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This Is Murder
Reverse of title page Because of the acute shortage of regular book cloth under war-time rationing, this book is bound in "leatherette," a sturdy paper fabric especially designed for this purpose.
- GenresMystery
244 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1935
3 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Erle Stanley Gardner
1,353 books820 followersErle 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 2, 2020
About the author: Charles J. Kenny as a pseudonym of Erle Stanley Gardner. This is one of his non-Perry Mason novels.
Major characters:
Sam Moraine, advertising man, and the go-between
Natalie Rice, Sam's secretary with a secret
Alton G. Rice, Natalie's ex-con father
Doris Bender, 29, 'lots of class'
Tom Wickes, friend of Doris
Ann Hartwell, Doris' half-sister, kidnap victim
Dr. Richard Hartwell, dentist with a gun
Carl Thorne and Peter Dixon, politicians and bitter enemies
Phil Duncan, District Attorney
Barney Morden, Investigator for the D.A.'s office
Synopsis: Advertising man Sam Moraine lives a Walter Mitty life (click the link if you don't know what that means!). He has a routine 9-5 in an office with a secretary (Natalie Rice), but he envisions himself doing something more exciting. At a poker game with his buddies, he jumps at a chance to accompany his card game friend, D.A. Phil Duncan, to check out a reported kidnapping. Sam's only credential is that he manages a advertising printing concern, so the cover story is that he a document expert to look over the ransom note.
Sam and Phil arrive at the apartment of Doris Bender. Her half-sister, Ann Hartwell, has been missing for two weeks. Now Doris has received a ransom note demanding $10,000 for Ann's return. Doris thinks that Ann's husband, dentist Richard Hartwell, is behind it. Why didn't Ann's husband get the note, anyway?
Doris and her friend Tom Wickes want to quietly pay the money and get her back. D.A. Phil washes his hands of it, since she won't cooperate with the authorities. The kidnappers see mild-mannered Sam Moraine and pick him as the go-between to deliver the cash, since he has the necessary qualifications - a boat - and they want to do the exchange on the water. Sam is up for it and does the swap. No sooner does he get Ann get to shore when they are arrested for not notifying authories on a kidnap case.
Sam gets out of that, and begins investigating in all directions at once. The whole kidnapping setup looks fake. He goes to look up Peter Dixon, but finds him dead. Now the authorities are looking at Sam as the #1 suspect in the murder. They take him to the morgue to look at a body but surprise - it's not Peter Dixon - it's Ann Hartwell.
Review: This is the most fun Gardner I have read. Our protagonist/detective is neither a lawyer nor a D.A., but a rank amateur whose only experience is reading detective novels. As Sam puts it, "I always like to read mysteries, and now I'm in one!". What he lacks in experience he makes up in enthusiasm. He absconds with a suitcase full of evidence documents and pulls a Perry Mason switcheroo that is perfect, making fools of the stuck-up "real" investigators. He even manages to work a deal where he is allowed to question witnesses at the Grand Jury session - even though he is the one being charged with murder! ESG always manages to squeeze in a courtroom scene, and here the Grand Jury suffices, and is played fast and loose. Great fun!
Major characters:
Sam Moraine, advertising man, and the go-between
Natalie Rice, Sam's secretary with a secret
Alton G. Rice, Natalie's ex-con father
Doris Bender, 29, 'lots of class'
Tom Wickes, friend of Doris
Ann Hartwell, Doris' half-sister, kidnap victim
Dr. Richard Hartwell, dentist with a gun
Carl Thorne and Peter Dixon, politicians and bitter enemies
Phil Duncan, District Attorney
Barney Morden, Investigator for the D.A.'s office
Synopsis: Advertising man Sam Moraine lives a Walter Mitty life (click the link if you don't know what that means!). He has a routine 9-5 in an office with a secretary (Natalie Rice), but he envisions himself doing something more exciting. At a poker game with his buddies, he jumps at a chance to accompany his card game friend, D.A. Phil Duncan, to check out a reported kidnapping. Sam's only credential is that he manages a advertising printing concern, so the cover story is that he a document expert to look over the ransom note.
Sam and Phil arrive at the apartment of Doris Bender. Her half-sister, Ann Hartwell, has been missing for two weeks. Now Doris has received a ransom note demanding $10,000 for Ann's return. Doris thinks that Ann's husband, dentist Richard Hartwell, is behind it. Why didn't Ann's husband get the note, anyway?
Doris and her friend Tom Wickes want to quietly pay the money and get her back. D.A. Phil washes his hands of it, since she won't cooperate with the authorities. The kidnappers see mild-mannered Sam Moraine and pick him as the go-between to deliver the cash, since he has the necessary qualifications - a boat - and they want to do the exchange on the water. Sam is up for it and does the swap. No sooner does he get Ann get to shore when they are arrested for not notifying authories on a kidnap case.
Sam gets out of that, and begins investigating in all directions at once. The whole kidnapping setup looks fake. He goes to look up Peter Dixon, but finds him dead. Now the authorities are looking at Sam as the #1 suspect in the murder. They take him to the morgue to look at a body but surprise - it's not Peter Dixon - it's Ann Hartwell.
Review: This is the most fun Gardner I have read. Our protagonist/detective is neither a lawyer nor a D.A., but a rank amateur whose only experience is reading detective novels. As Sam puts it, "I always like to read mysteries, and now I'm in one!". What he lacks in experience he makes up in enthusiasm. He absconds with a suitcase full of evidence documents and pulls a Perry Mason switcheroo that is perfect, making fools of the stuck-up "real" investigators. He even manages to work a deal where he is allowed to question witnesses at the Grand Jury session - even though he is the one being charged with murder! ESG always manages to squeeze in a courtroom scene, and here the Grand Jury suffices, and is played fast and loose. Great fun!
August 4, 2022
A book by Erle Stanley Gardner that is not a Perry Mason mystery. It started off quite slow and I almost didn’t want to finish it. Didn’t hook me until well after the middle, but by the end it all came together. I didn’t like the characters as well as Perry Mason, but the last third was a page-turner. Story is about a businessman whose friend is the district attorney, gets involved in a kidnapping case that turns to murder and becomes a suspect. Political and police corruption at the heart of the story. This was written in 1935 and was interesting also from that viewpoint.
January 6, 2017
საუბარია, ''დოროთი ფენერის საქმეზე",რომელიც ამერიკული დეტექტივების სერიას მიეკუთვნება და ,სამწუხაროა, რომ სულაც არ არის ცნობილი და პოპულარული,არადა,უნდა აღინიშნოს,რომ ძალიან საინტერესო და ჩამთრევია.
მოკლედ,დარწმუნებული ვარ,დეტექტიური ჟანრის მოყვარულთა უმეტესობას მისტერ მეისონის გამჭრიახობა გულგრილს არ დაგტოვებთ.
მოკლედ,დარწმუნებული ვარ,დეტექტიური ჟანრის მოყვარულთა უმეტესობას მისტერ მეისონის გამჭრიახობა გულგრილს არ დაგტოვებთ.
October 23, 2020
Another out of the ordinary Erle Stanley Gardner sleuth: Sam Moraine owns an advertising company. He is playing poker with the District Attorney and becomes involved in a kidnapping which leads to murder. A familiar Gardner complication is the corrupt political characters involved throughout.
March 15, 2025
3.5 star
It got a bit boring in the middle but picked up in the end. For some reason even though the I didn't predict the plot twist, but the ending didn't catch me off guard. But it was a good solid murder mystery.
It got a bit boring in the middle but picked up in the end. For some reason even though the I didn't predict the plot twist, but the ending didn't catch me off guard. But it was a good solid murder mystery.
November 8, 2022
Un investigatore improvvisato, tanta spocchia quanta i suoi muscoli. Personaggi stereostipati e dialoghi che manco i bambini dell'asilo... E se vi dicessi a cosa si riduce l'elemento probatorio per la soluzione del caso vi mettereste le mani nei capelli, ma non voglio spoilerare e togliervi il gusto. Col delitto non si scherza ma a scrivere gialli spesso non si hanno scrupoli nell'accoppare il genere.
June 15, 2016
Started kind of slow, and wasn't as cohesive/tight a story as I expect from ESG but definitely a great addition to the noir genre!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews