The Case of the
Dubious Bridegroom
- Erle Stanley Gardner, 1949
Mysteries
in the Perry Mason series always start with a bang. While working late in his
office, Mason spies pair of gams on the fire escape. When Mason queries her as
to what she’s up to, the hottie says she works upstairs for a company in the
extraction industry. Mason notes she’s carrying something that metallically
glints, which she tosses away, saying it was a flashlight.
He
wants to confirm her identity by checking out her car registration, but out on
the street she smacks him, making onlookers think she’s a pretty baa-lamb
fending off a wolf. In celeb-addled LA, this spectacle is noted and thus
appears in the gossip column in the paper the next morning. Della Street rags
Perry.
But
things get complicated mighty quick when Perry finds himself enmeshed in a case
that involves two convoluted situations. One is bigamy involving a Mexican
divorce that may or may not be legal. The other is a proxy fight looming at a stockholders
meeting.
As
usual, Gardner paints an unfortunate portrait of the guardians of our criminal
justice system. The cops arrest their person of interest by using trickery. At
the trial two bumbling prosecutors are more intent on puffing themselves up by
making Perry look bad than on building a strong case. They are helped out by
Perry’s client, who lies to Perry about his movements on the night of the
killing. The one lesson we regular folks can draw out of Mason mysteries is never
lie to your lawyer.
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