The Case of the Daring Decoy

Perry Mason #54

by Erle Stanley Gardner

Jerry Conway fights dishonest ex-employee Gifford Farrell for his Texas oil company. "Call me Rosalind" offers him a proxy list, but at the hotel a beauty clad in underwear and a face mud pack frames Jerry with a freshly fired gun. On the hotel bed, lawyer Perry Mason and PI Paul Drake find a woman shot dead by the same gun. Who does Giff's ex-wife cheer for?

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Novels, Detective, Thriller, Legal

198 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1957

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

[Melindam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fantastic Mason mystery.

A classic story of the Legally Wild, Wild West where guns the guns of law and lawlessness go off with a big Bang. :)

Full review to come.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something intriguing about these Perry Mason mysteries. Perry is always able to see through all the smoke and clutter of the false leads and confusing clues. When they use forensics to solve mysteries they are cutting edge with the time. Another great book featuring the Paul Drake and Perry working together.

[Márta Péterffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kedvelem Perry Mason karakterét, nemcsak magabiztos, hanem abban is őszintén bízik, hogy jogi tudása és egyéni megoldásai mindig jól alkalmazhatók az igazság kiderítésére.
Talán ez volt Amerika /USA/ fénykora, hogy ezt el tudja hitetni az író-bízhatunk az igazság győzelmében.
Mason valóban egyéni figura, kicsit idealizált, ám jó néha elképzelni a fentieket, és az egyéni gondolkodás, bátorság diadalát, az tény persze, hogy az ügyvéd remek segítői is hozzájárulnak ehhez.
Az új filmsorozat /HBO/ erősen átforgatta a történeteket, másmilyen Masont teremtett, igaz-előzménytörténet volt az első évad. A hangulata mégis érdekes, ígértek folytatást-valószínűleg nézem majd-de a főszereplő színészen kívül a többi karakter nem tetszett egyáltalán.
Addig is elolvasok még néhány "esetet", a jó öreg krimisorozatból.
/Ahol Perry és Della még egymás iránt érdeklődik, és nem az új klisék áldozatai/

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable Perry Mason mystery. By the time it was over, I felt like I should have figured it out on my own a lot sooner, but Gardner got me. Fun read. Picked up at the library used book sale.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

First sentence: Jerry Conway opened the paper to page six. There it was, just as it had been every day for the last week.


Premise/plot: Jerry Conway is a businessman with a big problem: he's trying to prevent a hostile takeover of his business. In a few weeks, the stockholders will be voting and Gifford Farrell has done everything in his power to ruin Conway's chances of holding onto his company. The novel opens with Conway receiving a series of phone calls from a mystery woman; she identifies herself as Rosalind, but both know that's a false name. (Both being Conway and his confidential secretary.) She urges him not to go to the ultra-secret, mostly suspicious meeting they've agreed upon. She smells a TRAP. But he wants to know what she knows that might help him keep control of the California and Texas Global Development and Exploration Company. It only takes ONE chapter in this mystery for the crime to be committed and Perry Mason called.


My thoughts: I really enjoyed The Case of the Daring Decoy. I always enjoy reading Perry Mason, but some are more enjoyable than others. Some are more quotable than others. I love how the novels are full of clues, yet aren't always straightforward to solve.

[Stven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe not the slickest of the Perry Mason yarns -- why exactly again is this character telling all she knows? -- but one with lots of neat twists. This is the one where Perry tells Paul Drake that he has been properly chastened and intends to follow all the traffic laws when he's driving from now on. And yes, we all enjoyed Myrtle Lamar, the young punk of an elevator girl who reads trashy paperbacks and observes more than you might expect from watching people's shoes. Myrtle! In 2017 this character would have been called Kiara.

[Paritosh Vyas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I possess the 1965 edition which finds a pride of place in my collection.

it is Mason and team as usual in action. right from the word go. Poor Hamilton Burger

The surprise witness is the lift operator in this case who turns the case around.

[Richa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but too much emphasis on red herring. Not just one, but two here.

[Yrsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Väldigt mysig. Länge sen jag läste en Mason nu och jag har saknat språket, det kändes ovanligt snabbläst och flytande.
4.5 stjärnor.

[Vincent Darlage · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. Again, this is one of the first Perry Mason's I ever read, and I can see why I embarked on a journey to read them all. I loved the operator who can identify people from their shoes. This also made for a good episode of the TV series.

[Tony Boskovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best story to date. Gardner has finally developed his stories where all of the clues are introduced in proper sequence and Perry's unraveling of them are done in a most believable and brilliant way. Lots of red herrings and blind alleys.

[Freya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ha guessed this one right too! I am getting better and figuring out the Mason mysteries.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed comparing the book to the Perry Mason episode that this was based on.

[Andrew Clover · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because, in the Everyman collection of Detective Stories, the one by Erle Stanley Gardner is the best, beating Raymond Chandler into second place. Chandler admired Gardner's facility with plots; in the 60s, Gardner was America's top-selling novelist; I went in search of his secret...
And the book has a world class beginning: an embattled businessman gets a mysterious phonecall, from a sexy-voiced woman - 'Rosalind' - who says she can give him secret information which will solve his problems... she wants him to shake off anyone following him, and to drive to a hotel... she'll meet him. The man does it. He arrives at the hotel room. The man does, but Rosalind isn't there. The man calls for Rosalind in vain. He's about to go. But then a woman comes out of the bathroom, wearing pants, bra and a mud mask. She reaches for a gun. The man grabs it, runs out. He hires Perry Mason, who returns to the room, and finds a dead body...
So begins a story of framing, double-cross, scheming businessman. Gardner is like Chandler, in a California, where the rain has stopped, and the women are in swimwear. The plotting is indeed dizzying. First you're convinced it was the ambitious businessman, then the dumped wife, then the dumped husband... Reality changes, as the same sequence of events assume differing import - the shot, the gun, the phonecall at 6 12, and the other one three minutes later... I read it, and thought: wow, I need to up the evil in my stories, and introduce some framing. There's framing, double framing, maybe triple framing... It hurts your head to imagine the plot work that went on.
The downside is that by the end, it all seems a bit academic. Great start though.

[Serdar Poirot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gerald Conway adında bir şirket yöneticisi, eskiden kovdurduğu Ferrell adında bir adamın kuyusunu kazığını görür, bütün küçük hissedarları eline geçirmek üzeredir. Bir gün adının Rosalind olduğunu söyleyen bir kadın ona Ferrell'in elindeki hissedar listesini vereceğini söyler. Ancak bir otelde buluşacaktır. Sekreteri bunun şüpheli bir durum olduğunu söyler, ama umutsuz durumdaki Conway kabul eder. Otele gidince yüzünde kil maskesi olan bir kadın ona silah çeker. Silahı elinden alıp gider. Ama şüphelendiği için Perry Mason'a ulaşır ve yardım ister. Mason, Drake ile beraber otele gider ve anahtarla odaya girince bir kadının cesedini bulur. Polise haber verirler. Holcomb gelir ve ondan şüphelenir. Silahı saklayan Conway ertesi gün Mason ile Hamilton Burger'a gider ve ifade verir. Bu arada ölenin kimliğini Rose Culvert olarak gece tespit eder Mason. Bu bilgileri Ferrell'in karısından alır ve Rose'un kocasına gidip fotoğraflardan teyit eder. Onun adresini de yazdığı mektuptan almıştır. O da bundan rahatsız olur ve yalnız kalmak ister. Conway'deki silah cinayet silahı çıkmaz ama otelin yakınında bir silah gömülü bulunur. Cesedin sağ ve sol kolunda bir gariplik vardır. Asansör görevlisi Myrtle dikkatli bir kadındır ve Paul'den hoşlanır. Mason, Paul'un dedektifi ile yan odada bir mermi bulur. Rose'un 729 yerine 728 nolu odada öldürüldüğünü düşünür. Bunu teyit etmek için de Ferrell'in karısına gider. O da olay yerinde olduğunu, cesedi 729 nolu odaya taşıdığını itiraf eder. Ama katilin kocası olduğunu düşünür. Mahkemeye Rose'un kocası da gelir ifade vermek için. Bu sırada Myrtle da mahkemeye gelir. Acaba katil kimdir? Ferrell mı yoksa başka biri mi? Conway bu işten kurtulabilecek midir? Mektuba ne olmuştur? Mason müvekkilini kurtarabilecek midir? Keyifle okunan bir roman.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always enjoy these and this is a typical example of the series. Mason's client, Conway, calls him when it looks like he is being blackmailed for something. He fears this is because he was in a battle with a ruthless man for the control of a major company. This man had been advertising for proxies from shareholders to be sent to him and if Conway was anyway put in a comprising position it would hurt his chances of maintaining control of the company. Mason jumps in with both feet like normal and finds out that a murder has happened and it was about to fall in his client's lap. Mason starts investigating and finds some Interesting things and gets to slap DA Burger with during court which is always fun.

Highly recommend, have read quite a few of these from early on til close to the end, all are solid reads.

[Russ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable dialog. I like how authoritative Perry Mason is; what I mean by that is his forceful personality. He is very directive (like, bossy) which is somewhat of a rare trait in main characters today, but here you know it’s for a good purpose in the cause of justice. He’s also very rational and not prone to emotional reactions. The story here is solid enough: Perry’s corporate CEO client gets himself cornered in a hotel room where a woman is found dead shortly thereafter. Perry has to ferret out the source of this elaborate frame-up. The close shaves and misdirections along the way are enough to maintain interest and a brisk pace.

[Jc · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written Perry Mason adventure (#54; 1957), Daring Decoy is another who-controls-the-company murder mystery. Gardner seemed to have liked writing these. This one has some great surprises, including a confusion of hotel rooms, and a well-written court-room scene. Of course, Mason’s law license is threatened, but he somehow pulls a rabbit out of the hat just in time to save both himself and his reluctant client.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A CEO in a proxy fight to keep his company is accused of murder. He is lured to a hotel room by an anonymous woman who,promises to give him copies of the proxies being collected by the takeover person. A tight scenario follows with all events happening in just a few days because of the upcoming stockholder's meeting.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's nothing like a good hard-boiled noiresque Perry Mason story full of twists and turns to while away an evening. Erle Stanley Gardner captures the moodiness of 1950s big city crime in a way that seems nostalgic rather than dated, and the sinuous and red-herring filled tales keep the reader guessing. A good entry in an entertaining series.

[James Vest · Rating 5 out of 5]

From a prism of murder and setups comes one of the most outrageous and complex who-done-its of the series, which goes down to the wire to unravel a woman’s death that has more fingerprints on it than a murder weapon.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like these mysteries especially this one. It had me guessing until the end. Perry Mason and Dell's have more of a flirtatious style in this and other books. I would recommend this book to everyone.

[Vinod Jayachandran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perry Mason again at his best. You just can't guess until the end. This book should ideally be one of the best in Perry Mason series and just couldn't put the book down as every page kindles your interest to keep going.

Totally recommend it.

[John Bunyan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too easy to identify the murderer ahead of the courtroom scenes
Silly method of identification by a key witness.
By now elements of previous plots and scenes from earlier books are being recycled in last half of the 80+ books.

[Mark Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another complex plot with frame-ups within frame-ups within frame-ups. An executive trying to win a proxy fight thinks he's been lured into some sort of incriminating trap and seeks out Perry's help. Can discovering a body be far behind?

[Prabhat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now this is a complicated plot.

[Danny Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot is really convoluted, but has some nice moments and dialogue.

[Bookguide]

2 copies

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK read! Not one of his best.

[Thao Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuốn này đọc k bị bực mình vì ông bị cáo k giấu diếm gì ông luật sư =))) mà mình cũng đoán được hung thủ r, k bất ngờ lắm