The Case of the Singing Skirt

Perry Mason #58

by Erle Stanley Gardner

Ellen Robb does more than just sing for her supper — she also dances and sells cigarettes in a two-bit gambling parlor in a one-horse town. But when she hits a sour note with her scheming employer by refusing to help fleece a fat-cat customer in a crooked card game, she finds herself out of all three jobs. That's when she sings her song of woe to Perry Mason, who promises to turn her blues into greenbacks with the help of his crack team, Della Street and Paul Drake, and a hefty lawsuit.

Things are humming along just fine — until murder interrupts the merry melody of Mason's crafty legal maneuvers. When the vindictive wife of Ellen Robb's not-so-secret lover turns up shot to death, Mason is certain it's a frame-up — and that his songbird client's belligerent boss is to blame. Until his own gun is found at the scene. The cocksure Mason will have to change his tune — and do some quick thinking — or else this case could be his swan song.

The Perry Mason Novels

Criminal lawyer and all-time #1 mystery author Erle Stanley Gardner wrote close to 150 novels that have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Today, the great Gardner tradition continues with many of his classics back in print, as well as brand-new additions to the ever-popular series starring the incomparable Perry Mason.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Legal, Detective, Classics, The United States Of America

198 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

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

[Michael Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mason tries some old already used tactics from previous stories to protect his client They all backfire and the DA is again hot to condemn him. Burger once again seems more interested to discredit Mason in court than to solve a murder. While Mason struggles to clear his client the clues add up. We figure out early who does the murder but not until the last ew pages does the sequence make it clear

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have this one in a two-fer with The Case of the Black-Eyed Blond. Singing Skirt is entertaining enough. Two too many guns get involved in a murder, and Hamilton Burger raises hell in the court by complaining that every time Mason gets his hands on murder weapons he "juggles them around and just confuses everyone!"

No shit, Counselor!

[Brian Fagan · Rating 2 out of 5]

"She could be lying?" Della asked.

"Of course she could be lying," Mason said. "And she's just the type who would lie. She's a young woman who has sharpened her wits against the seamy side of life. She knows her way around and she's doubtless learned that everyone must look out for himself. That's the code of the society in which she's been living."

Despite the appearance of this disagreement between Perry Mason and his assistant Della Street about the character of Ellen Robb, a knockout of a nightclub singer, they actually both take each other's voiced opinions of her - Della suspects Ellen is up to no good, and Mason, while too experienced to come to a snap judgment, is determined to give her the benefit of the doubt.

The Singing Skirt was written by Gardner in 1959. Ellen Robb comes to Mason after a bitter exchange with the nightclub owner Anclitis. Everyone in town knows Anclitis runs a dishonest gambling house, but since he's got some of the top law enforcement paid off, no one can do anything about it. Ellen fears for her job and her skin when she refuses to help Anclitis cheat Helman Ellis in a card game. She and Helman kind of have a thing for each other. Ellis's wife turns up dead, and all signs point to Ellen, with a motive and a weapon.

The case seems to hinge on the identity and location of several nearly identical handguns. I like to read as carefully as the next person, but I found the handgun switcheroos confusing, and therefore frustrating.

In this episode, Perry Mason realizes that his actions with his client Ellen may result in the evidence pointing to him as an accomplice to murder.

[Mahoghani 23 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good From The Start

What a story. Fast-paced, full of action, along with good writing. Perry is just up to his usual tactics and it appears he knows Hamilton Burger very well.

[Alyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this one because Perry takes on a bully (though that is left a bit unresolved, honestly), and because there is some epic gun juggling happening in this book. Tragg and the DA aren't wrong - When Perry Mason gets involved, there is often just a few too many smith & wessons that show up...

Aside from that, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself surprised at the end (I was remembering the TV episode more than the book, and while very similar they do vary in a few key ways).

One major downside, Della comes across quite catty in this one. ESG's take on women is one of the things I find most inconsistent in the Perry Mason books. Sometimes he seems to have no respect for the female gender, and other times the books imply he values women's contributions to the world and views them as intelligent, responsible creatures. In this installment, Della is far too petty (and jealous?) regarding Perry's client, and the client is simply poorly developed and unconvincingly inconsistent in her behavior.

[Stven · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read, as practically all the Perry Mason stories are, but I think a different emphasis on some of the aspects of this case could have made it more entertaining. A little less legal mumbo jumbo and a little more how did that boat wind up on the other side of Catalina. Figuring out how the different guns had gotten to different places at different times was fun. Gardner seemed to neglect the personalities of Mason's defendants in some of the later books, and that shortfall is felt here.

[Danny Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great premise kind of falls apart for a very routine feeling finale. It is pretty hard to believe that someone comes into Perry Mason’s office at this point, 60 books in, with a spent cartridge and he doesn’t immediately assume murder. Come on, dude.

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 - A great Mason. Tense in the courtoom, not too complicated to where it's confusing (besides the guns, these eventually get confusing), and a sympathetic client with an unconventional job with abuse.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a client finds her employer's gun in her bags after she's been fired, Perry Mason substitutes the weapon on the suspicion that it was placed there to frame her. However, Mason finds himself hip deep in trouble when the weapon he gave his client is found to have been used to murder someone.

As always, Gardner's plot pulls readers through at such a pace that they enjoy the thrills without focusing too heavily on the sheer weights of coincidences that it relies on.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first Perry Mason book I have read. I thought it was good and enjoyed reading and following the characters I remembered from the old tv series. Perry finds himself in a situation that could put him in jail but with the help of Della and Drake he figures out how the crime was committed and how he could prove it. Perry has to deal with District Attorney Hamilton Burger, but as always Perry prevails in the end.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has quite an unusual premise on which Perry Mason defends his client! There are so many guns, and no one but Perry seems to be interested in which gun and which bullet was the murder weapon! The case focuses on a young woman, exploited by her employer, and a customer who wishes to be more than just a customer. But, when a murder is committed, Perry's simple case becomes a race to find the right gun and the perpetrator of the crime. This is a fast-paced book, with numerous twists. I am a long time Perry Mason fan and I enjoyed the book!

[Freya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of twists and complications in this one. An interesting nugget of the law is explored that covers someone being shot by two bullets from two different guns. Which gun and shooter is responsible for the murder?

For the first time I found Gardner slip up. There is one point in the story that is swept under by the DA Hamilton Burger. He does not dig into how a gun makes it from Mason to the murderer.

It felt like Gardner could not explain it away so he escaped it! :(

[False · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's the same old stuff but with many more typos. Are editors on strike? Getting bogged down in law (gambling,) Perry eats his steak dinner with baked potato while Paul Drake eats "greasy hamburger sandwiches."

Ellen Robb is a young woman who has "been around" as they used to say in the 1950s. She works as a singer/ cigarette girl in a night club/ gambling hall. She refuses to take part in her boss's plan to cheat a customer so he fires her. Later she finds a gun planted in her suitcase and suspects that her vengeful boss will accuse her of stealing it and send her to jail. She goes to Perry Mason for help and after leaning over his desk in her low cut blouse he is very much interested in helping her, much to Della Street's amusement. She knows her boss so well.

Perry soon sets things right and it is the boss who is on the defensive facing a defamation law suit and a legal technicality that may mean a severe loss to his business. All is well until the jealous wife of one of the patrons turns up shot to death and the murder weapon appears to be the gun that Ellen had in her possession. Now she faces a murder charge.

As I started to read this novel I was impressed that after two decades of writing Perry Mason mysteries, the author could still come up with an interesting and different murder plot. Once again it seems that Perry, in trying to help his client, has gone way out on a limb and faces disbarment and perhaps jail time. I could not see how he could possibly get out of the situation that he was in. Hamilton Burger had him cold and dead to rights. Worse yet, his client seemed to be guilty - Paul Drake thought so and even ever loyal Della Street thought so. Frankly, I couldn't see how it could be anyone else based on the facts of the case.

The ending was a bit weak. Perry Mason came up with a theory of how the murder might have been committed that he put forth in court and the murderer was named and soon confessed, much like the endings in the TV series. A few facts had been omitted early in the book which would have helped the reader to solve the mystery. These facts were just brought up at the end as part of Perry's theory of why the murder was committed and by whom. That was a very disappointing ending. I felt like I was dragging myself to the finish line.

[Gregory Moses · Rating 2 out of 5]

This Perry Mason novel is putatively high-stakes, but felt rushed and kind of inane to me. A woman Mason is representing has a gun placed in her bag, so Mason swaps it for one from his safe. No reasonn, totally idiotic thing to do, but apparently Mason likes doing stuff like that:

It is a well-known fact that when he is defending a client in a murder case Mr. Perry Mason can juggle guns around so that the Court, the witnesses and the issues become confused. We don't want that to happen in this case.

Mason also, apropos of absolutely nothing, explains to a stranger that if someone is fatally shot by one person, but then killed by another, the first person cannot be accused of murder. And when he ends up in court representing someone accused of murder, he goes on a lengthy and tedious digression about how the prosecutors don't know which bullet actually killed him---no reason, but he has to for the plot to work. So when it turns out that the gun Mason planted was used to do the deed, and he's accused of some form of legal malpractice, it's true in a sense that he's “hoist by [his] own petard,” but his actions have been so entirely nonsensical that it's hard to muster up much enthusiasm---he gets into trouble for no reason because the author needs him to, and will get out soon enough. And of course he does, identifying the murder through some slightly bewildering deductions that he is not called upon to share in court---a largely unmotivated confession saves him from having to prove his case, which is fortunate for him.

Sixty novels in, and they can't all be winners. This novel shows the pitfalls of a style of composition where Gardner would first decide what legal trick he wants to use, then builds the rest of the novel around it---sometimes he does so well, sometimes you see the strain.

[Amit Bikram · Rating 3 out of 5]

So deeply conflicted on whether to rate the book a 2, 3 or a 4.
Firstly, the things I liked most about the book. It stressed a lot on the ethical dilemma faced by an attorney while taking on such trial cases, and how it is essential to not waver on your morals and ethics in such situations. Mason indeed bends the law as much as he possibly can at every opportunity that he gets, and yet never ever does something that goes against his client's best interests. Having been pushed to the limits in this case, and surviving by the skin of his teeth, he still managed to stick by his client, refusing to throw her under the bus. (Phew, now that's out of the way)

Coming to the plot, it certainly had a fair share of red herrings (almost entirely in the form of guns), thus complicating the case. The laws and their peculiarities mentioned in the case were interesting as well.

Now, to the negatives. Once the crime has been committed and the action comes thick and fast, it is quite clear who is the major liar in the case, and which lie would completely throw out the prosecution's case—having identified the same, it is easy to find out the major culprit. My problem was understanding how they could have carried it out. The explanation at the end was just not convincing enough for me.

The next big issue I have with the story is the way the courtroom scene has been written. It is so bland and definitely, not the way, a witness' examination would go on in a real court. It is also quite different from the way Gardner had developed the courtroom scenes in previous cases.

Certainly, not a memorable case, but a one-time read for those hooked on to Perry Mason and his unconventional procedures.

[Serdar Poirot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ellen Robb, bir kasabadaki kumarhanede şarkı söyleyen ve sigara satan bir kızdır. Kumarhane sahibi George Anclitas ve ortağı Slim onu Halmin Ellis kumar oynarken elini söylemesi için ikna etmeye çalışır ama başarılı olamaz. Sonra onu hırsızlık gerekçesi ile kovarlar. Mason olaya müdahale eder ve kasabaya gider. Bu arada Ellis, ciddi miktarda para kaybetmiştir ve karısı da olay çıkarır. Parasını ister ama alamaz. Burada Mason, bir kanun maddesi ve emsal davadan bir örnek verir ve bir avukat ile görüşmesini söyler. Nadine Ellis de bunu herkesle paylaşacağını söyler. George durumun vehametini anlar. Eğer bu davalar açılırsa kumarhane olarak zor duruma düşecektir. Ellen'i işe alır ama sonra onu yine kovar ve döver. Ellen'i çantasında bir silah bulunur. Mason bunu görünce başka bir silahla değiştirir ve çantadaki silahı balistik testlerine yollar. Burada Ellis gelir ve karısının çıldırdığını, Ellen'i öldüreceğini söyler. Ertesi gün tekneden karısının cesedi bulunur. 2 kurşun yemiştir. Kumar davası ile ilgili avukatı aradığı zaman dediği gibi hangi kurşunun ateşlendiği mevzusu önem kazanır. Tragg Ellen'i alır ve içeri atar. Hamilton Burger eline ciddi bir kız geçirmiştir. Anclitas'ın Ellis'e verdiğini söylediği silah aynı silah çıkmaz. Bu arada o silahı Della ve Mason gizlice kumarhaneye geri bırakmıştır. Sadie adındaki bir satıcı kız bulmuştur silahı. Mason ifade verecektir ve geciktirmek için elinden geleni yapar. Ama en sonunda ışığı görür. Katil kimdir? Zaman meselesinde kimin bu cinayeti işlemeye ve silahları değiştirmeye imkanı vardır? Ellen hüküm giyecek midir? Sadie'nin bu işteki rolü nedir? Mason kendini ve müvekkilini kurtarabilecek midir? Keyifle okunan bir roman.

[Nira Ramachandran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even the redoubtable Perry Mason is taken aback as a vision of voluptuous beauty and short skirts walks in. Ellen Robb, former beauty queen, aspiring Hollywood starlet and current singer in a gambling club, has been publicly slighted and thrown out of her job and residence at night on a trumped- up charge of stealing, which she attributes to her refusal to help the management rig a game of cards, earlier in the evening. Mason and secretary Della Street drive down to the one- horse town, which survives on gambling joints to make a settlement with the owner or sue him for slander and unlawful dismissal. There they run into the irate Mrs. Ellis, who has come to recover the ten thousand dollars, which she claims that her husband has lost due to shady practices in the joint. Much to the surprise of the owner and his cronies, who laugh off her claims, Mason tells the lady of a case where the judgement on the loss of community property, was in favour of the wife, and suggests that she sees a lawyer. Then the pace picks up. Ellen Robb is back the next day with a gun, which she found in her bag after she quit the club. Mason takes appropriate action, but soon receives another visitor, Mr. Ellis, who fears that his wife, mad with jealousy, is out to harm Ellen for enticing her husband to play cards. Things begin to get complicated, and Mason is faced with a case, which may well end his own career. One of the most tense court cases, where the suspense continues to the very last page.

[Mark Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hat check girl/singer is implicated in the murder of another man's jealous wife. It has all the earmarks of a frame-up, only made worse by Perry's attempts to muddy the evidentiary waters.

Let's talk about writing to a formula. Yes, if you've been reading all the Perry Mason books, you've seen this type of plot many times before. Confronted with a case involving four matching revolvers, Perry can't help but introduce a fifth. Naturally, it gets him into serious trouble, Hamilton Burger salivating at the almost guaranteed prospect of having Perry disbarred. Does the fact that I've seen Gardner use variations of this plot so many times mean that I should deduct points? No. It's like Blues music. What counts is the infinite ways the formula can be played with to elicit fresh emotional involvement. The plot is super complex, and the courtroom antics are electric. As a fan of Golden Age Pulp literature, I'm used to formula writing (I've read all 182 Doc Savage novels, & I'm working my way through all 325 Shadow novels). What matters is the exciting, intricate, and highly imaginative variations skilled writers play on the formulas they use. I love Blues music too.

[Avinash K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the book. The story begins with Mason citing a few interesting verdicts and you have a feeling some of them might come into play. Mason nearly get bushwhacked by his own smartness or over smartness. The plot is well crafted with enough twists and turns like a California freeway, but the author has complete control. There are a few open ends when the story finishes, but one saves Mason's skin and another, well, while the fan would have wanted a KO by Mason, it just dissolves into a nothing. Guess the author decided not to unnecessarily complicate it. So err... hmmm..ok..
But definitely a book worth reading, a real zinger.

[Rupesh Goenka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story -- Ellen Robb who works in a Casino as a singer, dancer and cigarette girl is asked by the owner to help in cheating a customer in a Poker game. Ellen refuses to get embroiled in the situation and is thrown out. Mason helps her to put the Boss in place. Ellen is then accused of killing her said to be lover's wife. Mason once again comes to her rescue & fights her case. Though not the best of Perry Mason mystery it is a one time read. FAIR.

[John Bunyan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wrote a long review and got kicked out of Goodreads and lost it. Suffice it to say that the multiple gun scenario has been overused by Gardner ) Hamilton Burger agrees). And Mason’s victory relies on someone coming forth in court in a way that Mason could not have predicted.
Also Gardner repeats the kind of tripe he often spouts about how wives behave and how cheating is just natural for “the male animal”.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty girls. guns. adulterous husbands

Makes a great case for Perry Mason. So many guns. Planted in bags. Switched. Substituted. Bought. Given away. Makes LA sounds like the old West. And don’t forget some peculiar cases involving community property lost in gambling and if two people shoot someone, the second bullet is the cause of death OR is just a misdemeanor of desecrating a corpse.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hilariously non-pc, to put it mildly. In fact, Ellen isn't a "singing skirt." She is a "singing leotard", which seems to be the height of depravity. The plot is vintage Gardner, i.e. so complicated that it requires pages of explanation to explain how the actual killer pulled off the murder.

[Vinod Jayachandran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perry Mason series can be compared to Hercule Poirot series. Absolutely classic.

One of the best classic suspense thriller book. Unpredictable till the end. Crisp and precise. You will fall in love with the key characters namely Perry Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake.

Totally recommend it.

[Soumya Banerji · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little far-fetched but quite a good yarn

Perry Mason gets himself in trouble trying to shield a client and the only way he can extricate himself is by solving the case. Two interesting cases are brought up here - can a man gamble away property owned jointly and can a murder be comitted after a person is already dead. The ending is a little slipshod but it's quite a ride.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

58th book featuring Perry Mason. This one is a little too cute, with a puzzle that can be worked out, but with a couple of clues that don't fit the narrative. That feels rushed, and it probably was.

The narrator is OK. He does a distinctive voice for each character. A few of these voices are annoying, while his voice for the DA adds to the story.

[manka]

Zhruba kolem strany 35 začlo být jasné, koho zabili a kdo bude obviněn. O nějakých sto stránek a jedno uložené dítě později jsem i já odhalila, kdo za to asi může (a to je co říct, většinou při čtení nemám čas přemýšlet). Každopádně dostala jsem přesně to, co jsem chtěla, oddechové Perryho Masona, Dellu Streetovou i Paula Drakea. A to se vyplatí.

[Clyde Tosalini · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quality of the Perry Mason books does not ever seem to waver. An intricate plot (I could almost follow this one), an easy, enjoyable and fast read, in spite of the fact that all characters, including the third person narrator, spoke with the same voice: same idioms, same phrasing, etc., as is true for most of Gardner's work.

[Charles R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gun Juggling

The victim was shot twice. Were the shots fired in rapid succession? Or were they fired at separate times? Were they fired with the same gun? From which gun(s) were they fired? In what order? And did the victim fire a shot in self-defense?
Read how Perry Mason untangles the mystery. Can you figure it out?

[Jc · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Case of the Singing Skirt (#59; 1959) actually features a few “skirts” who are central to the story—as well as a small collection of guns. Not the best of Gardner’s Mason stories, but it keeps the reader’s attention all the way through and has some of top-level Mason courtroom scenes of Gardner’s 1950s novels.