Perry Mason 122: TCOT Borrowed Brunette

Note: Worth reading despite downsides. Rather talky: Mason and Drake have extensive and complicated conversations exonerating the persons of interest. Boo. Familiar characters such as Della, Lt. Tragg, and DA Burger don’t play roles. Boo. But there are many more suspects than the usual three or four, all of whom have retro names: Orville L. Reedley, Cora Felton, Daphne Gridley, Carlotta Tipton, Arthur Clovis and Helen Reedley. Yay.

The Case of the Borrowed Brunette – Erle Stanley Gardner

Oh ho ho, gather round, dear reader, for a tale of legal shenanigans, identity hijinks, and the kind of postwar gender politics that make you want to shake your fist at the sky and yell, “Why, Betty, why, Gloria?!”

So here we are in 1946, the war is over, nylons are back, and Perry Mason is back too, with his 28th novel, which is like the 27th but with more impersonation, more bullets, and fewer cameos from the usual gang. Della Street? Tragg? Ham Burger? They’re off sipping tee many martoonies in the background while Mason and Paul Drake do the heavy lifting with their fedoras and their trench coats.

Enter Helen Reedley, stuck in a marriage with a man who sports the charm of a wet sock and the economic power of a Forties Rockefeller. She wants out. Meanwhile, Eva Martell, aspiring starlet and part-time identity thief, agrees to impersonate another woman for reasons that are never not suspicious. She brings along her chaperone Adelle Winters, because this is the Forties and you can’t impersonate someone without a chaperone.

But oh no! A gambler-turned-blackmailer ends up with a bullet in his brainpan, and wouldn’t you know it, the murder weapon is last seen in a garbage pail courtesy of Adelle. The cops are like, “Case closed!” and Mason is like, “Hold my briefcase.”

The DA’s attack dog is out for Mason’s lawyering license, trying to trip him up on technicalities like a legal game of hacky sack. But Perry’s not just any lawyer - he’s the guy who can tell you the exact minute a crime happened based on the temperature of a leftover po’boy.

And the suspects! Oh, the suspects! With names like Daphne Gridley and Arthur Clovis, it’s like a noir-themed cocktail party where everyone’s got a motive and a smoking stand. Mason and Drake talk to all of them. A lot. Like, pages and pages of talking. But it’s good talking! Smart talking! Talking that makes you go, “Ah-ha!” even if you’re not sure what you just eureka-ed.

So yes, it’s a whodunnit with a twisty impersonation premise that might make you squint a little, but if you buy in, it’s a rational, riveting ride through the land of noir logic and legal jujitsu. 

Bring Chex Mix.