The Case of the Baited Hook

In a stormy and rainy night, Perry Mason gets a call in his private number that takes him out to meet the most mysterious of client couples. The man tries to give a false name while the lady is masked and hooded and not interested to speak to the lawyer so as to prevent her identity slip. The case presented is also strange. The truth seeker is asked to represent the lady in case someting happens in future. The clients remain silent to further prodding though manages to convinve the lawyer to take the case. What happens next is a fast paced crime thriller starting the Perry trailing the probables of the case both for the knowhow of the client and the mystery itself. So it was not a ,surprise that he is really at the crossroads stumbling across a murdered man while ladies throng his office in numbers asking to make cases for various reasons. This adrenaline driven mystery drama crowds up with characters and Perry had a real tough task to solve the unique case with police sniffing up both the right and wrong trails making it more dangerous than ever. But the only unanswered part that remains likewise was how the clients got his private number. Except this the novel is a thrilling adventure where time seems to the only thing that seems precious.

The Case of the Velvet Claws

The 1st Perry Mason novel brings a rich client trying to save her name from being publicized. But just before she was ushered into Mason's room, his secretary Della Strait had a hunch about her identity and as she spoke her mind to Mason he employed the detective Paul Drake to tail her. Thus from the very initial chapters, suspense sets in and the chase continues throughout. The case, that had started innocently enough compared to what is matamorphosed into finally, takes an ominous turn at the murder of a business tycoon that posed a threat to Mason himself as he was implicated indirectly as being the murderer. As Mason was trying to pile up evidences against the implication, time seemed his only enemy. The alert Drake came useful more than once and Mason finally seemed to uncover the truth after some breaks whose coincidences may disappoint the reader but were very much a relief to the lawyer. As Mason extracts himself from the velvet claws of a very shrewd woman and turns the tide in his favour while revealing the criminals, he takes refuge to a web of aptly designed bluffs interspersed with truth. As the confessions come one by one and the mystery is solved, the author is to be complimented for his clearer understanding of human psychology that forms the basis of the events that he portrays. The consistency of the characters throughout the novel is another point to note which is very difficult to maintain in detective stories. The story is fast paced with several twists in the plot that ultimately reaches the peak with the startling climax. Though the final chapter is a bit on the romantic side but on the whole the entire narrative is filled with enjoyable thrill.

The Case of the Fenced-In Woman

It was during one of my ramblings in the Starmark section of the South City Mall that I came across the titles of Perry Mason by Earl Stanley Gardner. Though the name of the creator and his creation was not new to me but never had I have the chance of going thru any of the novels previously. So a rapid cyber search got me introduced to the character but much of it remained unsaid till I bought this book and finished it in a hurry. Actually I bought this from a second-hand store as I'm quite doubtful about my experimentation with the 1st sample of any new series. So though I longed for the 'Velvet Claws' which I gather is the 1st Perry Mason story but I'd to be content with this among the limited inventory of the store's display. That this was a posthumous publication was only known to me after another of my cyber searches and so my ideas may not conform to that of the readers of Mason novels as I hold the belief that so late a novel might not reflect the true character of the dynamic lawyer as a saturation is bound to come at that period.

The story starts in Perry Mason's office where the US defence lawyer, famous for his investigations in murder mysteries, is presented with a rather unusual case by a Morley Eden. It was learnt that Mr. Eden had purchased a plot from some Lorring Carson and had employed the latter in constructing a building in the same plot. But no sooner than he started living, the ex-wife of Carson, Vivian was found to occupy a certain part of the house and seperated herself by a barbed wire fence running through the house so as to divide the same and the rest of the plot in two parts. This not only intrigued Eden but also annoyed him. It was then revealed that the portion where Vivian is now living was actually hers legally and Lorring Carson seemed to make a fraud sale to Eden. A frustrated Eden requested Mason's intervention and Mason, following his own line of enquiry thought it better to charge Lorring in a fraud case. But on the same day as the case was to be filed, Lorring Carson's stabbed body was found in the Eden side of the house and thus the case turned bizarre than ever. The problem seemed to multiply with the police accusing both Morley and Vivian in the murder and Perry found himself at sea when both his clients refused to divulge any information that may show him some light. If that was not all, Mason himself found to be trapped with indications of framing him during the course of events. Thus on the day of the hearing both his clients and Mason was tensed and the prosecuter seemed to have a solid case with piled up circumstantial evidences to hammer in the verdict against Morley-Vivian. Thus the stage is set for Perry not only to save the clients but also to unearth the mystery and guarantee a satisfactory ending.
The problem with this story is that the ending seemed a bit abrupt and less dramatic than what I had hoped. Also the final deductions seemed to be somewhat forced and a bit less convincing. Also Mason's urge to save his clients even when they might be at fault did not personally please me. Also Della Street and Paul Drake, the two persons without whom Pason novels lose completeness, didn't seem to be involved much in the story and so can't gather much about their character.