I read this book for Mount
TBR Reading Challenge 2019.
The Case of the
Irate Witness – Erle Stanley Gardner
The Gardner Fiction Factory (Gardner’s own words) closed in
1970 with Gardner’s passing in March, 1970. 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 novellettes were first published in magazines between
1942 and 1953. The Case of the Irate Witness may well be the only short piece
that features Mason. Something Like a Pelican is a story starring Lester Leith,
a series hero that appeared only in novellettes.
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
uncharacteristically makes a female the 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 (see Bogie and
Dorothy Malone).
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 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.
Writing about camping, fishing, and hunting has been done better by other
writers but it’s nice to read subjects about which the writer obviously cares
deeply. The use of amnesia is as disturbing to a reader as using time travel. 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 helps experience and common
sense. Gardner believed rationality could figure out nutty behavior and call
bad guys to account.
Worth reading for readers seriously into Gardner.
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