Friday, November 15, 2019

The Ides of Perry Mason 6

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 Daring Decoy – Erle Stanley Gardner

It is 1957. Oil Man Jerry Conway is embroiled in a proxy fight with an ex-employee Gifford Farrell. We know Farrell is a cad because he has a debonair manner and a pencil-thin moustache. Jerry stumbles into a trap involving a room in a threadbare hotel, a beautiful woman dressed in not much more than a mudpack. Hubba - as they used to say - hubba.

She coughs up a recently fired .38 to Conway before he hustles the heck out of there. Later in the same room Perry and Paul Drake discover the body of another comely woman with a bullet in her chest, fired – of course - by the same gun.

Is the frame-up of Jerry perfectamundo? Will DA Hamilton Burger hang a rap of accessory to murder on Perry?

One distinguishing point is that Della Street appears in only a couple of scenes but one with a chivalrous Perry is a humdinger.

1 comment:

  1. A new one to me, though I seem to recall another one with an oil man.

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