Perry Mason: Seven Complete Novels

Perry Mason #47,49,52,53,55,61

by Erle Stanley Gardner

Seven intriguing mysteries featuring the talents of the inimitable Perry Mason include The Foot-Loose Doll, The Glamorous Ghost, The Long-Legged Models, The Lucky Loser, The Screaming Woman, The Terrified Typist, and The Waylaid Wolf.

Genres: Mystery, Classics, Fiction

821 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 1979

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

[Sue Wargo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading these are like comfort food. I was introduced to Perry Mason by my grandmother. I’ve loved them and the series ever since. Bit of irony. 4/7 were featured on one of the rerun channels over past couple weeks. Getting to see how the written story was translated to an hour show was great. The main characters perfectly cast. While technology & times change. Justice doesn’t. Even an early lesson on habeas corpus. 😉

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Agatha Christie, Erle Stanely Gardner, is not. He does, however, grow on one. My favorite part of each of these seven Perry Mason novels lies (truth, actually) at the beginning with the credits and dedication. Mr. Gardner knew quite a few interesting Texans in the crime and medical business whom he honored thusly. The end of the seven mysteries proved much better than the start, yet increasingly I found myself hoping Perry would ask Della to marry him. I know they’d live happily ever after. But Mr. Mason never gave it a thought. Likely, when he reached 50, he married the new attractive secretary leaving his (very) personal assistant, Miss Della Street, out on the corner after 30 years of faithfulness. I hope not, but now I’m jumping past the mysteries of the book into the romantic mysteries of human lives, even fictional ones.

[Rick Rapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gardner was a skillful writer, taking a formula and keeping it entertaining with compelling and well-drawn characters. His novels are all a fast read and it's always fun to see if you can figure out who is the real guilty party. I came close on one and was correct on another. His novels are also wonderful period pieces for life and law in the mid-twentieth century. The hard part is not letting the powerful TV portrayals overtake any sense of believability in the written word. But actually that is more praise for his stories and characters. I highly recommend him.

[Dogsandbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rereading for the first time in decades. Was a big fan in high school. Now, knowing so much more about the courts, impressed with Mason's energy for his clients. Very much a period piece (all the smoking and the big cars), of course a much earlier time in the strategies of investigation (phone calls individually plugged into switchboards), even more sexism than know, but still quite enjoyable. Perhaps because period piece--really escapism from the current world. Twisty plots, only semi believable, but the appeal is always the process of discovery. DPL book via interlibary.

[Tom N · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun book for fans of Perry Mason.

[Melinda Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

The seven novels in this omnibus, all published in the 1950s, were made into episodes of the classic Perry Mason television series, and reading them gives a fascinating glimpse both into the different needs of books versus television and what was important to Erle Stanley Gardner. ESG stayed true to his original characterizations, so instead of Raymond Burr's taciturn tactician and William Talman's lean and excitable public avenger, we have a sophisticated rider of the fine line between the spirit and letter of the law (I saw and heard Warren William from the movies made in the 1930s) locked in battle with the bearlike, vengeance-driven district attorney who lives for the day when he can throw his nemesis in prison.

Because I'm familiar with the television episodes, I wasn't surprised by the perps in most of the stories. One exception was a novel rewritten to the point of being barely recognizable. (I did figure out the killer a few pages before the reveal.) What did surprise me was how deep the stories were in the legal technicalities. Much of each story is dedicated to the courtroom wrangling and subtleties of the law. ESG was a lawyer, and he proved it on nearly every page.

In addition to knowing the law inside and out, ESG knew his audience, so he didn't test his faithful readers' patience with exposition about the regulars they had been reading about for years. Stripped of any physical descriptions or background information about the recurring characters, each story begins with Della bringing an intriguing potential case to her boss's attention, and then it's off to the races.

In terms of the writing style, these fast-paced stories are lean and plot-driven. An occasional elegant turn of phrase pops up, but for the most part the writing is utilitarian and even sometimes rather clunky. For instance, the narrator can refer to Della as "Della Street" a dozen or more times within one story, as if somehow we're going to forget her last name. The same is true for the other recurring characters. Perhaps this is a stylistic element of hard-boiled mysteries; I noticed but rarely found it annoying.

However, I did have difficulties with a strange (at least to me) tendency for ESG to write without attributions (e.g., "Perry said," "Paul asked," etc.). In conjunction with often breaking up one character's speech into multiple paragraphs, this sometimes forced me to stop and reread conversations to make sure I knew who was speaking. Even the typesetter occasionally got mixed up and inserted end quotes where they didn't belong. That led to the wrong character speaking in my head, which I would discover after a while when I encountered a long-overdue attribution. Only Perry has a few distinctive speech patterns ("The deuce!"), so those attributions were sometimes sorely missed.

The annoyances were minor compared with the skillful creation of the mysteries. I'm going to search out more Perry Mason mysteries so I can spend more time with Perry, Della, Paul, and the rest of the gang.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I would read a couple at a time and intersperse with other books, but these seven novels by Erle Stanley Gardner were fascinating. I read them all in about 2 1/2 weeks. I remember very well watching reruns of The Perry Mason Show in the afternoons when I was a teenager in the 60s. Raymond Burr, along with the rest of the cast, played the characters from Mr. Gardner's Perry Mason novels. I must admit that the books were exactly like watching the TV programs. The time period was the 50s, when cars were big, detectives were hard-boiled, and secretaries were classy and skillful at typing and shorthand. Everyone smoked and cocktails were the way to socialize. Except for a lot of the legal jargon that is probably still in use in today's court system, the books were easy reading. I loved defense lawyer, Perry Mason, his loyal secretary, Della Street, and detective, Paul Drake, whose office was just down the hall and who had a secret knock to enter the private sanctum of Perry's office. District Attorney Hamilton Burger and Police Lt. Tragg were Mason's archenemies, out to trip him up whenever possible. Now I need to see if I can find some of those old black-and-white episodes to watch again. They were fun.

[Deane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story actually became very confusing with the switching of 3 guns that were the same brand, same size, same weight. One was a murder weapon but which one? Even in the reading, it was difficult to know which gun was the one which killed the swindler Casselman.

Perry Mason was stalling for time by recalling the secretary Eva Elliot to the stand...the witness then changed her story and all bedlam let loose with Mason once again solving the case and winning.

[Lesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

He skirts the edge of ethics but he is still fun.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such pleasure to be reacquainted with Perry, Della, Paul, Hamilton and Lt. Tragg. Of course, the faces associated with the names are never to be forgotten by someone who watched every episode avidly, in black and white! There's an age giveaway. The seven mysteries here date from the 1950s. Though the formula is much the same in each tale--someone in trouble, Mason skirting a fine line in his investigations, Burger thinking he has caught Mason at last, Mason's mind moves logically from one point to another, the defendant is set to lose, a light bulb goes off with the help of Paul and Della, the guilty party is identified, Burger is disappointed, Paul, Della and Perry go out to dinner. The stories stand because of Gardner's skill in developing his characters and the realistic nature of his plots. Each one of these tales could have happened. The Los Angeles setting helps too, though it is a less dark setting than other writers give it. Also amusing to note how much life has changed in fifty years. Our heroes rely on payphones. Rental car agencies are a new phenomenon. There are no computers, just hundreds of gumshoes shifting through documents and interviewing people.

[Jay Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories were fun and entertaining. I forgot how complicated his whodunits are. They keep you going and they are not too long. I will tell you I am not always sure of Perry's ethics, but you know his heart is there. I became a lawyer all those years ago after being hooked on the Perry Mason TV series. The books are very good.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

All these years I've wanted to know what fascinated my father so much about Gardner and Mason. Now I know and I feel closer to my dad. The mysteries were short, yet devious, and always had that sudden twisted ending where the surprise is revealed.

[Jamey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading these books, originally written 50+ years ago. The by gone days of confidential secretaries and stenographers, hunting for a pay phone and old style investigative techniques was very interesting and brought back some fun old memories.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Perry Mason stories with the usual cast of characters and typical Gardner plots. A good, relaxing read without the violence, profanity, and sex of the modern novel.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like watching the old Perry Mason show -- loved it!

[Sunny Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most readable writers, Gardner has always seemed to me to bring back the mid 20th century more than any other writer. His books made for a great summer.

[Floyd · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read The Count of 9 and was not impressed. Rough language and behaviour. These are the writings on which the Perry Mason TV series was based which I saw a few of back in the day.