The Case of the
Haunted Husband – Erle Stanley Gardner
Aspiring actress Stephanie Claire is fired from her hat-checking
job after fending off her sleazy boss' advances. Brave Stephanie hitchhikes to L.A.
to get closer to Hollywood and the breaks it might offer. In Bakersfield she is
picked up by a handsome confident man in a big fast sedan. He’s been at the
bottle and offers her a pull so to keep on his good side she takes a swig. In
attempting to make a move on her, the driver loses control of the car, which
causes a multi-vehicle accident in which another man is killed. Stephanie is rescued
from the wreck, at the steering wheel and with the liquor on her breath. The driver
of the car has vanished. She faces a charge of negligent homicide.
Talk about one of life’s little dirty tricks.
Investigation reveals that the owner of the wrecked car is
one Jules Homan, successful Hollywood writer and producer. He says the car was
stolen. So Stephanie lands in trouble deep. One of Stephanie’s friends persuades
ace lawyer Perry Mason to take the case, which he is drawn to because he likes
cases in which the little guy seems to be pitted against the rich and powerful.
Gardner’s view of Hollywood as ultimate company town rings true. Even the cops
are afraid of their careers being stopped by its malign influence.
This is the background for one of the most convoluted
Mason stories that Gardner ever wrote. Plot and incident abound. The writing is
a little looser than usual with hints that are not followed up and
conversations that don’t move the story along. On the other hand, these extended
conversations reveal Perry Mason’s philosophy of life and death (he’s a bit of
a mystic) and Lt. Tragg’s fair but fundamentally authoritarian personality. Della
and Paul have a lot to do. Paul is his usual aggrieved self, Della is always
game and smart. Ham Burger does not appear and the courtroom scenes are
abbreviated.
This was written in the early 1940s, when Gardner was
really on fire, churning out Mason and Cool and Lam stories at a rapid pace.
Despite the output, I think quality did not suffer. I highly recommend this
mystery to hardcore fans and green novices wondering why Gardner was the
top-selling mystery writer of the 1940s.
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