A Perry Mason Casebook: The Gilded Lily / The Daring Decoy / The Fiery Fingers / The Lucky Loser

by Erle Stanley Gardner

The case of the sulky girl -- The case of the careless kitten -- The case of the fiery fingers.

Genres: Mystery

496 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Erle Stanley Gardner was an American lawyer and author of detective stories who also published under the pseudonyms A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray, and Robert Parr.

Innovative and restless in his nature, he was bored by the routine of legal practice, the only part of which he enjoyed was trial work and the development of trial strategy. In his spare time, he began to write for pulp magazines, which also fostered the early careers of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. He created many different series characters for the pulps, including the ingenious Lester Leith, a "gentleman thief" in the tradition of Raffles, and Ken Corning, a crusading lawyer who was the archetype of his most successful creation, the fictional lawyer and crime-solver Perry Mason, about whom he wrote more than eighty novels. With the success of Perry Mason, he gradually reduced his contributions to the pulp magazines, eventually withdrawing from the medium entirely, except for non-fiction articles on travel, Western history, and forensic science.

See more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erle_Sta...

Reviews

[Pamela Mikita · Rating 5 out of 5]

First time reading Perry Mason and I am hooked!

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

To me, Perry Mason books are the literary equivalent of a bag of popcorn or M&Ms. They're a guilty pleasure, and this collection didn't disappoint. You always know what you're going to get from Gardner in a Perry Mason novel -- fast-paced action, crisp dialogue and page-turning courtroom scenes. Yeah, I know, Mason didn't lose a case in approximately 180 stories, but they're still good fun, and generally the solution is so skillfully buried that the reader is left with that satisfying "Why didn't I notice (or think of) that?" moment.

[Christopher Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of 5 Perry Mason stories from the 1950s was and enjoyable read. I find that reading Mason stories is best spaced out, however, and reading several in a row sort of bogged me down a bit.

Each case is distinct and unique, with an interesting, thought-provoking mystery. Gardner had real skill at crafting a mystery without holes in it and that followed reasonable, plausible patterns while being surprising and interesting. His characters tend to fall into very simple caricatures, and for example each of the prosecuting attorneys is basically the same guy with a different name, but the stores work well despite this weakness.

I recommend this to anyone who enjoys mysteries, particularly since the Mason twist of using a courtroom and legal setting to solve the case rather than an investigative detective is still fresh to this day.

[Lynette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read - dated but fun... I watched the show and the movies on TV so I didn't have quite the breathless lust for Perry that I think ESG intended (can't quite get there with Raymond Burr...) but these stories were fast-paced and interesting. The Perry Mason in the book took a lot more chances than the TV version, which made this more interesting for me. I got a kick out of what passed for high-tech surveillance (wax cylinders?? haha!) but it was a great glimpse into the past - what are they calling it now? Mid-century?

[Bharath · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book. Took me only a few days to finish it. The only reason I give four stars is because of "The Case of Fiery Fingers". I think the author did not have a solid story in the end. I do not know why there was a case against the nurse in the beginning. In the end the story finished as though there was no spice in the story from the beginning.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four novels. Smooth comfortable reads. It's not "if he can solve the case" but "how i he going to do it?"Took me a week and a half or so because of my limited reading time but thoroughly enjoyable.