looking for?” by his confidential secretary, Ms Della Street. “That’s our baby” said Mason when he learned about the meeting of the International Exchange Club held in the same hotel in which his client was registered. This is Perry’s counteroffensive tactics to save his client who might have violated the law of “flight is the evidence of guilty” when she took off and ran away from LA.

            This part also shows the ingenuity of the shrewd lawyer: “You’re a good egg,” Mason interrupted. “You’re also intelligent. You have a good pair of ears. You’ve heard what I said. Under the circumstances, I’d hardly feel that it was proper for me to advise your uncle. Well, I must be getting back into court, Daphne, and see what’s happening with my client.” Mason walked to the door, turned, smiled at Daphne, who was sitting openmouthed at the table.-page 201

“Give Pinky my regards in case you happen to see her,” he said, and walked out.

Perry Mason adroitly, indirectly, yet masterly gave Daphne advice how to proceed. He couldn’t advise the uncle or the niece what to do. But he found way to deliver his advice and what to do next. Genius, isn’t he?

May Read/4

Title: The Case of the Howling Dog

Author: Gardner, Erle Stanley

Genre: Mystery

Book Description (from the introduction given in the book):

            A dog howled at night-and a man’s nerves could not stand it. So he came to Perry Mason, who at first hesitated at taking this trivial case, but who found that it led into deeper and more drastic possibilities as time went on.

            Mason began to see mystery behind such apparently bare-faced things as one man running away with another man’s wife…a housekeeper who was cool, and could manage dogs..even the dong, which suddenly bit the hand that had fed it for a long time. And then there was a murder! And the biggest and most tensely dramatic case of Perry Mason’s experience book.

            Erle Stanley Gardner has written a new Perry Mason case, which starts with simplicity itself, but winds up with the thrilling suspense of a big murder trial, where Perry Mason, in his breath-taking, unorthodox fashion, once more defends a client at great personal danger.

My Read:

            When I read about the part about the dog howling regularly at intervals, my first thought was there must be something or someone changed so the dog felt or sensed that something went wrong. It turned out that one of his owners was murdered and buried under the garage floor. It proved again that dogs are loyal and human’s best friend; they feel attached to their master.

            In this case, Perry Mason applied unorthodox tactics plus common sense to peel apart the cunning plot the two culprits and murdered had had. I also like the following saying made by Mr. Mason: “I have repeatedly told you, that I am not a judge; nor am I a jury. But I acted only as her lawyer.” Perry Mason’s only interest and concern is his clients. Sometimes he might walk on the thin ice but he followed the rules still though somehow dangerous and not-making-sense in other’s eye.

           

May Read/3

Title: The Case of the Reluctant Model

Author: Gardner, Erle Stanley

Genre: Mystery

Book description (from inside the jacket flap):

            The painting was a modern masterpiece. But was it authentic? Three experts staked their reputations on the fact that it was. But Collin M. Durant called it a rank imitation. The witness to his remark gave Perry Mason a signed affidavit, and millionaire Otto Olney, owner of the painting, sued for slander.

            Then the witness-a beautiful blonde art student and model-disappeared, leaving Perry Mason headed for the courtroom and a spectacular trial. A trial not, as originally planned, for slander, but one for murder in the first degree…

My Read:

            The following part from the book is the one I had to read more than once to get the idea and further appreciated the ingenuity and guts Perry Mason had owned.

“First,” Mason said, “because he thinks it may complicate the situation and secondly because he’s going to try to force me to put Maxine on the stand so that I can lay the foundation for bringing in this picture. If she testifies that Durant told her to go to Rankin and tell him about the false Feteet, then the whole think becomes admissible. But any attorney who puts his client on the stand during a preliminary hearing in a murder case is generally considered a likely candidate for the insane asylum.” “All the defendant can do by her testimony is to raise a conflict in the evidence, and no committing magistrate is going to resolve such a conflict against the prosecution; unless, of course, it brings up a point which conclusively demolishes the whole theory of the prosecution, and the chances of doing that are just about one in then thousand.”

            Mason said, “I’m taking a calculated risk.” Mason said it twice to the Judge who advised Mason not to put his defendant on the witness stand.

            Mr. Mason is a fighter; when he realized his client was telling the truth he would try and find possible ways to prove his client’s not guilty. Perry Mason, to me, stands for Justice.

May Read/2

Title: The Case of the Velvet Claws
Author: Gardner, Erle Stanley
Genre: Mystery
Book Description (from amazon.com):

     Thanks to a bungled robbery at a fancy hotel, the already-married Eva Griffin has been caught in the company of a prominent congressman. To protect the politico, Eva's ready to pay the editor of a sleazy tabloid his hush money. But Perry Mason has other plans. He tracks down the phantom fat cat who secretly runs the blackmailing tabloid -- only to discover a shocking scoop.

     By the time Mason's comely client finally comes clean, her husband has taken a bullet in the heart. Now Perry Mason has two choices: represent the cunning widow in her wrangle for the dead man's money -- or take the rap for murder.

My Read:

     I didn't realize that this is the book one in the Perry Mason Mystery series until I read the author's biography provided at the end of the book. In this book, there was no trial or cross-examination. Yet, in this book, it demonstrated how smart and skillful the famous attorney was. It proved not only the lawyer was loyal to his clients no matter who the clients were but also the lawyer was a stern fighter who would fight diligent for his clients. The following saying of the lawyer impressed me the most:

"That's my creed in life, Paul. I'm a lawyer. I take people who are in trouble, and I try to get them out of trouble. I'm not presenting the people's side of the case, I'm only presenting the defendant's side. The district attorney represents the people, and he makes the strongest kind of a case he can. It's my duty to make the strongest kind of a case I can on the other side, and then it's up to the jury to decide. That's the way we get justice. if the district attorney would be fair, then I could be fair. But the district attorney uses everything he can in order to get a conviction, I use everything I can in order to get an acquittal. It's like two teams playing football. One of them tries to go in one direction just as hard as it can, and the other tries to go in the other direction just as hard as it can." "It's sort of an obsession with me to do the best i can for a client. My clients are entitled to the best I can do for them. It's not my job to determine whether or not they are guilty. That's for the jury to determine."-page 217

The following saying made by Perry Mason also intrigues me:

"It wasn't that," he said slowly, choosing the words. "It was the fact that it needed an explanation that hurt."

"Never, never, never, so long as I live, will I ever doubt you again." said Della Street-page 255

I had to read several times to totally realize the meaning of the words Perry Mason had delivered to his loyal secretary, Miss Della Street. At some point, in this first book of the Perry Mason series, the lawyer's secretary didn't quite understand some approaches her boss made to make a successful case. The expression the lawyer made impressed me. It describes how a good relationship should look like that there shouldn't be any doubt standing between two souls at good terms. 

I enjoy so much reading this first book and I am glad that I read the bio at the end of the book.

 

May Read

Title: The Case of the Cautious Coquette
Author: Gardner, Erle Stanley
Genre: Mystery
Book Description (from amazon.com):
When Perry Mason and Paul Drake ran the ad, all they were hoping for was a clue to the identity of a hit-and-run driver. The first reply looked suspicious. It said that the license number of the wanted car was written down in the notebook of a woman who could be out of her apartment from two to five on a certain afternoon, and a key to the apartment was enclosed.

“Could this letter,” Mason asked Della Street, “have been written by the woman herself? I want to get the feminine angle.”Della laughed. “There aren’t any feminine angles—they’re all curved.” Fast curves.

From the very first time Perry met the voluptuous blonde, Lucille Barton, she pitched him trouble. She lied about her past, about her many marriages, about her gun, and about her boyfriends. Then the murders began. And the cops turned up with evidence which pointed clearly to one person as the killer—Perry Mason!
My Read:
This is a book with 3 cases: The Case of the Cautious Coquette; the Case of the Crimson Kiss and the Case of the Crying Swallow.
The most dramatic show of all in the Case of the Cautious Coquette is the scene when Sergeant Holcomb was tricked by the flash bulbs made by the Drake's Detective Agency's hires posting as professional photographers. The arrogant sergeant who is eager to fame himself falls for the trick and helps Mason to clear his trapped situation.
Mr. Mason demonstrated his keen observation in the Case of Crimson Kiss. He didn't fail to question the abnormal conditions and determined to find the answers.
I like the expression in the case of the Crying Swallow.
Mr. Mason raised his eyebrows when this client said the following:"Well, I have, in the back of my consciousness, a vague recollection of a swallow crying." This statement implied that the birds were disturbed at the wee hour meaning someone or something took place in or nearby the birds' nest.