Note: Maybe AAA got to Gardner about traffic safety but in this 1957 novel Mason - usually a menace behind the wheel, a busy man who treats speed limits as quaint suggestions - suffers a sudden conversion. To Paul Drake’s astonishment, Perry begins operating the vehicle like a Sunday-school teacher driving a car held together by paper clips. No screeching tires, no hairpin theatrics. Just calm, law-abiding motoring. Drake, who has spent years bracing for impact every time Mason shifted gears, is delighted he can finally uncoil his white knuckles.
The Case of the Screaming Woman - Erle Stanley Gardner
Super-lawyer Perry Mason carefully avoids disputes between
spouses. But in this 1957 mystery he acquires a client because the client’s
wife – probably due to bitter experience - doesn't believe for a minute her
husband's tale. He says he just wanted to help a stranded damsel in the middle
of the night and dropping her off at the Beauty Rest Motel. Well, dear, registering as husband and wife seemed like a
good idea at the time. The unamused wife asks Perry Mason to cross-examine the confident
hubby in order to prove his tale is full of holes.
The husband is a sales manager and trainer who has excessive confidence in his ability to overcome sales resistance and make people relish anything he wants them to swallow. During the interrogation, Mason finds the client is so up to his keister in suspicious circumstances that his lame story won’t wash.
Soon enough the relentless tentacles of the police tighten around the sales guy. Mason too finds himself in legal quicksand. Though he protests legal mires and more challenging and interesting, even his loyal confidential secretary Della Street wonders aloud if he can avoid being disbarred this time.
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