The Ides of Perry Mason 56

On the 15^th of every month, we run something about the novels or classic TV episodes that star Our Favorite Lawyer. This novel is the 77^th Perry Mason novel, published in 1966, not my favorite era for Mason stories.

The Case of the Worried Waitress  - Erle Stanley Gardner

It’s against restaurant rules for a server to approach customers who are professionals in order to obtain free consultations. But Katherine Ellis, Kit, is troubled by a problem and she has no one to turn to. So after Perry Mason and Della Street finish lunch, Perry leaves his card and a message to the worried waitress, "My usual fee is $10. Under the plate there is a tip of $11."

After her shift, Kit visits Perry’s office and tells her story. Kit is an orphan and penniless, living with her aunt. Her aunt is only posing to be poor and has thousands of dollars in cash stashed in her hatboxes (remember those?). Not only does the aunt stint on food, but she stands outside a factory, posing as a blind person and selling pencils. Talk about a miser – yikes! Perry orders her to get out of her aunt’s house as quickly as possible lest she be falsely accused if the money goes missing.

Too late.

Kit is charged with robbing then assaulting her aunt with fatal results. In addition, Mason is distracted by two wives duking it out over control of their former husband’s estate and two rival factions of a corporation competing for control. The two conflicts are tied together by a genuine blind person, not a fake one, like the stingy aunt. A lot of plot and incident crowd together in a novel that, strangely enough, seems slimmer than the usual Mason novel.

This 1966 effort is only a middling Mason novel, even for a hardcore fan. The organization seems loosey-goosey. The trial sequence, usually the climactic fireworks in a Mason novel, is on the meh side. DA Ham Burger seems to be just going through the motions, as if dejected he’s going to lose publicly yet again, for umpteenth time since 1935. 

But the suspense keeps us turning the pages. This novel might be mildly satisfactory for any hardcore Mason fan. Novices should start with the earlier efforts, the rockers The Case of the Cautious Coquette and The Case of the Careless Kitten. For old school puzzlers there are The Case of the Buried Clock and The Case of the Crooked Candle.