This month marks three years of the custom of posting a review of a Perry Mason mystery on the 15th of every month. And no end in sight. How long can this practice go on? Do I really want to be the guy that has read all 82 novels and 4 short stories?
The Case of the Lonely Heiress – Erle Stanley Gardner
This 1948 mystery was the 31st Perry Mason story. Robert Caddo is the publisher of a sleazy magazine called “Lonely Hearts Are Calling.” The Post Office inspectors, sticklers for honesty one and all, are threatening him with a charge of false advertising. They’re making noises about jail if he can’t tell them the identity of the heiress behind an ad that is raking in big bucks for Caddo (chumps have to buy multiple copies of the magazine so they can use an original coupon to connect with a lonely heart).
Mason disbelieves in Caddo's integrity as much as the Post Office, but he charges an exorbitant fee to look into the matter. Perry writes responses to the ad, and the heiress responds to one. PI Paul Drake dispatches one of his operatives as the responder. The heiress is found to be a genuine heiress.
Caddo is happy, but the heiress ends up in a jam. She calls Mason because she has stumbled over a dead body – a murder victim, in fact - and she’s afraid she’s landed in a vulnerable position. This was not a bad assumption in pre-Miranda days. The take-aways from Mason novels are “Admit nothing” and “Say nothing without your lawyer present.” But in this one the Lt. Tragg and the police are especially odious and scary in the constitutional rights department; Tragg and Perry get into a nasty fight in this one
This one is worth reading because Our Hero goofs up no less than three times. Della fans will like it because Della spends a lot of time onstage, with comments that get to the pith of the matter.
Of course you do...or at least I want you to...
ReplyDeleteI read this one pretty recently (5 years ago the last time) but I also find I remember it pretty well. Della does get some good lines.