The Ides of Perry Mason 8

The 15th of every month until I don't know when I will post a review of a Perry Mason mystery. For the hell of it.

The Case of the Screaming Woman - Erle Stanley Gardner

Super-lawyer Perry Mason usually avoids disputes between spouses. But in this 1957 mystery he acquires a client because the client’s wife – probably due to bitter experience - doesn't believe for a minute her husband's tale. He says he just wanted to help a stranded woman in the middle of the night and dropping her off at the Beauty Rest Motel. Well, dear,  registering as husband and wife seemed like a good idea at the time. The unamused wife asks Perry Mason to cross-examine the confident hubby in order to prove his tale is full of holes.

The husband is a sales manager and trainer who has excessive confidence in his ability to overcome sales resistance and make people relish anything he wants them to swallow. During the interrogation, Mason finds the client is so up to his keister in suspicious circumstances that his lame story won’t wash.

Soon enough the relentless tentacles of the police tighten around the sales guy. Mason too finds himself in legal quicksand. Though he protests legal mires and more challenging and interesting, even his loyal confidential secretary Della Street wonders aloud if he can avoid being disbarred this time.

Follow Mason as he blazes a trail to uncover black market adoptions, narcotics abuse and blackmail until he plays one last gambit in the climactic court-room scene.