The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 15 September 2009
by Erle Stanley Gardner
First published in 1933, this is the first Perry Mason adventure that eventually led to scores of novels, movies, a famous television series in the 50s and 60s, and even to a Supreme Court justice (Justice Sotamayor has referred to Perry Mason as an early interest in the law). Mason (portrayed most famously by Raymond Burr) has long since become an icon of American entertainment, and even of the legal profession. It turns out that the later works and versions don't stray terribly far from the Perry Mason depicted in this first novel. Mason is a high-powered, high-priced and high-risk attorney practicing in a large American city (vaguely enough described here as to resemble both Los Angeles and New York). His secretary, Della Street, is a young tough gal making her way in this Depression-era world dominated by men. And his on-call detective, Paul Drake, is a wise and very competent tough-guy. Into this mileiu walks Eva Griffen, a young wealthy married woman who was seen at the scene of a shooting with a bigwig corrupt politician. Ostensibly, she wants to keep her name, and that of the politician, out of a scandal sheet newspaper. Nothing is as it seems, though. Della Street is immediately suspicious of Eva Griffen and her suspicions are borne out already when we learn that isn't her name at all and that she is already married to the owner of the scandal sheet in question. What follows is a typically convoluted Perry Mason story of shifty double-crossing characters. Almost everyone starts with a cover-story that Mason quickly pulls to pieces. Several crimes are involved but Mason only represents the scheming Eva and he carries out his investigations with a surprising willingness to disregard various legal transgressions and to manufacture situations to get his client out of trouble, even when he begins to believe she is the biggest culprit of all. This Mason is a little more coarse than his television counterpart, a little more focused on the money he is going to make on this case. Della is a little more suspicious and a little more fawning over her employer. There is a little more tension between the two than we're used to seeing in black and white on the TV screen. But, over all, the novel is the prototype Perry Mason story, with its unexpected confessions, surprise bits of evidence and Mason's assured success.