The Ides of Perry Mason 54

On the 15^th of every month, we run an article about a novel or original TV episode about Our Favorite Lawyer.

The Case of the Irate Witness – Erle Stanley Gardner

The Gardner Fiction Factory (his own words) closed in 1970 with Gardner’s passing in March. This compilation of four novelettes was released in 1972 in paperback by a publisher naturally eager to slap on covers the author’s name and that of his famous series hero, Perry Mason.

The novelettes were first published in magazines between 1942 and 1953. The Case of the Irate Witness is one of only a handful of short stories featuring Mason. Something Like a Pelican is a story starring Lester Leith, a series hero that appeared only in pulp stories.

The Case of the Irate Witness (1953). Ironically, the Mason story is the only unsatisfying story in the bunch. On vacation, Mason involves himself in the case in which we are not even given a glimpse of the wrongfully accused client. Though we’ve seen clients effectively effaced in Mason novels before, this omission in a short piece is so glaringly odd that the good courtroom scene doesn’t make up for it.

The Jeweled Butterfly (1952). Gardner, in maybe a first and only time, features a female protagonist. Peggy Castle writes up a house organ that has a not-mean gossip column. A note directs her to spy on hot Stella and handsome Don on a date. But the situation leads to robbery and murder and Peggy turning into a damsel in distress that must be rescued by a detective who is smitten with her looks – once she takes her glasses off, of course.

Something Like A Pelican (1942). Lester Leith was the gentleman detective, a 1930s stock character that was tired and stale by WWII. The goofy tone in this story strikes the readers almost as hard as a character bringing his shotgun into the office and nobody thinking twice about it.

A Man Is Missing (1946). Gardner sets this story in rural Idaho which gives him a chance to do the kind of nature writing he liked to do. He’s not Turgenev or Hudson when writing about camping, fishing, and hunting but it’s nice to read subjects about which the writer obviously cares deeply. The use of amnesia disturbs me, much like, say, time travel or magic or an Evil Twin. But in the end we keep our feet on the ground as the rural sheriff and packer-guide prove to a big city detective that local knowledge trumps big-city experience and so-called common sense. Gardner believed rationality could figure out nutty behavior and call bad guys to account.

Worth reading for hardcore readers into Gardner.