The Case of the Silent Partner by Erle Stanley Gardner

This is the second of 2 Perry Mason novels that I found during my family's annual 301 Endless Yard Sale Scavenger Hunt. That first book was so unlike what you would expect from an episode of the classic 60s TV show starring Raymond Burr. There was no courtroom scenes! Not so with this book. But The Case of the Silent Partner also wasn't my favorite compared to The Case of the Dangerous Dowager!

A woman who owns a trio of successful flower shops gets visited by her competitor; a somewhat nice fellow who owns a conglomerate of floral businesses. The flower tycoon shows the small business owner that he now owns 5 shares of her company. This triggers the woman to check with the husband of her invalid sister if their 50% shares of stock are still in their possession. The hubby is a bit of a gambler and the florist has never really trusted the bum. 

Brother-in-law promises that he still has the stock. But he refuses to produce it. He has a meeting with the guy he accidentally sideswiped in an automobile accident. This leads the lady to make some phone calls and she learns that a grifter and a mysterious woman were in the car with her in-law at the time of the wreck.

The woman somehow figures out that those 2 have possession of her sister's stock certificate. She goes to the nightclub that they frequent and learns that they gave the stock to one of the owners of the nightclub. She also manages to get the mystery woman to help her get the stock back. To do such, she must have representation. Enter Mr. Perry Mason.

Mason agrees to meet with both women at 1am at his office. But at around 12:30, the mystery woman calls his office, claiming to have been poisoned. On top of that, it's revealed that the club owner with the stock certificate has been murdered! The woman claims that her sister committed the crime. The invalid sibling... who has been at death's door for the first 4 chapters of this book! To save her sister from a life and early death in jail, the woman admits to the crime while hiring Mason to now defend the handicapped sister. 

Balancing both sisters as clients, the woman about the hostile takeover of her floral shops and the sickly sister for murder, Perry Mason and his legal team must save a third woman's life, untangle California business law and solve a murder! 

I'm struck by how different the world was in 1940. Newspapers and radio were your only sources of information. If a person wasn't listed in the phone book directory, you had to scour voter records, question landlords and grease a few palms in order to find them. It makes for thrilling reading, like the chapter where Perry must find his poisoned witness before its too late. For me, growing up in the 70s and 80s before the coming of the internet, it's almost nostalgic. I can imagine for someone born in the 2000s, such a scene might be a living nightmare. Or maybe such privacy would be considered a dream come true...

However, it is due to the lack of information that I didn't like this novel as well. I already mentioned that I have no idea how the main character figured out who had her sister's stock certificate. But she did. Then, the woman goes to the very nightclub where these 2 ne'er-do-wells frequent and just happened to find the mystery woman on the very first try, sight unseen! Remember, there's no Facebook or Instagram. So unless you were a famous person, the odds of knowing what somebody else looks like without much description had got to be an astronomical number! It just felt implausible in a pre-World War II America .

The dialogue was rapid paced and exciting. This is the first novel where I encountered Detective Tragg, the guy who always investigated the crimes of which Perry Mason's clients are accused of. He's supposed to be Mason's 'antagonist', as Tragg is the one trying to arrest the bad guys Perry Mason defends. But I thought he was a great character. Way smarter than Lestrade in so many Sherlock Holmes novels. Tragg is kinda prickly, but in a likable Tommy Lee Jones sort of way.

There's still no Hamilton Burger, the district attorney that never seems able to beat Perry Mason. Technically, we still haven't visited a criminal defense court of law. The courtroom we visit in this story is a civil court, where Mason does his darnedest to make sure that his client doesn't lose her business to her wealthy, and rather intimating rival.

This book was a first edition from 1940. At 278 pages and almost 2 inches thick, I don't understand how those tiny paperbacks my mom read were unabridged and yet, all research that I find states that those are the complete manuscripts. My favorite used book store has got a bunch of those novels and I expect to pick up a few more in the very near future. I might rank this book lower than my first Erle Stanley Gardner read. But I enjoyed it enough to keep on reading more.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

The Case of the Dangerous Dowager by Erle Stanley Gardner

I have a fairly extensive knowledge of the character Perry Mason because of my mom. She owned a copy of every one of the books written by Erle Stanley Gardner and when growing up, there was a good chance that Perry Mason, played by Raymond Burr was on in either rerun or as a 2-hour movie of the week.

For about the past year now, I have been enjoying mystery novels. Mostly the crime noir tales of private detective Philip Marlowe written by Raymond Chandler. I've always loved a mystery and with me about to have run the gambit of works by Chandler, I felt that it might be time to seek out another classic mystery writer. 

During our family's annual scavenger hunt during the 301 Endless Yard Sale, I decided to put a Perry Mason novel on the list. Hopefully, somebody would find one and since you didn't really have to start with book #1, I was open to whatever might be available in just about any condition except severely water damaged and mildewed.

I got lucky at my first stop, a thrift store that supports a pet rescue called Street Dogs and Stray Cats. Minus the dust jacket, I found this 1937 first edition of The Case of the Dangerous Dowager. It's the 10th book in the series and it's about as far away from episode of the golden age of television series as I think you could get. 

Here's a quick rundown of the case. There is this rich grandma who knows that her granddaughter is over $7000 in debt to a pair of 'legitimate businessmen', who own a casino ship, legally 12 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. The husband of the granddaughter is about to file for divorce and if he could get his hands on the IOU slips, it would strengthen his case to become sole guardian of their infant child and executor of a rather large trust fund. 

The grandmother hires Perry Mason to buy up the IOUs before the husband can. It's not really the sort of thing Mason does. But the grandmother feels that the lawyer is a very trustworthy soul and she authorizes him to include a bonus to prevent the casino owners from blackmailing the granddaughter and keep the inheritance in the family. 

Mason takes a speedboat to the casino. With money in hand, Mason is prepared to buy the IOUs and then wash his hands of the entire affair. However, when he goes to visit the co-owner who oversees the financial side of things, he finds the man shot through the temple. Only, there's no gun! The IOUs are right there at the deceased man's desk. The granddaughter was spotted on the boat. As was the husband. Grandma too! 

So Perry Mason finds himself implicated for the murder. Instead of going to trial, the lawyer goes on the run. As the story breaks in the newspapers and radio, Perry runs through the suspect list in hopes of clearing his name and finding out just who the murderer is. 

With exception of a scene that takes place in a conference room with the Los Angeles County District attorney and all of the suspects rounded up about to testify before the grand jury, there is no actual court proceedings! Perry manages to wrestle control of the pre-jury meeting from the D.A., and through extensive questioning, gets to the bottom of things. But in this book, he's more of a P.I. than a lawyer. 

I know that on the 2020 HBO reboot series, Perry Mason starts out as a private detective, working his way up to becoming a defense attorney. So having him trying to solve the crime by beating the pavement by working over leads might be in line with the character. But I don't remember an episode of 1957-1966's Perry Mason not ever taking place in a court of law. Where's Hamilton Burger, the most unlikely assistant D.A. in history? Where's the judge threatening contempt of court? This is so unlike what I grew up with.

There's a rule in my family that we never judge a TV series by the first episode. We always give shows at least 2 more episodes before we decide whether or not to cut bait. I luckily was able to get a second book at the same time as this one. I'm just wondering if all of the books are like this one or is The Case of the Dangerous Dowager the exception to the rule?

I'll find out shortly.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.